“Quite apart from the gold-plated extravaganzas that glide across the stage of the Canadian Opera Company’s Four Seasons stage, there is a vital collection of smaller companies in the city finding natural life in the supposedly ossified realms of one of Western civilization’s most highly developed art forms.”
Archives for May 2016
Do Canadian Content Rules Make Any Sense In The New Media Landscape?
“Even the most ardent cultural nationalists know there’s a problem. On television, regulations requiring that about half the programming day be devoted to Canadian shows were created for linear schedules; they make little sense in an on-demand environment. Also, unregulated foreign services – that would be Netflix – face no such requirements. Nor does Netflix contribute to the Canadian programming funds underwritten by the cable and satellite companies.”
New Young Generation Takes The Stage At Stratford And Shakespeare Is Reinvented Yet Again
In fact, the most immediately notable aspect of the younger Stratford is that it is becoming a more thoroughly diverse Stratford – just as young Canada is a more diverse country.
Americans For The Arts’ Statement On Equity – And What It Means?
The attempt to address equity as a large, systemic ecosystem in and of itself, and not zeroing in on a sub-strata of that system (e.g., structural racism, or funding inequities) makes the AFTA statement both a useful tool and starting point for discussion and consideration by individuals and organizations (a good thing), and a simultaneous failure to advance actually doing something as just that much more “talk”, with little emphasis on action – especially action now, not later.
You’ll Probably Marry The Wrong Person, So The Best Approach Is Pessimism
Alain de Botton: “This philosophy of pessimism offers a solution to a lot of distress and agitation around marriage. It might sound odd, but pessimism relieves the excessive imaginative pressure that our romantic culture places upon marriage. The failure of one particular partner to save us from our grief and melancholy is not an argument against that person and no sign that a union deserves to fail or be upgraded.”
Years Later We’re Still Debating What Shostakovich Meant
“What Shostakovich’s music had to do with history has been one of the most fraught questions in the history of music. He lived through the most terrifying decades of the Soviet Union to become its most celebrated composer.”
David Mitchell Just Finished A Novel That Will Be Locked Away For 98 Years
Mitchell is the second contributor to the Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s Future Library project … Starting with Margaret Atwood, who last year handed over the manuscript of a text called Scribbler Moon, each year for the next 100 years an author will deliver a piece of writing which will only be read in 2114.”
Why Would Corporations Help Rome Restore Its Monuments? City Government Is Incompetent At Best
One reason why the city is so hard-up (beyond the still-towering effects of the 2008 financial crisis) is that its administration is almost as dilapidated as the monuments of which it is custodian. Steered by a mix of sclerotic incompetence and outright corruption, the city’s mismanagement has long earned it the sobriquet “Mafia Capital.”
How Diane Arbus Pulled Herself Out Of Absolute Misery To Become The Photographer We Know
“Diane Arbus was teetering on the edge of a breakdown. In 1956, she tearfully dissolved the decade-long fashion-photography enterprise that she had been conducting successfully but stressfully with her husband, Allan. Her misery was longstanding. Fashion photography is built on artifice. Diane needed, temperamentally and philosophically, to poke through pretensions and masks to expose the hidden truth.”
Are We Close To Having A Universal Translator? (And If So You’ll No Longer Need To Learn A Second Language)
“For years it’s been a major boon in business to know a second language—and for the sake of relationships, it may still be. But it looks like in a few years you’ll be able to attend a German cocktail hour and know what’s being said, or make that trip to France and understand directions.”
Rediscovering A 19th-Century Black Female Novelist
“While looking through old British newspapers, I was astonished to read an 1893 announcement in The Daily Telegraph proclaiming Sarah E. Farro to be ‘the first negro novelist’ with the publication of her novel True Love. I wondered: who was this woman? And why didn’t we know about this reportedly groundbreaking novel?”
Did Archaeologists Really Find Aristotle’s Tomb Or Is It Just A Tourism Ploy?
“Probably no one will ever be sure what the purpose of Sismanidis’s building was, but the appellation ‘Aristotle’s Tomb’ will no doubt stick, and that will decide the issue. This is how modern archaeology most resembles medieval relic-hunting. Give a site a name and you give it instantaneous mythology.”
