The Sadness of the Corcoran’s Final Throes
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-02-26
Unfair Advantage? New Artists Royalties Bill Still Exempts Dealers
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-02-27
Celebrating Eric Dolphy, and the Threat of Spotify
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-02-26
Maestro to audience: Turn on your phones, tweet and take pictures
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-02-26
Serge Dorny in line for a 1.5 million Euro payoff?
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-02-26
More People Now Have Cellphones Than Have Ever Had Landlines
Today, almost everywhere has more mobile phone penetration than land-lines: The continent of Africa has dismal fixed-line penetration of 1.4 subscriptions per 100 people, but 63.5 cell subscriptions.
Five Artists Withdraw From Sydney Biennale After Protest
“The artists’ decision to withdraw follows a call by 28 artists for the Sydney Biennale to withdraw from a funding arrangement with Transfield, which runs off-shore detention facilities for the Australian Government’s internment of asylum seekers.”
What The Minnesota Chorale Learned From The Minnesota Orchestra Lockout
“We had to think about what the community demands of us. The lock out was a stark call that we needed to be in control of our own destiny. We can never again take for granted this ready source of work and income.”
The (Twitter) Ratings Are In For “House Of Cards” (It’s All We’ve Got)
“Over a similar 11-day period, there was a 430 percent increase in tweets about the show from 2013 to 2014. Last year, the firm recorded 254,460 tweets; this year, the number was 1,350,400. In fact, more tweets were written about “House of Cards” 10 days after its debut in 2014 than on the day of the series premiere in 2013.”
He’s A Little Bit Country. She’s A Little Bit Rap (Why Rap And Country Now Share Audiences)
“You’re not country only or rap only; people like both. I think that’s been there for some time, but we recognize it now, so collaborations work well, and the reverse is they help grow the interests of artists and music as a crossover.”
Research: How Bias Gets In The Way Of What We See
“In two experiments, participants (74 Princeton undergraduates in the first, 85 adults recruited online in the second) looked at a series of 80 paintings and rated the artistic merit of each on a one-to-nine scale.”
So The Corcoran Is Going Away? But Its Mission Is More Important Now Than Ever
“It is exactly this kind of painting — deeply tied to Washington, rich in local history and meaning — that is most in peril as the Corcoran is broken apart, its collection scattered, its community dispersed.”
Evgeny Kissin’s Remarkable Performance
Anne Midgette: “I wish that Kissin were creating a new world of possibilities for all star performers, but I’m not sure anyone else has the virtuosity to step this far outside the box with such honesty and dignity and power. I also wish this concert had been recorded. As it is, it is an evening I will remember all my life.”
Why Movie Theatre Food Is So Bad
“Snacks are a cash cow for theaters, providing some 85 percent in net profits. But no one really goes after the food Americans eat in movie theaters, which is mostly bits of corn syrup, food starch, malic acid, and artificial colors, encapsulated in a sugary ether.”
Trying To Grow Your Audience? Maybe Your Demographics Are Wrong
“Generally, we begin screwing up by turning demographic research into inaccurate stereotypes. We find out how our audience differs from the general population, define it by those differences, and then aim our outbound communication at an imaginary person who embodies every one of those differences.”
Information-As-Junk-Food: Are You Obese?
“A new kind of obesity is now looming with our information, data, and media diet. We have only scratched the surface, but there is already way too much of information available, and it is way too tasty, too cheap, and too rich.”
Poll: This Year Two-Thirds Of Americans Haven’t Seen A Single Oscar-Nominated Movie
“Among those who responded to the online survey, Somali piracy thriller “Captain Phillips” was the most-watched film, at 15 percent. But 67 percent said they had yet to see any of the eleven films in the poll.”
National Book Awards Data: In 60 Years Women Writers Have Achieved Gender Parity
“In the 1950s, the finalists and winners of National Book Awards were more than 80 percent male. But notice how that percentage has steadily fallen until we reach the current decade – then women pulled slightly ahead.”
Mayor Threatens to Close Rome Opera Down If Unions Go Ahead With Strike
Three of the five unions representing Opera di Roma employees say they’ll shut down the entire run of Manon Lescaut, starring Anna Netrebko and conducted by Riccardo Muti, that opens Thursday if management doesn’t withdraw plans – required by law – to revamp the budget and reduce the staff at the near-bankrupt opera house.
