The New York City Ballet Looks to Its Future
21st-century works in The New York City Ballet’s Winter season (January 23-March 4) … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-01-31
So much in love
One of the most moving musical performances for me, one I deeply love, one that even makes me cry — it’s Neil Young singing his song “Harvest Moon”, in Jonathan Demme’s Heart of Gold, … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2018-01-31
Archives for January 2018
The Crucial Quality Missing From Google’s Translator
The practical utility of Google Translate and similar technologies is undeniable, and probably it’s a good thing overall, but there is still something deeply lacking in the approach, which is conveyed by a single word: understanding. Machine translation has never focused on understanding language. Instead, the field has always tried to “decode”—to get away without worrying about what understanding and meaning are.
Giant Building-Size Murals And Hipster Culture
Like other novelties of the post-hipster age, the source of the value is not just the finished work, but also the tedious and rarefied conditions of its production. The spectacle of painters hanging from a wall is as much Colossal’s product as the murals themselves. Colossal offers time-lapse footage and photos for clients to share on social channels.
The “Best Person” Fallacy
The multidimensional or layered character of complex problems undermines the principle of meritocracy: the idea that the ‘best person’ should be hired. There is no best person. When putting together an oncological research team, a biotech company such as Gilead or Genentech would not construct a multiple-choice test and hire the top scorers, or hire people whose resumes score highest according to some performance criteria. Instead, they would seek diversity. They would build a team of people who bring diverse knowledge bases, tools and analytic skills.”
Does The Barnes Have The Highest Admit Price In America?
“At $30, it costs more to enter the Barnes than any other art museum in the country, according to a list compiled by Art News since the decision by the Metropolitan Museum in New York to end pay-what-you-wish ticket prices for out-of-state visitors. The Met now charges $25. But wait. That $30 Barnes ticket is not the “official” admission price — even though you can’t get in without paying it.”
We’re Reading Less, Or Are We? (Why Do We Think This?)
“I am not aware of a time after the rise of mass literacy when reading did not compete with other forms of leisure: dance halls, theater, and religious revivals, plus cinema, art galleries, and, more recently, video games. It may feel as though we read less now than we did before the advent of smartphones and social media, but statistics do not bear that out. In January of last year, Gallup found that Americans were consuming books at roughly the same rates as in 2002.”
America’s Dance Companies Are Busting Out Of Their Theaters
Site-specific work isn’t new, particularly among contemporary dance circles. The scale, however, of these recent efforts from companies who customarily present work in big, proscenium settings is notable. Choreographers are looking to every corner of their home venues, getting off the stage and changing the rules about how theatrical spaces are used.
Five Trends That Are Changing The Gallery World
If most longtime gallerists continue clinging to familiar patrons and familiar methods, then the art business, as physicist Max Planck once said of science, will only “advance one funeral at a time.” But either way the next generation appears ready to step up and reach out.
The Russian Politician Using His Country’s Politics As Satire
Plenty of politicos write novels; but not many write eviscerating self-satires. It was as though Karl Rove had taken the knife to his and George W. Bush’s America in, say, 2005. Surkov, however, wasn’t, and isn’t, simply a Rove. The documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis calls him “a hero of our time” (in praise and opprobrium) for turning Russia’s political reality into “a bewildering, constantly changing piece of theater.”
Is There Really Such A Thing As ‘The Self’? Yes, And Science Really Can Study It
The idea that there is no “self” that can be fully apprehended, let alone studied, goes all the way back to David Hume – and up to Daniel Dennett today. In philosophy, it’s called antirealism – and Şerife Tekin is here to demolish it.
Shakeup: Scottish Government Defunds 20 Arts Orgs (Including Edinburgh Fringe) And Funds 19 More
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the city’s King’s and Festival theatres and the body that promotes its Unesco “City of Literature” status have had their funding stripped by Creative Scotland. Creative Scotland has dropped 20 organisations from its three-year funding programme, but added 19 following a shake-up of how its £99 million budget is spent.
Hal Prince Is Turning 90, And He’s Serving Up Broadway Dish For His Birthday
Michael Paulson picks out some choice tidbits from a series of conversations Prince recorded with producer Jeffrey Seller (Hamilton, Rent). For instance, the M.C. in Cabaret was Prince’s idea.
How Live Music Shaped Silent Movies
The soundtrack for any given showing depended, in large part, on the setting. At deluxe movie palaces, films were often accompanied by entire symphony orchestras. “A medium-sized neighborhood theater might carry between five and ten musicians,” writes Scott Eyman in The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930. “Even the meanest fleapit in the sticks had a piano player.”
