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  • AUDIENCE

$24M Project To Save Britain’s Oldest Sound Recordings

MEDIA Posted: April 25, 2017 11:01 am

$24M Project To Save Britain’s Oldest Sound Recordings

“The British Library has launched a preservation and access project which will save almost half a million rare and unique recordings which are threatened by physical degradation or stored on formats which can no longer be played. … Recordings include oral histories from WWI and WWII, Cornish brass bands, local dialect from the UK regions, drama and literature readings, regional radio, traditional music, pirate radio recordings, music from around the world and the sounds of rare and extinct species.”

Read the story at Classical Music (UK) Published: 04.12.17

Why So Many Women Are Drawn To True-Crime Murder Television

MEDIA Posted: April 20, 2017 10:02 am

Why So Many Women Are Drawn To True-Crime Murder Television

Over the past couple of years, print pundits have wondered at the sizable female audience for new true-crime TV series such as The Jinx and Making a Murderer (not to mention the audio phenomenon that was Serial). American Studies scholar Melinda Lewis argues that the pundits shouldn’t have been surprised and unpacks the attraction to the genre.

Read the story at The Smart Set Published: 04.12.17

Deborah Borda Talks To Tavis Smiley About The Los Angeles And New York Philharmonics

MUSIC Posted: April 20, 2017 6:34 am

Deborah Borda Talks To Tavis Smiley About The Los Angeles And New York Philharmonics

America’s favorite orchestra CEO talks about arts funding, what she achieved in her 17 years in L.A., and what she hopes to achieve in New York. And Tavis (based in L.A.) literally gets on his knees and begs her not to go. (video)

Read the story at PBS Published: 04.12.17

Two Iranian-American Gallerists Charged With Trying To Overthrow Iranian Government

ISSUES Posted: April 20, 2017 5:01 am

Two Iranian-American Gallerists Charged With Trying To Overthrow Iranian Government

Karan Vafadari and Afarin Nayssari, founders of the Aun Gallery in Tehran, were arrested last summer after Revolutionary Guards stormed the exhibition space, destroyed some art and carried away other pieces. “The couple has been incarcerated at [the] notorious Evin Prison … and has been denied access to legal counsel, interrogated extensively, and frequently placed in solitary confinement over a series of charges that human rights organizations have denounced as baseless.”

Read the story at Hyperallergic Published: 04.12.17

Museum Struggle To Conserve “New” Media Art That’s No Longer So New

VISUAL Posted: April 19, 2017 2:33 pm

Museum Struggle To Conserve “New” Media Art That’s No Longer So New

Conservation of art that was made with technology like old TVs, VCR tapes and floppy disks is breaking down and getting more and more difficult to conserve. How do you “restore” a cassette tape when it has started to decay? Museum conservators are resorting to buying up old technology on services like EBay to repair the materials.

Read the story at KUNC Published: 04.12.17

Is High Quality Prestige TV Preparing A New Generation To Love Stage Plays?

THEATRE Posted: April 19, 2017 12:31 pm

Is High Quality Prestige TV Preparing A New Generation To Love Stage Plays?

“Where there’s truth to the idea of a television ‘golden age’ (ask me over a cup of coffee or a whiskey ginger someday), it’s in the fact that cable and streaming outlets have allowed shows to flourish when they appeal to more deeply invested but smaller audiences. This is what I have called in the past The Age Of Enthusiasm. It has also encouraged the proliferation of shows that are more idiosyncratic, personal, and experimental than television was before. Now, drama and comedy enthusiasts have daily exposure to stuff that’s weird and complicated and formally experimental. They are a good, prepared audience for interesting plays in a way that I, as a teenager in the late 1980s, was not.”

Read the story at NPR Published: 04.12.17

Okay, Cue The Viola Jokes – But These Instruments Are Ergonomically Superior

MUSIC Posted: April 19, 2017 12:02 pm

Okay, Cue The Viola Jokes – But These Instruments Are Ergonomically Superior

“The instrument sports a number of unusual features, like a banked fingerboard that fights strain by reducing supination in a player’s left arm. But what truly draws the eye—and drops the jaw—is the viola’s off-kilter layout: It has been stretched on the diagonal to some 20 inches to maximize the vibrating surface area. Because it has also been shortened from top to bottom, it feels like a ¾-size viola to the player’s left hand.”

Read the story at Strings Published: 04.12.17

Christopher Morahan, Director Of ‘The Jewel In The Crown’, Dead At 87

PEOPLE Posted: April 18, 2017 4:29 am

Christopher Morahan, Director Of ‘The Jewel In The Crown’, Dead At 87

“The successful completion of the [difficult and troubled] project was due in no small part to Morahan’s tenacity and dedication. Tall and commanding, on set his directorial cry of ‘why wasn’t this done earlier?’ could make the most hardened crew member tremble.”

