The Startling Rise Of Killer Technologies
"As biochemists concoct new life-extending medications, calls to Poison Control after swallowing the wrong pills or the wrong number of the right pills have recently doubled. We put a smartphone in every hand, and now more than 1,000 distraction-related crashes happen on our roads every day (also steadily rising). Kids and pets succumb to heatstroke inside cars that are more environmentally sealed than ever—we’re on track to set a new record for hot car deaths in 2017. Falling off of ladders? Even those numbers are climbing, and if you’re wondering how that could possibly be related to technology, well, read on." … [Read More]
Writer Who Wrote About A Writer Murdering People Is Arrested For Murdering People
“I came up with the idea after reading some detective novels and watching crime shows and movies,” Mr. Liu wrote at the time. “The working title is: ‘The Beautiful Writer Who Killed.’” But what was assumed to be a fictional crime story took a turn into reality last week when Mr. Liu, 53, was arrested on accusations of bludgeoning four people to death 22 years ago. … [Read More]
Robot To Conduct Italian Orchestra And Bocelli In Concert
A Swiss humanoid robot is to conduct a Tuscan orchestra in the works of Verdi alongside Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. The robot, called YuMi, will be the closest a humanoid has come to mastering the nuances of a human orchestra director when he performs. … [Read More]
BBC Asks To Vet Conductor’s Speech At Proms
Disclosing the BBC would see a draft of the speech, he joked : "But of course, if I start to speak something completely different, I don't think anyone can stop me. … [Read More]
Kara Walker Writes An Angry Letter To The Art World
“I know what you all expect from me and I have complied up to a point. But frankly I am tired, tired of standing up, being counted, tired of ‘having a voice’ or worse ‘being a role model,'” she writes in a new artist statement hating on artist statements, for a show opening Sept. 7 at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., in Manhattan. … [Read More]
Fairy Tales As Useful Caution
"I’ve been asked in interviews, in classrooms and by audiences, if I think fairy tales are feminist. I think they are, but not by our modern definition of feminism. Traditional fairy tales were created long before any such notion existed, and I’d say they help women, rather than lift up women. They warn, rather than extol. They’re useful, which is a much older kind of feminism." … [Read More]
How To Keep New Plays From The One-Run-And-Done Fate? ‘Rolling World Premieres’
The Rolling World Premiere project, operated by the National New Play Network, "helps underwrite new plays to make sure they get at least three separate productions in three totally separate markets, all within 12 months - and all billed as world premieres as the play 'rolls' cross-country to various theaters, casts, and settings." … [Read More]
Michael Cooper: Bayreuth, Nazis And Charlottesville
"It was my first visit to the Bayreuth Festival, and I was wrestling with conflicting emotions. There was the thrill of realizing my long-held dream of hearing Richard Wagner’s music in the opera house he built, where some of my favorite recordings were made. But there was queasiness, too, at the inescapable memories of old photos showing the theater defiled during the Nazi era, festooned with swastikas and visited regularly by Hitler. Then I stepped outside at intermission on Saturday evening and checked my phone." … [Read More]
Steven Soderbergh, David Lynch, Hayao Miyazaki – Why Are All These Retired Directors Unretiring?
"Miyazaki has nothing left to prove. But for the other directors it's hard not to suspect that the old retirement hokey-cokey - in, out, in, out - is at least partly driven by PR reasoning. ... If that's what's going on, then these vacillating retirees have been forced into it by the tumultuous state of cinema. They're taking action on a commonly voiced complaint: that the studios' franchise addiction has sucked financing out of mid-range-budget films." … [Read More]
Paula Vogel: Art As Outsider
The truth is, everybody is an outsider. Everybody. So, we mustn't fear presenting that in a work of art so that people have different ways of seeing their outsiderness reflected. This is what I say to young people: "It is not a waste of your life to be a writer, or to work in the arts." I think the more we see ourselves represented, the more that opens up possibilities for younger people. … [Read More]
How Jeff Koons’s ‘Banality’ Established Current Copyright Law For Artists
"The Banality shows spurred five lawsuits, some decades after the original exhibit. One is pending today, almost 30 years after the show, while another settled out of court. Koons lost the remaining three, with courts finding him liable for copyright infringement and rejecting his fair use defense: that he was parodying the source material. But importantly for the art world, ... [those judgments] have helped to define when artists can and cannot use the work of others for their own pieces, making a lasting impact on copyright law." Jessica Meiselman recounts the history. … [Read More]
To Hear How Jazz Got Pushed To The Side Of American Culture, Listen To This One Night In 1967
Alan Iverson: "Ellington could connect all the dots—the social, the modernist, the intellectual, the populist, the personally poetic—for a vision of American music truly epic in scope. As great as Evans was, he didn’t have that kind of command. Fifty years ago, the basic connection to a larger audience was slipping away. The integrity of the song was getting diluted by the scale. A kind of darker and mysterious undercurrent was giving way to something lighter in affect." … [Read More]
Can Designers And Artists Re-Brand The South Bronx?
