“Not long ago, employing advanced computer technology to deform a building into shards or blobs was enough to capture our imaginations. Today, it requires something more, be it formal sophistication, environmental innovation, intricate detailing, sophisticated materials, diverse programs, flexible layouts, or a connection to the surrounding landscape.”
Archives for December 2015
Slowdown In The Art Markets?
“It is worth noting that the art market is really a set of loosely related mini-markets, all of which behave very differently. But for the first time in years we are seeing a similar trend across each of these distinct markets: a slowdown.”
The Smithsonian’s Cosby Show Problems Magnified
“As the Smithsonian contemplates the dilemma yet again, it can’t be stressed strongly enough: This was a bad show from the start. It was bad on ethical grounds (because it could potentially elevate the value of an art collection owned by a close friend of the museum’s director), and it was bad on curatorial grounds.”
Why Science Fiction Isn’t Really About Science At All
“Science is an epistemology. It is a way of knowing the world and certain things in the world. Science fiction is genre fiction, and genre, too, is an epistemology. The things that science fiction and genre know in the world are different, as are the modes, methods, and determinations of each.”
More People Are Streaming. But Piracy Is Way Up Too
“Piracy is still just a great alternative, unfortunately, for those who want free content. The best way to fight piracy is to just make your own services better, cheaper, easier to use.”
Criticize Fox News All You want, But Its Audience Increased Again In 2015
“For the 14th consecutive year, Fox News led in total viewers and in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic crucial to advertisers. The network’s average of 1.8 million viewers in prime time placed it second among all cable channels, the highest finish for a cable news channel ever. (ESPN came in first.)”
Royal Shakespeare Co. Set For First-Ever Tour To China
“Shakespeare’s works were banned in China from 1964 to 1977 and the playwright was denounced as ‘revisionist, feudalist and capitalist’ and now productions of his plays were allowed. But next year, to mark 400 years since the Bard’s death, the RSC will take productions of Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II and Henry V to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in February and March.”
This Was The Year The FCC Showed Why It’s Still Relevant
“On Feb. 26, the commission adopted the strongest net neutrality protections in American history: the Open Internet Order of 2015. This historic order established basic “rules of the road” for online traffic to prevent broadband providers from splitting the Internet into two tiers.”
Movies The Oscar Nominations Will Overlook, But Shouldn’t
“It happens every year. Some actor stands next to another performer or the president of the Academy … and they take turns telling you what’s up for an Oscar. Which means they’re also telling you what’s not. And ‘what’s not’ tends to be as important as what is. And every year, I’m left wondering whether months of punditry and daily forecasts of awards-season weather pollutes what was scarcely a pure process to begin with.”
Rudyard Kipling, Misfit Poet
“Kipling is not at all like his image, which is a good thing, since he is widely regarded as jingoistic, narrow and racist. It is a pity if, for this reason, some never read him. Kipling was always an outsider, and never a member of the Establishment. He received the Nobel Prize, but refused any honour, including the Order of Merit, that would identify him with a single country.”
Oldest Theatre In English-Speaking World Set To Celebrate 250 Years
Says Bristol Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris, “The average lifespan of a theatre across the 18th and 19th centuries was 17 years. It is a complete fluke that it has survived.”
The Future No Longer Works The Way We Thought It Did
“The 130-year timeline of telephone innovation describes a relatively steady rise as the technology under the surface was continuously improved … But the timeline of innovation for the defining technology of our new age is barely a line at all: The Internet happens, and all hell breaks loose. … You couldn’t have foreseen Twitter, and if you had, you probably would have dismissed it as a dumb idea. I would have.”
A Wiki-Discography Becomes Indispensable To Collectors And The Entire Music Industry
“Borrowing from Wikipedia’s model of user-generated content, Discogs has built one of the most exhaustive collections of discographical information in the world, with historical data cataloged by thousands of volunteer editors in extreme detail. … And with an online marketplace through which nearly $100 million in records will be sold this year, Discogs has carved out a valuable niche in a market dominated by companies like Amazon and eBay.”
Canada’s Longest-Running Music Critic Retires At Age 84
Claude Gingras spent six decades as the classical critic for Montreal daily La Presse. Many observers objected to his often-harsh language – one Toronto colleague called him “Canada’s potshot king” and Marc-André Hamelin once refused to play if he was in the hall – but he was an early champion of conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and composer Claude Vivier.
