“And you don’t always think about how difficult it is to succeed in a field that requires you to be able to bounce from one singing gig on Newbury Street, hop a Green Line car and bang out another in Newton, before zooming back to Harvard Square for the final performance of the day.”
Archives for April 2014
What Eddie Izzard Puts Himself Through, And Why
Not long ago he ran 43 marathons in 51 days; he’s learning Spanish, Russian and Arabic so he can do stand-up comedy in those languages on international tours, and he’s already performing in German and French. (audio)
Sex Lives Of The Post-Holocaust Philosophers, Dramatized By The Man Who Invented The Birth-Control Pill
In his 11th play, Carl Djerassi – now 90 and irked that most people have no idea that he’s done anything since he developed the oral contraceptive at age 28 – depicts Theodor Adorno and Hannah Arendt investigating what was in the famous briefcase Walter Benjamin carried across the Pyrenees. The answer: porn.
Guitarists’ Brains Are Different From Everyone Else’s (Science Says So)
Researchers report that they’ve found that guitarists can synchronize their neural networks (gosh, like string quartets?) and, when they’re shredding, turn off the parts of the brain associated with big-picture goals (maybe like jazz musicians riffing?). But what about violists and bassoonists, huh?
The Onion To Take On BuzzFeed And Upworthy
“This June the satire site – stuck for now in the hopelessly 20th century business of spoofing reported, written news articles – will launch Clickhole.com.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.30.14
Yep, We Do That
AJBlog: Engaging Matters | Published 2014-04-30
Free pricing and access
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-04-30
St. Gauguin: Trouble in Paradise
AJBlog: Artopia | Published 2014-04-30
“Bronze” — A Reprise, Sort Of
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-05-01
Storify of My Top-to-Bottom Wander Through the Metropolitan Museum: Graham’s Rooftop Funhouse
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-30
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No, Neuroscientists Can’t Read Your Mind… (Yet)
“What they’ve done–so far, anyway–really doesn’t live up to what most people have in mind when they think about mind reading. Then again, the stuff they actually can do is pretty amazing. And they’re getting better at it, little by little.”
FCC Chairman: We’re Not Gutting Net Neutrality Rules
“According to Tom Wheeler, those who have objected to the new net-neutrality rules don’t understand them, and he reiterated his complaint that reports have misconstrued the FCC’s plans.”
Why Bad Grammar Awards Are Really Stupid
“But in failing to mount any noticeable challenge to the language police, academic linguists have left the rest of us easy prey to nonsense and ashamed of our English when we should be celebrating our extraordinary mastery of a language which really is ours.”
Why High Dropout Rates For MOOCs Don’t Matter
“The fact that sequentially presented content pretty much always sees a declining participation rate is a grim truth that we’re in some contexts shielded from.”
Snapshot Of New York State Orchestras Shows State Of The Art
“The golden age, if indeed it existed, must have been fleeting and local, making it more sensible to think about the future than dwell on divergence from a misremembered past. What will the American orchestra be like in 2050?”
Terry Teachout Wins $250,000 Bradley Prize
“Terry Teachout has distinguished himself, not just as a first-rate journalist, but as a supporter of the arts,” the Bradley Foundation’s president, Michael W. Grebe, said in a written announcement of the prize, which also cited Teachout’s work as a biographer (books about Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, H.L. Mencken and George Balanchine), a playwright and an opera librettist.
Herzog And De Meuron Picked To Design New Vancouver Art Museum
Gallery director Kathleen Bartels said the firm was chosen because of its “proven ability to create innovative museum buildings that place prominence on artists and institutional mission.”
Director Of Royal Ballet School Dies
“Gailene Stock has died aged 68 after suffering from cancer. Born in Australia, she ran the world-renowned school, in Covent Garden, for 15 years.”
Will The Price You Pay To Watch A Movie Depend On The Size Of The Screen?
“Those who watched on a “movie screen” would pay the most while those using smartphones would only pay a small fee, Jeffrey Katzenberg said. This pricing model will be common in 10 years’ time, he told a US conference.”
The Fatwa On Salman Rushdie, 25 Years Later
“The controversy made Rushdie, for his day, an archetypal man on the run—as Edward Snowden is for ours—and he has spent his life since then trying not to be defined by it.”
San Diego Opera Makes A Third Of $1M Crowdfunding Goal In Four Days
A company spokesman “said that 544 households had pledged that sum as of mid-afternoon Tuesday, for an average gift of $604” and a total so far of $328,475.
San Diego Opera Association Votes To Block Sale Of Assets
The organization, made up of donors who have given $100 or more, voted to rescind the board of directors’ vote to close the company, a move which isn’t legally binding, and to veto any liquidation of the company’s assets – a decision which may well be binding under both the organization’s own by-laws and California law.
Tony Nominations Show Broadway’s Woman Problem
“The 2014 Pulitzer Prize for theater went this month to Annie Baker for her play The Flick. The runners-up were Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori for Fun Home, and Madeleine George for The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence. All those works have two things in common: They were written by women, and they didn’t play on Broadway.”
Ai Weiwei Erased From Shanghai Art Show In Old Communist Style
“The name and works of Ai Weiwei have been removed from a show in Shanghai about the history of Chinese contemporary art because of pressure from local government cultural officials,” according to the artist himself and a Swiss dealer who helped organize the exhibition.
The Strange Tale Of ‘Hawaii’s Van Gogh’
That was a nickname he was given, but Arman Manookian’s painting owes more to Paul Gauguin and Diego Rivera than to van Gogh, and his life was more like Arshile Gorky’s.
Why It’s Odd That ‘The Little Prince’ Is So Popular
Adam Gopnik: “Of all the books written in French over the past century, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince is surely the best loved in the most tongues. This is very strange, because the book’s meanings – its purpose and intent and moral – still seem far from transparent, even seventy-five-plus years after its first appearance.”
Pennsylvania Ballet’s Longtime Artistic Director Resigns
“Roy Kaiser, Pennsylvania Ballet’s artistic director for two decades, is stepping down. The former dancer, who started his career with the company 35 years ago, will stay on until a successor is found.”
A World Cup For Pole Dancing
“Contestants from 36 countries climbed, gripped and did splits on poles during the three-day competition in Rio de Janeiro.” The competition, open to men and women alike, has a top prize that can run up to around $30,000. (video)
Rational Debate: We Can’t Live (Together) Without It
“How do you change people’s minds when arguing the facts only seems to lead to polarization? Commentator Tania Lombrozo wonders how we can overcome our disagreements about teaching evolution.”