Disney Launches Its Own Digital Movie Service
“Once fully deployed, the free service, called Disney Movies Anywhere, will allow consumers to buy a Disney, Marvel or Pixar movie once and watch it on any web-ready TV, mobile device or computer.”
Dresden’s Semper Opera Fires New Boss Before He Starts
Saxony’s arts minister said that Serge Dorny, who had received widespread praise for reinvigorating the Opéra de Lyon and was due to start full-time in Dresden in September, “has managed to gamble away any confidence employees might have had in him in the shortest possible period.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Profumo Affair Musical to Close After Four Months
Allan Kozinn: “The theater gods have at long last taken revenge on Andrew Lloyd Webber for the ubiquity of Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Evita. His latest musical, Stephen Ward, which opened to mixed reviews in London in December, and has had mediocre ticket sales ever since, will close on March 29.”
Why Did Andrew Lloyd Webber Take On the Profumo Affair in the First Place?
Michael Billington observes that this particular topic lacks the one element at which Lloyd Webber is genuinely brilliant. (This was a job for Kander & Ebb.)
Ancient Buddhist Cave Paintings in China Could ‘Turn to Sand’
“The network of 236 sandstone caves extend over an area of two to three kilometres in the vast, sparsely-populated autonomous Xinjiang region of China, along the ancient Silk Road. The caves were inhabited by Buddhist monks and used as temples between the third and the eighth centuries, and are lined with murals providing a rich picture of early Buddhist culture.”
Turkey Proposes Reconstructing Madrasa Next to Hagia Sophia
“The Turkish government plans to reconstruct a demolished madrasa (religious school) next to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1985. But the local branch of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) strongly protests these plans, calling the proposed construction a ‘new fake historic monument’ that would undermine the area’s significance.”
Does Reading Literature Make You More Moral? (It’s Not a Ridiculous Question)
“So, if the answer to the question of whether reading literature makes us more moral is so obviously ‘no’, why ask it in the first place? And why did so many people show up to the event to consider the question?” Paula M.L. Moya allows as how literature helps shape what we consider to be moral in the first place.
Wait – Is This Actually Atheism?
Louise Antony: “I say ‘there is no God’ with the same confidence I say ‘there are no ghosts’ or ‘there is no magic.’ The main issue is supernaturalism – I deny that there are beings or phenomena outside the scope of natural law. That’s not to say that I think everything is within the scope of human knowledge.”
One of the Wagner Sisters Running Bayreuth to Step Down
“Eva Wagner-Pasquier, 68, great grand-daughter of Richard Wagner, will retire as co-director of the Bayreuth Festival next year. She currently runs the festival in uneasy collaboration with her much younger half-sister, Katharina Wagner, 36.”
Philip Seymour Hoffman + National Enquirer + Libel Suit = New Playwriting Award
How David Bar Katz, the longtime friend of the late actor who found his lifeless body, convinced (that’s as good a word as any) the tabloid to endow an annual $45,000 prize called the Relentless Award.
Oakland’s Own Dance Genre
It’s turfing, a style of street-dance that was created in the city about twenty years ago and is now booming.
‘Annie’ Co-Creator Disses Recent Broadway Revival (As His Colleagues Run the Other Way)
Martin Charnin, lyricist and director of the original production (and of an upcoming non-Equity tour): “The entire [original] creative team (Tom, Charles, and I) simply had to restore the charm and the magic of the musical, that has endured for lo, these many years, and that seemed to veer off-course in the recent Broadway production.” Composer Charles Strouse and book writer Thomas Meehan very promptly disavowed Charnin’s statement.
Will This Mean a Sixth Tony for Audra McDonald?
“The five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will make an unexpected return to Broadway this spring – in time to qualify for the 2014 Tonys – to play Billie Holiday in the musical play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.”
Amtrak’s Writers-in-Residence Idea: What Would DFW Do?
Vauhini Vara looks to David Foster Wallace’s great cruise ship essay, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”.
Booksellers in France Get Naked to Protest Attempted Censorship of ‘Everybody Get Naked!’
“A group of French booksellers and publishers took off their clothes Wednesday to protest conservative politician Jean-François Copé’s call to censor a children’s book from 2011 called Everybody Get Naked! (Tous à poil!).”