AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
- New York Times Dance Critic On Writing About People’s Bodies
Gia Kourlas: “Generally, it doesn’t feel fraught, but at the same time I am aware of the sensitivity it takes to write about the body and how easily something could be misconstrued. I don’t want to hurt someone — and that’s not to say that I haven’t — but I try my best not to be cruel. And while I might love the way a dancer’s leg is shaped or the length of an arm, I don’t like to fetishize the body or dancers. To write about them as creatures or objects is really distasteful to me.” – The New York Times
- Alastair Macaulay Remembers Jacques d’Amboise
His charm was colossal and effortless, his love for many people effusive and happy. I keep coming across poems and messages he sent me. They were signed “Your Jacques.” How lucky was I? Everyone who knew him has similar tales to tell. How lucky were we. – Alastair Macaulay
- How Four Regional Ballet Companies Are Moving Back Into In-Person Performance
“Pointe spoke to four U.S. ballet companies — Milwaukee Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Avant Chamber Ballet [of Dallas] and Columbia City Ballet [in South Carolina] — about how they have cautiously made their way back to live audiences. For each, the road back to the stage meant a combination of lessons learned throughout the pandemic, adhering to government and health and safety policies, and dogged determination.” – Pointe Magazine
- ABT To Mark End Of Lockdown With Eight-City, 3,100-Mile Tour
“Performances during the [July] tour will take place outdoors on a custom-built stage designed to unfold from an 18-wheeler truck. At each stop, 20 members of the company will perform a 50-minute show comprising four pieces.” – The New York Times
- Blaming Liam Scarlett’s Death On Cancel Culture Is Just Another Way To Shut Victims Up
Reactions such as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s social media post that claimed “Cancel culture is killing” are deeply harmful – they place “a burden of guilt on victims who may have come forward during the investigations, at a time when the ballet world is finally reckoning with the way it has normalized abuse over time.” – Dance Magazine
IDEAS
- Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
“With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet to return, producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols. But the biggest reason is more gut-based.” – The New York Times
- Britain’s NHS Tries Prescribing Song Playlists To Alzheimer’s Patients
“A test among people with dementia found an algorithm that ‘prescribes’ songs based on listeners’ personal backgrounds and tastes resulted in reductions in heart rate of up to 22%, lowering agitation and distress in some cases. … The technology operates as a musical ‘drip’, playing songs to patients and monitoring their heart rates as they listen.” – The Guardian
- Austin’s Arts Funding Down By A Staggering 93%
“Money for Austin’s municipal arts funding comes from the Hotel Occupancy Tax of which the arts receive 15% of the city’s allocation. Funding levels are set according to tax revenues from the previous fiscal year.” The pandemic wiped out revenue from that tax, so arts funding for the coming fiscal year is projected to be only $1 million, down from $13 million in FY2019. – Sightlines (Austin)
- ‘Sesame Street’ Was A Radical Experiment
“It’s easy to forget now, given the show’s 52-year ubiquity, that the original program was a shot in the dark – the first show aimed explicitly at childhood education, a combustible attempt to meld learning fundamentals with jingly bits and skits kids enjoyed to watch. … [It] became the longest-running, and arguably most recognizable children’s program in the country, with international co-productions assisted by the Sesame Workshop in 170 more.” – The Guardian
- Technology In The Arts After COVID
Rachel Moore: “Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning is the catalyst for widespread embrace of a technological revolution remains unclear: Was digital production simply a bridge to mitigate a difficult year? Anchoring the digital strategy of many organizations lies an unexamined assumption that digital work exists only until they “return to normal” and are back to the business of traditional live performance.” – C-Suite Quarterly
ISSUES
- Austin’s Arts Funding Down By A Staggering 93%
“Money for Austin’s municipal arts funding comes from the Hotel Occupancy Tax of which the arts receive 15% of the city’s allocation. Funding levels are set according to tax revenues from the previous fiscal year.” The pandemic wiped out revenue from that tax, so arts funding for the coming fiscal year is projected to be only $1 million, down from $13 million in FY2019. – Sightlines (Austin)
- How Data Science Is Analyzing The Arts
