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Why Short Stories Are More Creative
The short story is on a huge upwards trajectory, yet attitudes persist that collections can’t be as successful as novels. To be fair, most of those prehistoric views emanate from London rather than Ireland or the US. After all, it was we Irish who exported the short story to the US in the first place, and it’s our biggest cultural legacy – next to the Irish bar, of course. – Irish Times
Published: 06.14.19
First Time: More Millennials Are Paying For Video Games Than For TV
About 53% of people born between 1983 and 1996 now pay for gaming services, versus 51% who pay for television, according to a survey from the accounting and professional services firm Deloitte. That is compared with Deloitte’s survey last year, in which paid subscriptions among millennials were 44% for video games and 52% for television. – New York Post
Published: 06.15.19
Pilobolus: A Shadow Of Itself?
Brian Seibert: “It all feels, in the end, like what it is: a late-generation copy. After a five-year absence, the fungus is still alive but not showing many signs of growth. ” – The New York Times
Published: 06.14.19
More Than Half The Art In This French Museum Turned Out To Be Fake. How Did It Happen?
Last year, a museum dedicated to the work of Étienne Terrus revealed most of its paintings were probably not by him. How did they get there? – The Guardian
Published: 06.15.19
Climate Activists Protest BP Funding At London Outdoor Screening Of Royal Ballet
Campaigners from Extinction Rebellion descended on the big-screen event, which live-streamed a Royal Ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet for free on June 11. BP has sponsored the free screenings for more than a decade and has a 30-year relationship with the Opera House, which has come under fire from climate change campaigners for accepting money from the oil and gas giant because of its “devastating impact on the natural world”. – The Stage
Published: 06.13.19
Cuba’s Tiny Movie “Palaces”
During Cuba’s Special Period, a time of deprivation following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many cinemas closed due to lack of funding, so the state opened small “video rooms” to screen movies on VHS. For mere pennies, Cubans across the island can enjoy a day at the movies. It’s so cheap that some locals pay the admission simply to enjoy the air conditioning, which seems to be more modern than some of the cinemas’ technical equipment. – The Daily Beast
Published: 06.14.19
Funders Are Asking For More Data From Arts Organizations. This Is A Trap
“Constantly demanding data, while changing formats, metrics, methodology and requirements every few years, creates the illusion of order and control, while actually making meaningful insight more difficult. The situation is convenient for funders, as it reinforces their power while making it harder to hold their own performance to account. It also provides useful work for consultants and researchers. For arts organisations themselves, however, the advantages are less obvious.” – Arts Professional
Published: 06.14.19
Relentless Researcher: Robert Caro’s Brand Of History
“All the ordinary limitations under which most writers and scholars labor — deadlines, money, family obligations — have never contained the force of Caro’s curiosity, which he describes as something akin to a compulsion.” – Jacobin
Published: 06.12.19
The Mysterious Case Of Agatha Christie’s 11-Day Disappearance
It was 1926. “On the evening of Dec. 4, Agatha Christie, carrying nothing but an attaché case, kissed her daughter good night and sped away from the home in England that she shared with her husband, Col. Archibald Christie.” She disappeared for a week-and-a-half, without explanation. – The New York Times
Published: 06.11.19
YouTube’s Content Problem Can’t Be Fixed With An Algorithm Tweak
YouTube’s recommendation engine can lead you astray pretty quickly, jumping down rabbit holes of unsafe or misleading content. Figuring out an algorithmic fix is more difficult than it seems. – The New York Times
Published: 06.14.19
The Dia Foundation’s Quiet Reinvention
“Blockbusters are not their thing. But don’t let the hush of the Beacon galleries mislead you; a profound transformation is afoot.” – The New York Times
Published: 06.13.19
What If We Could Rewrite Classic Operas?
In fact, David Lang is, with a re-imagining of Beethoven’s Fidelio. Anne Midgette explores the idea of revisiting classics in new form. – Washington Post
Published: 06.14.19
Being Out In Nature Is Good For Your Health. But How Much Time Do You Need To Spend?