Yes, there are gentrification worries, but "these businesses and others are ambassadors of Bronx culture at large, said Jerome LaMaar, [boutique] 9J's dapper owner. 'And what's a brand without the right ambassador to push it?' Here, a look at some of those South Bronx ambassadors and their pioneering efforts in this new frontier." … [Read More]
Chinese Action Movie Breaks Box Office Records And Signals New Era For Chinese Movies
“We must admit that for a long time your Hollywood movies have been better made than Chinese movies, so we watched them all,” said Zou Ping, a parcel delivery worker in his 20s, leaving a showing of “Wolf Warrior 2” in Beijing. “But now you must also admit that this movie was pretty good, and it has a Chinese hero. It feels good to be on the side of justice.” … [Read More]
The First Black Movie Star In Britain Is Still Here At Age 100 (And He Says He’s Not Retired)
"He's appeared in Ealing dramas, a James Bond movie and played a wily dictator in Sidney Pollack's The Interpreter. But if [Earl] Cameron never quite achieved leading-man status, that was hardly his fault - there were other factors at play. ... In hindsight, perhaps, he peaked too early. He broke the mould on his very first film. Shot in 1951, Basil Dearden's thriller Pool of London cast him as Johnny, a young sailor who battles racists at the docks and romances a white girl beside Greenwich Observatory." … [Read More]
Premium Classifieds
Director of Programming – The Joyce Theater, New York City
The Joyce Theater, located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, is among the world’s best presentation venues for dance. With a 472-seat house, the theater was established by dancers for dance in … [Read More]
DataArts, President and CEO
The President & CEO will work collaboratively with DataArts’ board to envision and lead the implementation of its strategic action plan, comprehensive resource development, and delivery of high … [Read More]
Executive Director – West Michigan Symphony
West Michigan Symphony seeks an Executive Director with proven leadership and development abilities who holds a passion for music and music education, embraces a collaborative management style and has … [Read More]
Barbra Streisand: On the Couch
Look inside the heart and soul of Barbra Streisand. Read Psychoanalyst Alma Bond's historic novel revealing the hidden depths of Barbra's character as no one but a psychoanalyst could do. See the … [Read More]
Center Theatre Group: Junior Publicist Position Open
We entertain. We create. We engage. We inspire. As one of the nation’s most influential nonprofit theatre companies, Center Theatre Group provides the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the … [Read More]
This Black New York Actor Became The Toast Of 19th-Century Europe…
"[Ira] Aldridge's career as an actor was exceptional, and not just for a black actor at that time. He traveled farther, was seen by audiences in more countries, and won more medals, decorations, and awards than any other actor of his century." … [Read More]
Art Cannot Solve America’s Race Problems, Says One Of America’s Leading Black Female Artists…
Kara Walker, in the artist's statement for her newest show: "I am tired, tired of standing up, being counted, tired of 'having a voice,' or worse, 'being a role model,' Tired, true, of being a featured member of my racial group and/or my gender niche." … [Read More]
What Confederate Monuments Really Mean, And Why They Must Come Down: Philip Kennicott…
"Our statuary is largely derived from and better suited to authoritarian societies than democratic ones because monuments require assent to a common proposition: This man was great. They are meant to put historical truths into final form, beyond debate, literally etched in stone." … [Read More]
Hard Truths Or Easy Targets? New York Times Theater Critics Assess The Summer Of Trump…
Alexis Soloski, Ben Brantley, and Jesse Green survey the scene - and the damage. As Brantley puts it, "I don't experience catharsis unless I'm startled into feeling more deeply than I do just reading the headlines on my phone." … [Read More]
American Boychoir And Its School To Shut Down…
"Throughout its 80-year history, the choir has performed for presidents, on television and radio, and at places like Carnegie Hall and the Academy Awards. The choir toured the country and world and performed as many as 100 concerts each year." But in recent years the school has been plagued by declining enrollment, cash shortages, and a sexual abuse scandal. … [Read More]
At ‘Pompeii Of The Middle East’, 1,200-Year-Old Mosaic Workshop Unearthed…
"The ancient house was likely undergoing a remodel when, on Jan. 18, 749, the massive earthquake struck Jerash, located in what is now Jordan ... Before the earthquake, artisans were putting together mosaics for the floors of the house, but they abandoned their artwork after the natural disaster struck. This abandonment turned the house into a time capsule, allowing modern-day archaeologists a chance to see how artisans from the Umayyad - the early Islamic period - assembled these decorative mosaics." … [Read More]
What’s Charlotte Ballet’s New Artistic Director Been Doing There? You Have No Idea…
"In 14 months of affiliation with the company - only two as its artistic director - [Hope Muir] has hired an astonishing array of new choreographers, rehired all but two members of the first company, endeared herself to donors from Charlotte to Chautauqua, N.Y., begun to investigate national and international tours, created a choreographic lab to inspire new dancemakers, put together a collaboration for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra's Classical series in April, said goodbye to resident choreographer Dwight Rhoden and instituted family matinees for mainstage works beyond the inevitable Nutcracker." … [Read More]
The Next Big Dance Technique? Countertechnique…
"'Many older techniques have a strong inner logic,' says [Countertechnique creator Anouk] van Dijk, who now directs Melbourne-based Chunky Move. 'But I found they didn't prepare the body for when the dancer has to be highly versatile.' Countertechnique equips dancers with a range of skills and teaches them to apply them within familiar movements. This gives dancers more agency, which van Dijk believes can reduce anxiety in performance and even help dancers prevent and recover from injury." … [Read More]
The Book Fairies Hit Bangkok…
Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. Hemingway's Cat in the Rain. Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. "Fairies hid copies of these books and more in public places this past weekend as a local launch of The Book Fairies project, an international initiative in which people leave texts for others to discover in cities around the world. After readers finish a book, they are supposed to pass it on to others." … [Read More]
Andrew Lloyd Webber Brings His Musical Theatre Juggernaut Into The Chinese Market…
"Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group has announced a new partnership with one of China's largest live entertainment groups to develop the country's musical theatre industry. Among the first projects to be announced are the first Chinese-language production of Tell Me on a Sunday and a training course taught in collaboration with Arts Educational Schools." … [Read More]