“Computer scientists are writing algorithms to identify the emotional arcs of novels. Sociologists are building statistical models to analyze why certain works of visual art resonate more than others. Electrical engineers have scraped tens of thousands of book reviews from the online website Goodreads.com to parse why some types of stories drive readers to talk to each other, and what they talk about. Evolutionary biologists and cognitive scientists have adapted models from information retrieval to study tens of thousands of popular Western songs in order to understand cultural change and the evolution of cultural taste.” – Cultural Analytics
- UK Threatens To Cut Funds For University-Level Arts Education By 50%
“Under proposals put forward earlier this year by Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, funding from the Office for Students — the independent regulator of higher education — would be cut by half for students of art and design, music, dance, drama and performing arts, media studies and archaeology during the 2021-22 academic year.” – The Art Newspaper
- How France Is Managing Reopening Of Arts Venues
Roselyne Bachelot, the culture minister, has outlined the planned stages of reopening and rules that will be in place beginning May 19: for instance, no food or drink sold inside venues (so there’s no excuse to take off one’s mask). Seating limits will be 35% of capacity until June 9, then 65% until June 30 and 100% thereafter. – Variety
- Saudi Arabia’s $15 Billion Scheme To Create A Global Cultural Capital Almost From Scratch
The site for the project is AlUla, a historical site with ancient rock-hewn buildings similar to those in Petra, Jordan. The plan is for five different cultural districts connected by a tram running along 12-mile greenway; attractions are to include museums and galleries, an archaeology and conservation center, an outdoor amphitheater, a nature park, and, of course, luxury hotels. The goal is to attract two million visitors annually. – Artnet
MEDIA
- ‘Sesame Street’ Was A Radical Experiment
“It’s easy to forget now, given the show’s 52-year ubiquity, that the original program was a shot in the dark – the first show aimed explicitly at childhood education, a combustible attempt to meld learning fundamentals with jingly bits and skits kids enjoyed to watch. … [It] became the longest-running, and arguably most recognizable children’s program in the country, with international co-productions assisted by the Sesame Workshop in 170 more.” – The Guardian
- Technology In The Arts After COVID
Rachel Moore: “Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning is the catalyst for widespread embrace of a technological revolution remains unclear: Was digital production simply a bridge to mitigate a difficult year? Anchoring the digital strategy of many organizations lies an unexamined assumption that digital work exists only until they “return to normal” and are back to the business of traditional live performance.” – C-Suite Quarterly
- New AI System Makes Dubbing Of Films In Foreign Languages Less Awful
“The process begins with recording an actor speaking the dialog in the required language, as one would in a dubbing process, explains co-founder and filmmaker Scott Mann. The new audio and picture would then be delivered to [the company, called] Flawless, which would effectively use its AI-driven system to create a lip-synced picture.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- UK’s Cinema Chains Are Reopening, Despite Shortage Of New Films To Show
“The UK’s biggest cinema chain, [Odeon,] which is sweetening its £9.99 monthly all-you-watch subscription scheme to get punters back indoors as summer nears, will welcome back film fans to most of the 112 sites it operates across the UK [on 17 May]. … Cineworld and Vue, the second and third biggest UK operators, are also set to reopen their cinemas, as are the Curzon and Everyman chains.” – The Guardian
- Verizon Sells The Internet Junkyard (AOL, Yahoo…)
The telecom giant is selling Yahoo, AOL and the remainder of its Verizon Media brands to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal announced Monday. – The Hollywood Reporter
MUSIC
- Britain’s NHS Tries Prescribing Song Playlists To Alzheimer’s Patients
“A test among people with dementia found an algorithm that ‘prescribes’ songs based on listeners’ personal backgrounds and tastes resulted in reductions in heart rate of up to 22%, lowering agitation and distress in some cases. … The technology operates as a musical ‘drip’, playing songs to patients and monitoring their heart rates as they listen.” – The Guardian
- The First Opera Written For And Produced In Virtual Reality
“What is most radical about Current, Rising is not the technology but how the creative process has been flipped. Rather than the composer setting the librettist’s words to music and leaving the music to be interpreted by directors, designers and musicians, it was Annette Mees, head of Covent Garden’s Audio Labs, and [the CEO of Figment Productions] who initially developed the idea of a hyperreal opera and only later brought on board creatives.” – The Guardian
- Britain’s Reopening, But A Quarter Of Its Summer Rock Festivals Are Cancelled. Why? Insurance.
