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Pandemonium At San Diego Opera Board Meeting, Followed By New Chairman And Rescue Plan
Karen Cohn, the board chairman who presided over the sudden plan to dissolve the company, stormed out of the meeting, as did several other members as well as general director Ian Campbell and his deputy and ex-wife, Ann. Carol Lazier, who gave $1 million toward saving the company, is now acting board chair, and she declined to say if Campbell is still affiliated with the Opera.
Oliver Stone Tells The Chinese – To Their Faces – To Make Critical Films About Mao
At the Beijing International Film Festival: “It’s about time. You got to make a movie about Mao, about the Cultural Revolution. You do that, you open up, you stir the waters and you allow true creativity to emerge in this country. That would be the basis of real co-production.”
‘Fecund Imagination And Exuberant Sleight-Of-Hand’: Michiko Kakutani On Gabriel García Márquez
“[In his novels, he] mythologized the history of an entire continent, while at the same time creating a Rabelaisian portrait of the human condition as a febrile dream in which love and suffering and redemption endlessly cycle back on themselves on a Möbius strip in time.”
The Life Cycle Of A Pop Song
The Awl charts the entire course, from the Conception Phase and Underground Phase, through the Indie and Hipster Phases, into and out of the Top 40, to the Shame Phase and beyond. (Not to forget the karaoke afterlife.)
French Court Swaps Bob Dylan Out Of Hate Speech Case
The case stems from a 2012 Rolling Stone interview in which, to some eyes, Dylan appeared to equate Croatians with Nazis. The judge ruled that, since Dylan gave the interview in the U.S., he couldn’t be liable – but the publisher of the French edition of Rolling Stone could.
Cast of ‘Fun Home’ Wades Into South Carolina’s Legislators-Against-Lesbians War
A group of state lawmakers threatened the College of Charleston with a budget cut after a reading list for incoming freshmen included Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir. So the cast and creators of the musical based on the book are going to Charleston next week for concert performances and discussions.
‘The Best Documentary Ever Made On The Basis Of A Dubious Premise’
“The filmmakers follow the narrow limits of a self-imposed rule, and their obstinacy courts cinematic disaster. They set the movie entirely within the capsules of a cable-car line in Nepal that connects the ancient mountaintop temple of the title with a neighboring village. The film’s two-hour duration is filled solely with a dozen ten-minute trips.”
Random House Wins Bidding To Publish New Shirley Jackson Collection
“The new collection, called Garlic in Fiction, is edited by two of Ms. Jackson’s children … and includes her fiction (like the short story ‘Paranoia,’ which was published for the first time in The New Yorker last summer), as well as drawings, lectures and works of nonfiction that previously appeared in women’s magazines of the 1940s and ’50s.”
So You Think You Can Be An Actor, Tough Guy?
Alex Andreou: “I have worked 14-hour shifts in a travel agency, seven days a week, for six months during the Greek tourist season, with no day off. I have handled multi-billion industry investigations as a competition expert, with days and weeks which I thought would never end. None of it compares – not even close – to the self-imposed temporary obsession that preparing for a part demands.”
What We Mean When We Talk About Happiness
“‘Are you satisfied with your life?’ ‘How are you feeling?’ Does either question tell us what we really want to know?”
Gary Shteyngart Resigns From Blurbing Books (Here’s His Resignation Letter)
“It is with deep sadness that I announce that the volume of requests has exceeded my abilities, and I will be throwing my ‘blurbing pen’ into the Hudson River during a future ceremony, time and place to be determined.” (He is making exceptions, though, including all owners of long-haired dachshunds.)
Resetting ‘Three Sisters’ Among Expats In Yemen
The isolated Arab country “presents a conflict zone, but not one that gets international attention; far-flung but not exotic; visitors who hope to do good with varying degrees of conviction;” and the “claustrophobia” of life in an expatriate community.
E. L. Doctorow Wins Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction
Called “our very own Charles Dickens” by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, “the 83-year-old editor, professor and novelist has won almost every literary honor an American writer can receive.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.17.14
What is big data for?
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth | Published 2014-04-18
Creatures Under the Skin
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-04-17
Voice of a generation
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-04-17
Bilious About Billboards: A Dissenting BlogBack from Advertising Association and Heated Tweets
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-17
How Important is a Writer’s Routine? Plus, McMansions
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-04-17Gabriel García Márquez Dies At 87
“Mr. García Márquez, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, wrote fiction rooted in a mythical Latin American landscape of his own creation, but his appeal was universal. His books were translated into dozens of languages. He was among a select roster of canonical writers — Dickens, Tolstoy and Hemingway among them — who were embraced both by critics and by a mass audience.”
Legal Landscape Still Murky For Detroit Institute Of Art Collection
“Like every aspect of the Detroit bankruptcy, the legal issues surrounding the DIA and its multibillion-dollar collection remain a landscape of uncharted territory and foggy complexities.”