A new study quantifies it. “The study examined data from nearly 20,000 people in England who took part in the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment Survey from 2014 to 2016, which asked them to record their activities within the past week. It found that people who spent two hours a week or more outdoors reported being in better health and having a greater sense of well-being than people who didn’t get out at all.” – The New York Times
Published: 06.13.19
Strand Bookstore Owner: Why Landmarking The Strand Will Kill It
Nancy Bass Wyden: “My dad’s proudest moment came in 1996, when he finally saved up enough money to buy the building that had housed the store since he was a young man. He’d watched rents climb and he’d seen enough competitors go under to know that making that purchase was key to ensuring the Strand’s survival. This week, that security vanished. By designating the store a landmark, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission put the Strand in peril.” – New York Daily News
Published: 06.14.19
The 14-Year-Old Music Prodigy: Carnegie, Vienna State Opera, Etc…
“An accomplished pianist and violinist, she is also a composer, having written concertos for piano and violin and an opera. In December, she will make her debut at Carnegie Hall, where she will play the solo violin and piano in her two concertos, while the orchestra will play selections from her opera and her most recent work, a Viennese waltz. Next month, she will record a retrospective album with Sony of piano melodies she composed going back to when she was just 4 years old.” – The New York Times
Published: 06.14.19
Plans To “Fill In” Some Of London’s Barbican Spaces Would Ruin It
“The grand columns that you see all around the complex are about creating space. You fill in that space, then you have something that was designed to be open becoming cluttered and oppressive. What makes the Barbican special would be lost.” – CityLab
Published: 06.12.19
Franco Zeffirelli, 96
“Critics sometimes reproached Mr. Zeffirelli’s opera stagings for a flamboyant glamour more typical of Hollywood’s golden era, while Hollywood sometimes disparaged his films as too highbrow. But his success with audiences was undeniable.” – The New York Times
Published: 06.15.19
Does Owning A McMansion Make You Happier?
To be clear, having more space does generally lead to people saying they’re more pleased with their home. The problem is that the satisfaction often doesn’t last if even bigger homes pop up nearby. “If I bought a house to feel like I’m ‘the king of my neighborhood,’ but a new king arises, it makes me feel very bad about my house.” – The Atlantic
Published: 06.11.19
Evening Standard’s Sacking Of Its Theatre Critics Doesn’t Mean Criticism Is Going Away – It’s Just Moving On
“Mainstream theatre criticism is unlikely to disappear. But professional, full-time critics, whose only real job is to review plays, may be a dying breed. It is unfortunately possible for publications to be committed to criticism whilst being utterly cavalier about individual critics.” – The Stage
Published: 06.12.19
Palm Beach Opera Director Daniel Biaggi Stepping Down
When Palm Beach Opera promoted him to general director in February 2009, the company was struggling. It was posting unsupportable deficits and the chief administrator job was a revolving door. Under Biaggi’s leadership, the company stabilized and grew. It slashed the budget, reducing the number of operas it produced at the Kravis Center from four to three and eliminating Monday matinees, and re-directed resources to programming designed to broaden its audience. – Palm Beach Post
Published: 06.12.19
How The Internet Has Changed (Is Changing) Book Culture
“The personal touch sometimes takes some of the critical edge out of books conversation online. Like many outlets, Bustle is fazing out professional book reviews, and Electric Literature did away with its reviews a couple of years ago now. Instead, these websites are prioritizing personal essays from a diverse group of writers, and both of the aforementioned sites have a women-focused editorial strategy.” – Publishers Weekly
Published: 06.13.19
A New Funding Model For Opera, Ballet In Europe That Aims For Younger Audiences
“Since 2014, Fedora has awarded €1 million to help launch 10 new opera and ballet projects, co-produced by 64 cultural institutions across Europe. To do this, they’ve tested new models of raising money and new ways of awarding it to operas and ballets.” – Forbes
Published: sjm
The Bauhaus Was Built On Ambitious Ideas (That Both Succeeded And Failed)
This new vision for an art school was explicitly intended to combine knowledge of modern techniques for making things with a medieval attitude toward how and why you are making them. Gropius and his allies were going to save the modern world by shoving it as hard as they could both backward and forward at the same time. – The Easel
Published: 06.11.19
Choreography As Conflict Resolution — A Retired Dancer Becomes A Professional Mediator
Dana Caspersen, William Forsythe’s wife and a former member of his company, Ballett Frankfurt, “develops choreographic methods that let groups address differences in nonverbal ways. Many of her projects center on participatory ‘action dialogues,’ which allow groups as large as 250 to tackle fraught issues like racism and polarization.” – Dance Magazine
How Conservateurs Dismantled And Reassembled An Angkor Temple To Save It
“In recent decades a shift in the flow of water across Phnom Bakheng amid heavy tourist traffic had jeopardised its long-term viability, prompting the WMF to seek a solution. Devotional shrines erected on the various levels had become destabilised because of a gradual change in the pitch at the ground level of the various terraces.” – The Art Newspaper
Published: 06.12.19