Read the story at The Telegraph (UK) Published: 04.12.17

Patricia McKissack, Who Righted A Literary Wrong With More Than 100 Books, Has Died At 72

PEOPLE Posted: April 16, 2017 6:30 am

Patricia McKissack, Who Righted A Literary Wrong With More Than 100 Books, Has Died At 72

McKissack and her husband wrote, “she said, ‘to tell a different story — one that has been marginalized by mainstream history; one that has been distorted, misrepresented or just plain forgotten,’ and she urged other blacks to write more, too.”

Read the story at The New York Times Published: 04.12.17

Should The Oscars And Emmys Do Away With Gender Categories For Their Acting Awards?

MEDIA Posted: April 13, 2017 2:27 pm

Should The Oscars And Emmys Do Away With Gender Categories For Their Acting Awards?

“What would be the impact if the Emmys, or the Academy Awards, totally did away with gender distinctions for its acting prizes (which, in both cases, have existed since their inception)? The Grammys long ago dropped this distinction (in 2011), but are helped by the fact that they hand out trophies to performers in 84 different categories. The Oscars only have four acting awards (lead and supporting, male and female), with five nominees for each category. In an industry still rife with institutional sexism, where male stars still dominate the amount of lead roles available, it’s easy to imagine wild gender imbalances from year to year, even if the lead and supporting categories were expanded to 10 nominees.”

Read the story at Wired Published: 04.12.17

Before November’s Election Political Publishers Had Commissioned Books Expecting A Hillary Win. So Now What?

WORDS Posted: April 13, 2017 2:02 pm

Before November’s Election Political Publishers Had Commissioned Books Expecting A Hillary Win. So Now What?

“We had to pivot and say: What are we going to do with these books that were going to be anti-Hillary? Instead we developed new approaches that talked about the Trump agenda.”

Read the story at NPR Published: 04.12.17

Out Damn Ticket Surcharge!

AUDIENCE, ISSUES Posted: April 13, 2017 11:31 am

Out Damn Ticket Surcharge!

“At the Birmingham Stage Company we recently went public about our decision to pull out of future presentations at Leeds Grand because of the £3 booking fee and £1 restoration fee that is levied on all tickets. This means that schoolchildren seeing our production of Gangsta Granny by David Walliams for £10 are then being asked to pay another £4 on top. This effectively amounts to a 40% surcharge on every ticket.”

Read the story at ArtsProfessional Published: 04.12.17

This City Branding Campaign May Make You Laugh, But It Won’t Make You Roll Your Eyes In Contempt

ISSUES Posted: April 13, 2017 11:01 am

This City Branding Campaign May Make You Laugh, But It Won’t Make You Roll Your Eyes In Contempt

“A new campaign out of Chattanooga, Tennessee dubs the city ‘Literally Perfect’ with a series of delightfully demented mini-musicals.” Laura Bliss explains why it’s “better than it ought to be.”

Read the story at CityLab Published: 04.12.17

Teachers Selling Their Lessons Has Become Big Business

ISSUES Posted: April 13, 2017 10:31 am

Teachers Selling Their Lessons Has Become Big Business

“Teachers Pay Teachers contends that it hit a milestone last year, when its 80,000 contributors earned more than $100 million, and that at least a dozen have become millionaires since the site launched a decade ago. Other major sites including Teachwise and Teacher’s Notebook, and recently such corporate players as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Amazon, have launched sites of their own. But some educators worry the increasing monetizing of lessons will stifle the longstanding practice of teachers freely sharing their ideas. And legal experts question whether teachers actually have ownership of the lessons they are selling.”

Read the story at APNews Published: 04.12.17

An Autism Advocate Explains How She Helped ‘Sesame Street’ Create Its New Autistic Muppet

MEDIA Posted: April 13, 2017 10:02 am

An Autism Advocate Explains How She Helped ‘Sesame Street’ Create Its New Autistic Muppet

Slate‘s Marissa Martinelli talks with Julia Bascom, executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Read the story at Slate Published: 04.12.17

Sculptor Who Made Wall Street’s Iconic Charging Bull Sculpture Says His Work Has Been Appropriated Without His Permission By “Fearless Girl” Creators

VISUAL Posted: April 13, 2017 9:31 am

Sculptor Who Made Wall Street’s Iconic Charging Bull Sculpture Says His Work Has Been Appropriated Without His Permission By “Fearless Girl” Creators

The sculptor who created the iconic “Charging Bull” statue in New York City’s financial district says the city and an investment company violated his rights by installing the newly popular “Fearless Girl” statue near his creation without permission for what amounts to a commercial ad campaign.

Read the story at USAToday Published: 04.12.17

Where Exactly Do Pianists Look As They Play? This Project Tracked Their Eyes To Find Out

MUSIC Posted: April 13, 2017 9:03 am

Where Exactly Do Pianists Look As They Play? This Project Tracked Their Eyes To Find Out

“Function, a video series from Fractal NYC, outfitted two piano players with special glasses that track the movement of their eyes. … Insight pianists gain from eye tracking can be an excellent tool to help them perfect their playing. That is, if they can watch without getting dizzy.”