Can Loud Music Really Make Your Ears Bleed?
“If you are close to a sound source – such as a speaker – you are close to a lot of pressure waves. Direct sound exposure often doesn’t cause capillaries to burst, it’s the pressure.
Research: Artists’ Brain Structure Is Different
“Participants’ brain scans revealed that artists had increased neural matter in areas relating to fine motor movements and visual imagery.”
Survey: Most Dancers Have Been Criticized For How Their Bodies Look
A group of 74 female dancers, training primarily in ballet and from six vocational dance training colleges across the UK, were asked if they could recall someone ever making a “critical comment” that their body “should be a certain shape, weight, or that there was a need to diet to lose weight or increase food intake to gain weight”.
Why Museum Directors Still Want To Curate Shows
“If I didn’t continue to curate—even now that I have a job that oversees six museums—I would stop breathing. The strong relationship with artists gives me the energy to take on all the business that I have to do.”
Jimmy Wales Talks About Information, Human Rights And Things You Don’t Want To Know
“The Onion is my favourite humour site, a parody of news. And one of my favourite headlines in the Onion was “World death rate holding steady at 100 per cent”. So yes, in that sense, we’re all doomed.”
The Science Behind The Beats That Make You Wanna Dance
“The results revealed that beat preference, when graphed, looks like an upside-down U on the scale of rhythmic intricacy. Overly simplistic beats are boring, it seems; overly complicated ones are befuddling. A mix of both, however, makes a sound that’s just off-kilter enough to be exciting.”
Change Of Venue – Now THIS Is How To See Opera
“Live opera is as physical as art gets, though you would never know that from sitting in any major opera house. In the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, you can feel singers’ breath on your face; you can hear their inhalations as well as their sung exhalations, the scratch as well as the sustained tone of the violins. Some illusions are lost but with them goes a certain artifice that holds you at arm’s length.”
You Can’t “Habit” Your Way Into Making Good Art
“There is no secret ingredient to artistic success; no magic routine for producing art. Copying Joan Didion’s routine won’t make you write like Joan Didion. Writing on index cards won’t turn you into Vladimir Nabokov. We are all more than the pattern of our days and the materials of our work.”
Two Ballerinas Take On The Mythology Of Dance
“Providing a behind-the-scenes look at the glory and gore of ballet, both books, in their own way, uncover unjust practices in ballet which for decades have tended to be tolerated, if not excused, in the name of art.”
Study: Creative Leisure Activities Build Better Workers
“If you’re looking for workers who are unusually innovative and/or team players who enjoy helping their colleagues, check out those who spend their free time painting, playing music, or engaging in some other form of creativity.”
Artists Plan To Recreate 1914 ‘Human Zoo’
“Norway celebrates the 200th anniversary of its constitution this year, and, the artists Mohamed Ali Fadlabi and Lars Cuzner plan to re-enact one of the main attractions from the centenary in 1914: ‘The Congo Village’, in which 80 Africans were put on display, living in cabins with palm roofs surrounded by African artefacts.”
Edward J. Sozanski, 77, Longtime Philadelphia Inquirer Art Critic
“Over three decades [he] became a major figure in describing and documenting the city’s cultural transformation from regional byway to the national main stage.”
The Louvre Gets Its 18th-Century Groove Back
“The Louvre Museum is preparing to reopen its 18th-century galleries on 6 June, after nearly a decade of renovation work.”
What’s Wrong With The Metropolitan Opera? No, It’s WHO’S Wrong
In part three of a series on what’s ailing America’s flagship opera company and how to cure it, Dawn Fatale looks at engaging the public and at casting – and says the Met must stop casting five to six years in advance.
An Artists’ Boycott Of Putin’s Russia Could Backfire
Judith Mackrell: “[If] artists move towards the blanket boycott [Jonathan] Jones has advocated, life can only get harder for all those artists opposed to Putin and his politics. It can only restrict their dialogue with the wider art scene and push them back towards the old cold war-era isolation.”
The Ten Best Documentaries Of All Time, Per The New Yorker’s Film Blogger
Richard Brody: “I’m the first to admit that it’s a somewhat tendentious list, with an odd preponderance of French movies. This isn’t merely the result of a personal affinity for an adoptive cinematic homeland but, rather, the crystallization of an idea.”
Hilary Mantel Says Political Debate Has Been Replaced By Bullying And Abuse
Responding to the pounding she took in the media last year for misunderstood remarks about the former Kate Middleton, Mantel says, “I do think the level of public debate is debased. To know how far it is debased – well, you have to be on the receiving end of a hate campaign like that to know how bad it is.”