Sophisticated Art-Theft Ring At Rome Airport Busted, Say Police
“Police said the gang … made up of cleaning staff and ground crew at Rome’s Fiumicino airport … devised a plan to steal the works of art by pretending to bring them to oversized baggage collection points.”
Spotify Hit With $150 Million Class Action Over Unpaid Royalties
“Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman David Lowery … has filed a class action lawsuit seeking at least $150 million in damages against Spotify, alleging it knowingly, willingly, and unlawfully reproduces and distributes copyrighted compositions without obtaining mechanical licenses.”
The Currents Propelling The Chaos At The Bolshoi Ballet
“How these dancers are cast is not always based on merit. It’s about who you are loyal to and who you butter up, and who patronises you. That’s the legacy of a communist past. … I asked [Bolshoi Theater chief Vladimir Urin] once if he believed in democracy and he just laughed at me, which is a sort of communist disposition. People of his generation are quite, shall we say ambivalent about democratic principles.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.30.15
Year-End Poll Results
Again this year, I swore off voting in what has become an epidemic of jazz popularity contests, also known as critics polls, with one exception. I don’t seem to be able to say no to … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-12-30
Cruising the Moskwa
Occasional Rifftides Moscow correspondent Svetlana Ilicheva (pictured) sent a report that may bring summer memories to those of us in the grip of the northern hemisphere winter. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-12-30
Screw Conventions
Liturgy’s new album, The Ark Work, wins the number one ‘avant’ album of 2015 over at Rolling Stone. They even mention John Luther Adams in the description. It is a remarkably original album, strongly compositional, and apparently … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2015-12-30
Snapshot: the original 1952 London production of South Pacific
A complete archival multi-camera sound film of the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, starring Mary Martin. The production, directed by Joshua Logan, was a reproduction of the original Broadway staging. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-12-30
[ssba_hide]
An Ambitious Curator’s Plans To Make Toronto A Global Showcase For Contemporary Art
“We’re starting from zero. There is room now for a real contemporary art museum, a 21st-century museum. And this is going to be it.”
A New Mission For Canadian Libraries: Lending Musical Instruments
“The Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library in Kingston has about 800 instruments that it lent out more than 5,000 times last year.”
Higher Education In America Has Huge Problems. How Can They Be Fixed?
“For too long at too many American colleges and universities, it has been assumed that students alone control their educational destiny. So, static lectures, irregular student assignments and feedback, and disjointed course offerings remain in place even though better alternatives exist.”
Abandoned Old Spanish Church Transformed Into Glorious Chagall-Meets-Diego-Rivera Skate Park
The Church of Santa Barbara in the town of Llanera “fell into disrepair after the Spanish civil war. Now, after decades of neglect, the Romanesque revival structure has been transformed into a street art skatepark. Called the Kaos Temple, its walls and vaulted ceilings are painted in kaleidoscoping rainbow patterns by Madrid street artist Okuda San Miguel.”
With Scathing Letter, Myung Whun Chung Resigns As Seoul Philharmonic Music Director
“It is sad that [the musicians’] achievements have been overshadowed by one person‘s fabricated statements. Lies and corruption may cause scandals, but human dignity and truth will prevail in the end. … Perhaps it is a reflection of Korean society that this has been allowed to happen.”
What The Mainstream Can Learn From 2015’s Queer Indie Cinema
“The problem is that, even though mainstream viewers have learned to appreciate queer stories, creators still think that a story or its characters’ queerness is enough to create a successful work of art, commercially or otherwise. Or worse, that depicting a character queer in a nuanced way will scare away audiences. But that’s not the case, and it’s becoming obvious.”
Scrooge Odyssey: Checking Out ‘A Christmas Carol’ Stagings Across The Nation
“Narrators kept assuring me that Marley is ‘dead as a doornail,’ and Scrooge’s line about wanting to meet all three ghosts ‘at once and get it over with’ failed to get a laugh every time. The Ghost of Christmas Past could be a Tim Burton-esque figure in a billowy white dress and top hat on a swing, or a flying, shirtless Roman soldier in a metallic silver kilt, or a Run-DMC-style ’80s rapper in a red Adidas track jacket and gold chain.”