Read the story at Slate Published: 04.12.17

Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’ May Be Saved – By A Grocery Chain

VISUAL Posted: April 13, 2017 5:47 am

Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’ May Be Saved – By A Grocery Chain

“Perhaps you didn’t know, but The Last Supper … is deteriorating rapidly, mostly due to the factors of time, humidity, wartime bombs, and the fact that it was once housed in a prison.” But Eataly, the upscale food purveyor, is paying for a high-tech contraption that may help save the decaying mural. Nate Freeman has the details (and a bit of snark).

Read the story at ARTnews Published: 04.12.17

Refugees Form A Theatre Company On One Of Berlin’s Fabled Stages

THEATRE Posted: April 13, 2017 4:30 am

Refugees Form A Theatre Company On One Of Berlin’s Fabled Stages

The Exil Ensemble is “a group of seven performers from Syria, the Palestinian territories and Afghanistan who can’t pursue their art in their home countries and who are now in residency at the Maxim Gorki Theater” (whose house director, incidentally, is Israeli). “But how do you turn your own arrival into art so soon? How do you face the trauma? And express yourself in a new language?”

Read the story at New York Times Published: 04.12.17

Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.12.17

AJBlogs Posted: April 13, 2017 12:50 am

Plumbing Duchamp’s Urinal: How Erudite Art Historians Piss on Simplicity
When pondering the meaning of enigmatic artworks, critics and scholars often mix factual knowledge with leaps of interpretive imagination, conveyed through highfalutin verbiage. Thus it was when … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-04-12

 

Read the story at AJBlogs Published: 04.12.17

Remember “THE DRESS” Phenomenon A Few Years Ago When People Couldn’t Agree On The Color? (Now We Know Why)

VISUAL Posted: April 12, 2017 2:03 pm

Remember “THE DRESS” Phenomenon A Few Years Ago When People Couldn’t Agree On The Color? (Now We Know Why)

“The phenomenon continues to be utterly fascinating to vision scientists like me, and for good reason. The very existence of ‘the dress’ challenged our entire understanding of color vision. Up until early 2015, a close reading of the literature could suggest that the entire field had gone somewhat stale—we thought we basically knew how color vision worked, more or less. The dress upended that idea.”

Read the story at Slate Published: 04.12.17

Nell Stevens Goes To The End Of The Earth (Literally) To Write A Novel In Isolation (Turns Out Isolation Was Completely Distracting)

WORDS Posted: April 12, 2017 1:37 pm

Nell Stevens Goes To The End Of The Earth (Literally) To Write A Novel In Isolation (Turns Out Isolation Was Completely Distracting)

” ‘Bleaker House’ is as formalistically inventive as any postmodern, genre-subverting work of fiction—which made me wonder, as I was reading it, whether in fact it was a postmodern, genre-subverting work of fiction, and not a memoir at all. Had Stevens invented her stay on Bleaker Island? Had she invented the island itself? Or had she invented the premise that she went there to write a conventional novel, and all along intended to write something that subverted the very idea of a novel?”

Read the story at The New Yorker Published: 04.12.17

Why Email Will Never Replace The Handwritten Letter

WORDS Posted: April 12, 2017 11:32 am

Why Email Will Never Replace The Handwritten Letter

“It can be hard to pin down what makes a personal letter, along with what makes for its individuality and authenticity. Connection is the most basic ‘reassurance that I am not floating out there alone in the universe’, as Nina Sankovitch writes in Signed, Sealed, Delivered. A letter links two particular persons, even when its words are handed round and read to others. And while we’re more connected than ever now, our connections can be less specific – we post a lot of ‘personal’ updates to a varied or unknown audience who has no responsibility to respond.”

Read the story at Aeon Published: 04.12.17

How Do You Write TV About Politics In The Age Of Trump? Five Showrunners Who Are Doing It Now Tell All

MEDIA Posted: April 12, 2017 6:34 am

How Do You Write TV About Politics In The Age Of Trump? Five Showrunners Who Are Doing It Now Tell All

A roundtable with Shonda Rhimes (Scandal), Barbara Hall (Madam Secretary), David Mandel (em>Veep), and Frank Pugliese and Melissa Jane Gibson (House of Cards).

Read the story at New York Times Published: 04.12.17

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  • Just because: Dick Haymes sings “Come Rain or Come Shine”
    A rare kinescope of Dick Haymes singing “Come Rain or Come Shine,” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, on Stage Show, originally telecast by CBS on October 1, 1955. He is accompanied by the Dorsey ... read more
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    AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-22
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    “Wander through six permanent galleries [emphasis added],” the caption for the video walk-through on the La Salle University Art Museum’s homepage exhorts potential visitors. But while the galleries may be “permanent,” the installation shown on ... read more
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