Adam Gopnik And Elizabeth Gilbert On The G.A.N. (Great American Novel)
“On this week’s Out Loud podcast, Gopnik and the writer Elizabeth Gilbert … join newyorker.com’s literary editor, Sasha Weiss, to discuss how the concept of the G.A.N. has evolved over the years and how it has influenced the aspirations of American writers.” (audio)
‘Love Is Something You Do’: Jamaica Kincaid And Lawrence Weschler On James Baldwin
The two authors – novelist/essayist Kincaid and longform journalist Weschler – join scholar Rich Blint and radio host Brian Lehrer to talk about Baldwin’s life and his ideas on love and race. (audio)
Ballet’s Most Difficult Moves, Dissected
“What can pass in just a few musical beats during a performance – the corkscrew jumps, the ballerina who seems to fly apart in the air only to land with perfect poise – is dissected here for the speed, timing and calibrated force that audience members might miss if they blinked.” (video)
Studying Ballet In Iraq
“In American and European cultures, ballet is typically viewed as a respectable art form, and you wouldn’t think twice about teenage girls taking lessons.” In Iraq, ballet lessons might get a girl killed. (includes video clip)
New La Scala Scandal: Incoming Boss Buys Productions From His Current Employer
“Alexander Pereira, who is scheduled to take over the Milan opera house on Oct. 1, signed an agreement to buy four productions for La Scala from the Salzburg Festival, where he is the director, without the approval of the Italian authorities.”
A Tour Of British Isles Accents In One Unedited Take
Professional accent and dialect coach Andrew Jack covers a dozen or so accents from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and even the Isle of Man – all in 1’25″. (video)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.16.14
But . . . How?
AJBlog: Engaging Matters | Published 2014-04-16
Fashion Attracts Record Visitors Everywhere
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-16
MoMA Drama: My Participation on Archinect’s Panel Regarding the Expansion Controversy
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-16Is America Suffering A Brain Drain?
“For many years, the United States has benefited from a kind of reverse brain drain, which is that the best and brightest from all other countries would come to the United States to do research because we had for a very long time the most generous support for basic science. But I have seen, especially recently, the trend is starting to reverse a little bit.”
Seattle Theatres Talk About Raising Wages
“Despite the outcry from some restaurant and bar owners in the past few weeks, not everyone running small and midsize businesses with razor-thin margins is panicking about the prospect of a $15 minimum wage. Arts organizations large and small say they will do what it takes to increase wages.”
Why We Shouldn’t Trust People Who Predict The Future
“Why? Because there’s money in it; money and faith. I don’t just mean the few millions to be made from book sales; nor do I mean the simple geek belief in gadgetry. And I certainly don’t mean the pallid, undefined, pop-song promises of politicians trying to turn our eyes from the present – Bill Clinton’s “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow” and Tony Blair’s “Things can only get better”. No, I mean the billions involved in corporate destinies and the yearning for salvation from our human condition.”
A Wide Open Race This Year For Tonys’ Best Musical
“The 12 shows are such a mixed bag that this year’s race for the top prize, the Tony Award for best musical, is wide open for the first time in recent memory. In question is not just that award, but also (and this is truly rare) the four or five nominations for that category, which will be announced on April 29.”
Study: Some Parts Of Our Brains Deteriorate Significantly After Age 24
“Using a piecewise regression analysis, we find that age-related slowing of within-game, self-initiated response times begins at 24 years of age,” the authors write. In other words, older players took longer to respond to new visual playing conditions before taking action. And, according to the study, it was “a significant performance deficit,” which likely has consequences even outside abstruse digital space wars.
Study: What Country Music Says About Our Economy
In an analysis of the most popular country songs over six decades, Jason Eastman and Terry Pettijohn II of Coastal Carolina University finds top hits are “lyrically more positive, musically upbeat, and use more happy-sounding major chords during difficult socioeconomic times.”
Close San Diego Opera? It Might Not Be As Simple As That
“They may need the buy-in of more than 800 members of the opera association, people who donate at least $100 to be part of the company.”
Man Crowbars A Banksy Out Of A Wall, Sets Off Storm Of Protest
“It was removed by crowbar by the leader of a nearby youth club within hours of being found. Dennis Stinchcombe said he hoped to raise £100,000 for the struggling Broad Plain Boys’ Club by auctioning it. But Bristol mayor George Ferguson asked for the work to be put back on the city council-owned wall.”
Music As Collectible (One In Ten Young People Are Buying Cassette Tapes)
“There’s definitely a novelty value with cassettes at the moment, particularly as we suspect a high proportion of them are collectibles sitting on a shelf and never played.”
How Do You Archive The Entire Internet? (That’s Our History We’re Talking About)
“The potential is vast. But the pitfalls are significant too. Not only could it change the way history is told but there are wider questions about who has the rights to guard the web’s past and, inevitably in these post-Snowden leak times, what the availability of this data means for individual privacy. So what is the best way to make history from the internet?”