“If it can record, the new guidelines say, shut it off and put it away.”
Archives for October 2014
Fandango, The Movie Ticket Seller, Joins The Content Producer Race
“The deal is part of Fandango’s ongoing effort to expand its offerings as a one-stop-shop for moviegoers. The site now offers reviews, commentary, celebrity interviews, trailers, guidance for families, and of course, their well-known ticket purchasing service.”
Theaters Are (Finally?) Recovering From The Recession, Says Report
“Earned income was up an impressive 40.8 percent (adjusted for inflation), although total attendance was up only 0.4 percent.”
New York’s Latest Graffiti Crackdown May Be Backfiring
“Busting graffiti artists distracts the local cops from fighting serious crime, like robberies or homicides, which have increased in Long Island City’s 114th Precinct, where 5Pointz is located, over the past year.”
U.S. Fails In Roman Polanski Extradition Attempt
“He has been wanted by US police since 1977 after fleeing the country before he could be sentenced for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.”
Are Some People Hard-Wired For Bravery And Others For Cowardice?
“Which trait increases my chances of survival or my chances to reproduce? What would be most adaptive is switching from one response to the other, depending the situation, but our underlying biology cannot switch back and forth that quickly”
A ‘Nasty, Glorious, Freewheeling’ Alternative Art History For The U.S.
“It’s possible to create a neat and tidy map tracing the progress of American art over the last 50 years. Yes, you can draw some sort of shape connecting Pop Art to Minimalism to Conceptual Art, highlighting the famed (often white and male) artists associated with each. … But it’s a stagnant, small portrait.”
Italy Hid This Leonardo Self-Portrait From The Nazis So It Wouldn’t Give Hitler Magical Powers
“It is said that just before taking an exam, students would do their last-minute revision in the Royal Library above the vault. Legend has it that studying near Leonardo’s genius can somehow rub off.”
Cultural Workers In Turkey Prepare For Hunger Strike
“In protest of their unemployment and its endangerment of the country’s vulnerable cultural resources [and in] reaction to the government’s broken promise to hire 50 workers among the thousands of unemployed cultural heritage professionals, the Association of Culture and Art Workers is taking desperate measures.”
Four More Women Allege That Jian Ghomeshi Smacked Them Around
One of them has even agreed to be identified publicly. All of them have given plenty of unsavory detail.
American Lit’s Superagent Lets Loose
At the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, Andrew Wylie “call[ed] Amazon ‘the equivalent of ISIS,’ 50 Shades of Grey ‘one of the most embarrassing moments in Western culture,’ and self-publishing ‘the aesthetic equivalent of telling everyone who sings in the shower they deserve to be in La Scala’.”
When Bill T. Jones Met John Cage
“[Cage] literally represented for me everything cool and removed and sophisticated at a time when I was trying to wend my way into the art world.” The choreographer talks about the genesis of his dance-theater work Story/Time.
Director Of Atlanta’s High Museum Of Art To Retire
During his 15-year tenure, Michael E. Shapiro led a $160 million, three-building expansion, raised $20 million for acquisitions, established an art conservation center, launched partnerships with major European museums, and founded an award for African-American art and artists.
Proposed FCC Rule Change Could Help Internet Companies Overthrow Cable And Satellite TV
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission rule would “ensure that over-the-top Internet streaming services are given the same treatment as cable companies and satellite television companies. … Broadcasters would be barred from stopping online video providers from carrying their content and that online video providers would be empowered to negotiate fair licensing deals with content providers.”
L.M. ‘Kit’ Carson, 73, Godfather of Texas Indie Filmmakers
He produced, directed, and acted; he co-authored, among other projects, Paris, Texas; and “played a key role in launching the careers of fellow Texans Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson.”
What American Orchestras Are Playing This Season: Crunching The Numbers
“[We] gathered data on the 2014-15 seasons that have been programmed by 21 major American orchestras … [and] created a database.” Here are some early stats on how much music by female composers and American composers are being performed and which composers (living and dead) the orchestras are playing most.
“Dance Is An Intellectual Art Form”: Wayne McGregor On Choreography, Creativity, And Cognition
“We have this idea, partly because of the past, of choreographers just coming and dancers just doing as if they’re not thinking. We know that dance is as much a cognitive act as it is a physical act. That’s why I’ve been very interested in physical thinking. If it’s a cognitive act, how is it that you can inspire people to be more creative cognitively?”
Mindfulness, Shmindfulness – Zoning Out Is Good For You (Within Reason)
“One of the biggest misconceptions people have about mindfulness is that you can train yourself to stay in this mindful state all of the time. … Even if you spent 20 years in a Tibetan monastery, you would not be able to stay in a mindful state. We are not, evolutionarily, designed to stay in this blissful, present-moment awareness state.”
The Johnny Rotten Of Soviet Dissidents
That’s how Edward Limonov described himself. He was “at once a rebel and a totalitarian, a salacious writer of semifictionalized memoirs who, after years in the West” – as a drugged-out thug in New York and a celebrated author in France – “stood with the Serbs in the Bosnian war and then returned to Russia to become an ultranationalist political agitator.”
Franco Zeffirelli Threatens To Sue La Scala For Selling His Super-Deluxe Production Of “Aida”
The 91-year-old director is furious that the Milan opera house packed off his gold-covered extravaganza, which opened La Scala’s 2006-07 season, to the opera in Astana, Kazakhstan. (Never mind that Zeffirelli is getting a share of the proceeds, or that La Scala can borrow it back for free whenever it wants.)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.29.14
Engagement Research: Talk to Them
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2014-10-28
Finding My Chowder — Part 2
AJBlog: Out There Published 2014-10-29
Farewell to Poet Galway Kinnell
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-10-29
Bad News: NY Times as Insert for Christie’s Advertising Section (plus: me at NYU)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2014-10-29
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Museums Clash At Harvard
“‘This was a crime against humanity,’ says Princeton University architectural historian Beatriz Colomina—not known for understatement—about Piano’s treatment of Le Corbusier’s structure. ‘It’s such a mythical building and it is being destroyed by somebody who is a good architect.'”
Opera Fans Won: Joyce DiDonato Will Sing The National Anthem Before World Series Game 7
And at Game 6, the Kansas City Symphony performed. “‘I think it’s a magnificent statement about what Kansas City is and the importance of both major league sports and major league performing arts,’ Frank Byrne, Symphony executive director, said on Monday.”
Enhanced Ebooks Won’t Go Away Just Because Atavist Books Closed Up
“What does this mean for authors? Should we give up on interactive fiction? No, I don’t think so, but I do think we need to be aware from the outset it that it may have to be limber enough to straddle several mediums and formats.”
‘House of Cards’ Actor Elizabeth Norment Dies At 61
“Her character worked for Underwood from the time he was a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina through his recent career upturns.”