“According to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), which has been tracking festivals taking place in Britain this year, 26% of all festivals with a capacity of more than 5,000 people have been cancelled by their organisers. The AIF has projected that more than three-quarters of the remaining festivals could be called off imminently if action regarding cancellation insurance policies of large-scale events is not reviewed.” – The Guardian
- How A John Denver Song Inspired A Generation Of Asian Immigrants
Over the past half century, Denver’s Appalachian anthem has also lodged in the hearts of many families in Asia, thousands of miles away from the Blue Ridge Mountains. In a 2009 paper, the sociologists Grant Blank and Heidi Netz Rupke published an informal survey of college classrooms in Western China that found that “Country Roads” was the most popular American song among the students. – The Atlantic
- Backstage Union Warns That Met Opera Will Not Reopen In 2021
In a statement issued by its president, IATSE Local One stressed that the current situation is a lockout rather than a strike and that the Metropolitan Opera, rather than giving its craftspeople work, has outsourced fabrication of sets, costumes and the like for three future productions to the West Coast and the UK. – OperaWire
PEOPLE
- Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
“With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet to return, producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols. But the biggest reason is more gut-based.” – The New York Times
- Britain’s NHS Tries Prescribing Song Playlists To Alzheimer’s Patients
“A test among people with dementia found an algorithm that ‘prescribes’ songs based on listeners’ personal backgrounds and tastes resulted in reductions in heart rate of up to 22%, lowering agitation and distress in some cases. … The technology operates as a musical ‘drip’, playing songs to patients and monitoring their heart rates as they listen.” – The Guardian
- Austin’s Arts Funding Down By A Staggering 93%
“Money for Austin’s municipal arts funding comes from the Hotel Occupancy Tax of which the arts receive 15% of the city’s allocation. Funding levels are set according to tax revenues from the previous fiscal year.” The pandemic wiped out revenue from that tax, so arts funding for the coming fiscal year is projected to be only $1 million, down from $13 million in FY2019. – Sightlines (Austin)
- ‘Sesame Street’ Was A Radical Experiment
“It’s easy to forget now, given the show’s 52-year ubiquity, that the original program was a shot in the dark – the first show aimed explicitly at childhood education, a combustible attempt to meld learning fundamentals with jingly bits and skits kids enjoyed to watch. … [It] became the longest-running, and arguably most recognizable children’s program in the country, with international co-productions assisted by the Sesame Workshop in 170 more.” – The Guardian
- Technology In The Arts After COVID
Rachel Moore: “Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning is the catalyst for widespread embrace of a technological revolution remains unclear: Was digital production simply a bridge to mitigate a difficult year? Anchoring the digital strategy of many organizations lies an unexamined assumption that digital work exists only until they “return to normal” and are back to the business of traditional live performance.” – C-Suite Quarterly
PEOPLE
- Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
“With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet to return, producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols. But the biggest reason is more gut-based.” – The New York Times
- Britain’s NHS Tries Prescribing Song Playlists To Alzheimer’s Patients
“A test among people with dementia found an algorithm that ‘prescribes’ songs based on listeners’ personal backgrounds and tastes resulted in reductions in heart rate of up to 22%, lowering agitation and distress in some cases. … The technology operates as a musical ‘drip’, playing songs to patients and monitoring their heart rates as they listen.” – The Guardian
- Austin’s Arts Funding Down By A Staggering 93%
“Money for Austin’s municipal arts funding comes from the Hotel Occupancy Tax of which the arts receive 15% of the city’s allocation. Funding levels are set according to tax revenues from the previous fiscal year.” The pandemic wiped out revenue from that tax, so arts funding for the coming fiscal year is projected to be only $1 million, down from $13 million in FY2019. – Sightlines (Austin)
- ‘Sesame Street’ Was A Radical Experiment
“It’s easy to forget now, given the show’s 52-year ubiquity, that the original program was a shot in the dark – the first show aimed explicitly at childhood education, a combustible attempt to meld learning fundamentals with jingly bits and skits kids enjoyed to watch. … [It] became the longest-running, and arguably most recognizable children’s program in the country, with international co-productions assisted by the Sesame Workshop in 170 more.” – The Guardian
- Technology In The Arts After COVID
Rachel Moore: “Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning is the catalyst for widespread embrace of a technological revolution remains unclear: Was digital production simply a bridge to mitigate a difficult year? Anchoring the digital strategy of many organizations lies an unexamined assumption that digital work exists only until they “return to normal” and are back to the business of traditional live performance.” – C-Suite Quarterly
THEATRE
- Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
“With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet to return, producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols. But the biggest reason is more gut-based.” – The New York Times
- Cuomo: Broadway To Reopen Sept. 14
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that Broadway will reopen on Sept. 14, with some tickets going on sale beginning tomorrow. Theaters will be open at 100% capacity, the governor says. – Deadline
- The World’s Longest-Running Play, Coming Back From Its First Closure In 69 Years
The producers of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in London’s West End have “employed two casts who will rehearse and work completely separately, and appear in alternating runs of three performances. If an actor were to test positive, the other cast – contracted to be available and in reach of the theatre in their time off – will immediately take over for 10 days while the other group recuperates. Quarantine rules would prevent the usual theatre practice of one absentee being replaced by a stand-in.” – The Guardian
- Plexiglass, Screens, Headphones — A Return to Theatre Spaces?
