At a colleague's suggestion, yesterday I signed up for Thomas Cott's daily email digest of news you can use. It was waiting in my inbox this morning right on schedule, and the very top item blew my mind: Blogging about the process of choreography - ugh! Posted by editor-in-chief Wendy Perron on Dance Magazine's blog, July 26, 2010 There's an annoying new trend of blogging about the process of making a dance. I am talking about young choreographers, anxious to be in the public eye, who think … [Read more...]

[via Mashable] I can't help myself: I keep imagining how this would have rocked the classical music world if some nice lady string quartet had made it... … [Read more...]

Sxip may live in New York City... and if you do too, you'll have the chance to check out his new record at the City Winery release party tomorrow night. I, however, live in Baltimore, so I will be taking myself on a tour of sonic adventure 'round these parts this evening. With Whartscape in full swing, you'd think there was hardly room for any more music in this zip code, but indeed we'll be getting Zappa, Glass, and a guest beat courtesy Shodekeh at the BSO's early show, and then we'll all … [Read more...]

To showcase nation's arts, first lady isn't afraid to spotlight the unexpected Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling it might give us (hey, who doesn't like to read that famous people agree with them?), what kind of public relations and/or political influence does this kind of activity and attendant media coverage accomplish for the cause of the performing arts in America? Several of the folks chatting over on this week's special AJ Creative Rights and Artists blog have mentioned that we may not be … [Read more...]

I didn't think it was possible, but I am now even more confused: Paul Williams Responds to Copyleft Challenge How is Creative Commons, the organization behind those easy-to-comprehend, web-friendly copyright licenses that are designed for use by non-lawyer humans (which arguably means people who can't afford lawyers are now more empowered to put their work out there on exactly the terms that they want) "anti-copyright"? Don't these licenses actually help people follow copyright by spelling out … [Read more...]

[via BoingBoing] I'll be visiting with the folks over at the ArtsJournal group blog "Where are the Artists?" this week, so Mind the Gap will probably be a little quiet. Since it seems like the topics of art, technology, and creative rights are near and dear to a lot of readers here, I hope you'll come by and join in too. UPDATE: I'll index my contributions below...7.19.10 We Don't Know What We Don't Know 7.21.10 Bread and Butter will Divide Them All 7.23.10 Grains of Sand in the Hour Glass … [Read more...]

Check your kid's iPod tonight, parents: sonic i-Dosing is apparently threatening the nation's youth, leading impressionable teens down a dangerous path towards harder drugs (La Monte Young? Francisco López? Bob Marley?). Though this NPR report seems to dispel the notion that sound can produce a digital high on par with ingested chemicals, parents viewing the evening news clip posted below about these aural drugs (scary footage discovered via @nightafternight) are being advised to be vigilant! … [Read more...]

According to Mashable: A fan named Johannes S. Beals tweeted, "Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin" to Old Spice. The following video popped up on YouTube within an hour, and Old Spice tweeted it at Beals. Within the hour? Now that's some impressive performance production work. … [Read more...]

Pick your poison: pop culture clichés amusingly twisted to sell classical music... [via David Smooke] ...or classic music rewired to sell car batteries. [via BoingBoing] … [Read more...]

As I've mentioned before, I use (and therefore have properly licensed/paid for) iStockphoto images  when I don't have something I've shot myself, both here on Mind the Gap and for other sites I write for. Though I have looked elsewhere online for appropriate visual material that carries a CC license indicating it's available for 3rd-party non-commercial use, I love using iStock because its search engine makes it fast and its pricing structure and "credits" style of payment makes it easy … [Read more...]