Archaeologists Say They Have Found Aristotle’s Tomb
“Aristotle was born in Stagira in 384 BC and died in Chalcis, Evia, at 322 BC. The great philosopher was originally believed to have been buried at Chalcis, however, archaeologists are now certain that the tomb they have found belongs to Aristotle.”
What Film Was Stanley Kubrick Planning When He Died? ‘Pinocchio’
“Emilio D’Alessandro, Kubrick’s trusted personal assistant and friend for more than 30 years, told the Guardian that the director wanted to tell the story of Pinocchio and to shoot a movie about Monte Cassino, one of the most bitter and bloody battles of the second world war.”
Wisconsin Ballet and Chamber Orchestra Consider Merger
“Last week, Madison Ballet and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra announced a $30,000 grant from the Madison Community Foundation to explore whether sharing administrative resources could help both grow. A feasibility study would examine how, exactly, a partnership would work, and what effect it might have on donations.”
What Kinds Of Books Are Selling These Days? Paperbacks, Audiobooks, Coloring Books – But Not E-Books
“After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, e-book sales have started to slip, while paper has improbably bounced back. Digital book sales fell nearly 10 percent in 2015 from the previous year. Paperback sales grew by a healthy 16 percent.” What’s more, “those who came of age with digital technology seem, surprisingly, to prefer paper to pixels.”
Look Out – Here Come The Art Robots!
“If you want your robots to get good, they’ve gotta learn—and make—art. And they’ve gotta learn—and make—funny, weird, sometimes stupid stuff.”
Actress Challenges L.A.’s 99-Seat Theater Plan With Suit Claiming Unpaid Wages
“Adding fuel to the long-simmering fire over whether actors working under the 99-Seat Theater Plan are ‘volunteers,’ ‘independent contractors’ or ’employees,’ actress Ann Colby Stocking has filed a complaint … against Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and its producer, Ron Sossi. Her demand is for over $6,000.”
Japan’s Vagina Kayak Artist Does An Autobiography In Manga Cartoons
“In simple, childlike cartoons, she illustrates the origins of her art practice – her realization, at a young age, that ‘Japan’s view of pussy is really weird.'”
To Boycott Or Not To Boycott? Considering How Artists Should Respond To North Carolina’s House Bill 2
“An established artist in high demand will likely make a much bigger impact by canceling than a lesser-known artist would, so the payoff for the risk is much greater in terms of awareness. And an established artist has more leverage – both with the public and with administrators, agents, and venues – because he can draw on decades of goodwill.”
We Have An Eight-Figure Deficit – No, Wait, We Take That Back, We Have A Seven-Figure Surplus, Says Ballet Company
“There was a literal embarrassment of riches for the Australian Ballet this morning, as the company had to issue a retraction for a release sent to the media yesterday claiming the company made a $14 million loss in 2015.”
Martha Argerich’s Swiss Festival Loses Sponsor, Will Probably Close
For 15 years, the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano has had a devoted following of audience members, famous musicians who want to collaborate with Argerich, and the label warner Classics, which issues a 3 CD-set of highlights from each year’s festival. But the event’s main sponsor has been the now-scandal-plagued Banca della Svizzera Italiana, which has discontinued funding.
After 61 Years, Violinist Retires From San Diego Symphony
“In 1955, a teenage violinist from Hoover High School played her first concert with the San Diego Symphony. On Sunday, after 61 years with the orchestra, she played her last.”
Rome Pleads For Cash From Corporations And Philanthropists For Historic Preservation
“Rome on Tuesday issued a 500-million-euro SOS to companies, wealthy philanthropists and its own citizens to help restore many of the Italian capital’s iconic historic sites and avoid the risk of some falling into ruin. … Saddled with debts of some 12 billion euros ($13 billion), Rome cannot afford to do it on its own.”
Uffizi Gallery And Indiana Univ. To Digitize Collection Of Ancient Statues
“Students in Indiana University’s new Ph.D program in virtual heritage, along with Italian colleagues here in Florence, will photograph the museum’s collection of ancient Greek and Roman statuary, a total of about 1,250 pieces, between the Uffizi itself and the Pitti Palace and Boboli gardens on the other side of the Arno River.”