In these uncertain, transitional days, theater companies remain perplexed about how and when to open their doors, and so many potential ticket-buyers fret over how safe it is to be in public. So at this point, my analytical eye is focused more on the rituals of theatergoing than on theater itself. – Washington Post
- Juilliard’s “Slavery Saturday”: A Teaching Moment?
“For nearly seven decades, Juilliard has been a byword of rigor in the performing arts, with world-class music and dance divisions. The drama division has been no slouch either, educating a who’s who of name actors from Robin Williams to Oscar Isaac, Wendell Pierce to Viola Davis. But on top of the usual stresses of education in the theatre, Black artists who’ve trained there say they’ve faced the added burden of racist incidents both big and small, and have felt unsupported in their efforts to address them.” – American Theatre
VISUAL
- Fifty Years Ago Photography Was Barely Considered Art. Now…
“There are now more galleries showing contemporary art than those devoted to the entire rest of art history, with sales at auction houses following the same trend: in the years since photography entered the art world, contemporary art has replaced impressionist and Old Masters painting as the most sought-after, collected, exhibited, and expensive segment of the market.” – American Scholar
- A Mysterious Group Of Ancient Monuments In Saudi Arabia Older Than The Pyramids
Scattered across 77,000 square miles of desert in northwest Arabia, the mustatils (the name comes from the Arabic word for “rectangle”) were built between 8,500 and 4,800 years ago, during the period known as the Middle Holocene, according to a report published last week in the journal Antiquity. – Artnet
- Meet The Detective Who’s Recovered Half A Billion Dollars’ Worth of Stolen Art
“[Christopher] Marinello is one of a handful of people who track down stolen masterpieces for a living. Operating in the grey area between wealthy collectors, private investigators, and high-value thieves, he has spent three decades going after lost works by the likes of Warhol, Picasso and Van Gogh.” – The Guardian
- How To Spend COVID Relief Money? Japanese Town Buys A Giant Squid Statue
It reportedly used 25m yen ($228,500; £164,700) of the emergency funding to build the statue. Noto officials have told local media it is part of a long term plan to lure tourists back after the pandemic. – BBC
- Redefining Monuments In Philadelphia Neighborhoods
Not granite or bronze, these new monuments by Deborah Willis, Sadie Barnette, Ebony G. Patterson, Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist, and Black Quantum Futurism, consist of outdoor sculptures and photography, storefront activations and performances. – The New York Times
WORDS
- Great Writers On Their Best- And Least-Loved Punctuation Marks
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Wolfe on exclamation points, Garielle Lutz and Toni Morrison on commas, Norman Mailer on hyphens, Cormac McCarthy on periods, and Gertrude Stein on periods, commas, and semicolons: “They are more powerful more imposing more pretentious than a comma but they are a comma all the same. They really have within them deeply within them fundamentally within them the comma nature.” – Literary Hub
- The Rage Fueling The New Campus Novels
A life made, or half-made, under conditions of academic precarity is often a paranoid, anxious, stupefying life—stupefying in part because, in some sense, you chose it. – The Nation
- Novels Can Be Any Length. So Why Are They This Long?
“The novel is an extremely flexible form. It can come out in countless shapes, include infinite content, and end up almost any length. Let’s call the lower limit of a novel 40,000 words. Long novels like Infinite Jest and The Stand are more than 10 times that length, and that’s not even getting into series or In Search of Lost Times type works that are published in dozens or more volumes. So why are most novels published in a relatively narrow range of 60k to 120k words?” – Countercraft
- Finally, A Decent App For Borrowing Ebooks From The Library
A clunky, outmoded piece of software called OverDrive had been the standard app for getting reading material from the library onto your Kindle. Instead of merely upgrading, OverDrive (the company) created a new, far more user-friendly app called Libby which debuted but only started getting public attention over the past year. – Engadget
- Book Publishing Is About Free Speech? Ideas? Well That Myth Is Gone
“There may be an ideological component to publishing Pence and Conway, but it has nothing to do with ideas. It has to do with fetishizing ideological diversity, in which publishing garbage books from prominent Republicans is an end in and of itself. These deals only underline what’s been increasingly obvious for decades now: The commitment to free speech and intellectual diversity is a fig leaf, held up to defend often dubious decisions that are rooted in financial concerns, rather than intellectual or moral ones.” – The New Republic