A Science Fiction Genre That’s Not Dystopian (Or Even Depressing!)
“Imagine a scene, set in the future, where a child in Burning Man-style punk clothing is standing in front of a yurt powered by solar panels. … Welcome to solarpunk, a new genre within science fiction that is a reaction against the perceived pessimism of present-day sci-fi and hopes to bring optimistic stories about the future with the aim of encouraging people to change the present.”
Why Dealers Are Better Judges Of Authenticity Than Academics
“Many of the paintings I decline are accompanied by ‘certificates of expertise’, signed by certain academics who, unlike myself as a seller, are not financially liable. When I have crossed swords with such figures over the years, they have frequently been amazed that I would quibble with their learned opinions. Perhaps they would like to explain to buyers who have bought paintings with their certificates why these have been rejected for resale and not accepted for any major museum show?”
Black British Actors Are Having Such Success In America Because They Can’t Get Work In Britain
Daniel Kaluuya, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, David Oyelowo, Naomie Harris, Thandie Newton, and on and on. Why do they have to leave home, where film and television thrive, just to get cast in decent roles? All those period drama, for one thing.
Meet The First, And Greatest, All-Women Afro Drum Band In Brazil
Traditionally, the Afro-Brazilian drum bands of Bahia state were strictly male affairs. Then, in 1993, Neguinho do Samba – considered the father of the current drumming style in Bahia and former head of the standard-bearer of the form, the group Olodum – founded Banda Didá specifically for females. Reporter Shannon Sims goes to Salvador do Bahia to see and hear them. (includes video)
Is It Time To Just Stop Giving The Razzie Awards?
“The annual ceremony, deliberately scheduled near the Oscars, is designed to celebrate the very worst that Hollywood has to offer but for many years now, it’s felt more vendetta-led, focusing on easy targets regardless of their suitability.”
Musical Chairs: Keeping Track Of All The Music Director Changes At American Orchestras
“Chicago is secure [with Riccardo Muti] for the time being, but major orchestras in San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas and Detroit are all looking for new maestros.” So are the opera companies in San Francisco and D.C. And Seattle, St. Louis, D.C. (again) and New York (opera and orchestra both) have recently acquired new music directors. Michael Cooper presents “your cheat sheet on the comings and goings on some of the nation’s top podiums.”
Most Of Syria’s Best Artists Have Fled The Country – Where Have They Gone?
“Last year, wondering what it means to be a Syrian artist when Syria in many ways no longer exists, I began to map the journeys of a hundred [visual, performing, and literary] artists from the country.” Eliza Griswold shows us some of the maps and profiles seven of the artists.
Turns Out Philly’s ‘LOVE’ Sculpture Has Had The Wrong Color All These Years
“The work by Robert Indiana was first installed [near Philadelphia’s City Hall] on loan for the U.S. bicentennial celebrations in 1976 and was repainted twice using – in addition to its dominant red and green – a blue paint that turned out to be the wrong color.” When it returns from its yearlong renovation in two weeks, the right color will be there. (And that color is?)
London’s Serpentine Gallery To Build Its First Summer Pavilion In Beijing
“Modelled on the annual London showcase, the Serpentine Pavilion Beijing will be designed by Sichuan-based JIAKUN Architects. It will launch in May … and will be on display for six months.”
This Dancer Has Been A Star In His Company For 20 Years – And He Got His Job By Sneaking Into An Audition
The company is Evidence, choreographer Ronald K. Brown’s troupe, and the dancer is Bessie winner Arcell Cabuag, now the company’s associate artistic director. In honor of Cabuag’s 20th anniversary with Evidence, Brown is creating a new duet for the two of them – and Gia Kourlas went to their studio to talk with the two of them about it.
UK’s Costa Book Of The Year Prize Goes To Helen Dunmore, Who Died Last June
“Inside the Wave considers [Dunmore’s] terminal cancer diagnosis and impending death. … [She] is only the second posthumous winner of the book of the year category in the prize’s history, after her fellow poet Ted Hughes won for Birthday Letters in 1998.”
A New ‘Porgy And Bess’ With A White Cast Raises Eyebrows, Even In Europe
“The decision [by the Hungarian State Opera] to use white singers is contrary to the clear wishes of George and Ira Gershwin, whose estates stipulate that the opera be performed only by black casts,” and all publicity for the production now reflects that. At least they’re not using blackface (as the company did during the Communist period): the production concept sets the opera in a refugee camp, with the characters as migrants.