AJ Four Ways:
Full View (by category) | Text Only (by date) | Text (by category) | headlines only
Dance
A Golden Age For Male Dancers
Why this wealth of talent has arrived right now isn’t easy to pinpoint, but they definitely spur each other on. There’s healthy competition – ballet boys can’t resist a pirouette-off; Corrales’ record is “at least 15” – but they all talk about how secure they feel because each dancer is very different. – The Guardian
Mark Morris’s First Created-On-Zoom Dances Are Here
“For the past two months, he has experimented with making dances using Zoom and Final Cut Pro. Four of these short works will premiere on ‘Dance On!,’ to be shown on the Mark Morris Dance Group’s website on Thursday evening. (The program is free, but registration is required.)” Marina Harss reports on how it all came together. – The New York Times
The Dangers And Delights Of Choreographing Over-Familiar Music
Carmina Burana. Bolero. Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel. Even The Rite of Spring. They’re good pieces, they work for dance, and audiences are familiar with them. “Still, many choreographers have been sabotaged by the formidable nature and Muzak-y overuse of these iconic compositions,” writes Joseph Carman, who talks to several choreographers about how they’ve successfully pulled the feat off. – Dance Magazine
Watching ABT’s Virtual Ballet Class
Marina Harss: “A masked dancer in a studio, which is empty but for a pianist, peers into her computer’s camera, calling out a cheerful ‘Hi, everyone! So good to see you!’ In another frame, a toddler ambles by, prompting a dancer to joke,’Hey, guys, I had a baby!’ (The toddler actually belongs to the dancer’s sister, with whom she is staying.) More and more squares appear, revealing living rooms, kitchens where family members prepare sandwiches, a nursery, and something that looks like an airplane hangar. Almost all of the dancers are solo, with just a few lucky couples thrown in. The truly fortunate are outside, somewhere beautiful.” – The New Yorker
Well, Here’s One Way To Give A Coronavirus-Safe Live Dance Performance
“On Saturday night, about 35 cars converged at the Santa Monica Airport parking lot. Inside each vehicle, the passengers had 12 pages of instructions: Arrive exactly at 7:50 pm; stay inside your car with the windows rolled up; when you see a flashing light, turn on your headlights; wear a mask. They had come to see PARKED, an invitation-only, drive-in dance performance put on by Jacob Jonas The Company.” – Dance Magazine
Ideas
The Power Of Science And The Challenge Of Trust
Today, scientists are grappling with the problem of model uncertainty, as seen in areas like climate and medicine. These questions are increasingly challenging the basis of modern scientific knowledge itself, which is defined by a combination of mathematics and observation. – American Affairs Journal
Post-Virus Prognosticators – We Just Don’t Know
“The public square is thick today with augurs and prophets claiming to foresee the post-Covid world to come. I, myself, who find sundown something of a surprise every evening, have been pursued by foreign journalists asking what the pandemic will mean for the American presidential election, populism, the prospects of socialism, race relations, economic growth, higher education, New York City politics and more. And they seem awfully put out when I say I have no idea. – The New York Times
Using The Human Brain As A Model For Artificial Intelligence Hasn’t Turned Out (So Far)
What computer scientists and neuroscientists are after is a universal theory of intelligence—a set of principles that holds true both in tissue and in silicon. What they have instead is a muddle of details. Eleven years and $1.3 billion after Henry Markram proposed his simulated brain, it has contributed no fundamental insights to the study of intelligence. – Wired
Arvo Pärt On What The Pandemic Says To Us
“This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism and human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings. The notion of “relationship” should be understood as a maxim, as the ability to love. Although this is truly a high standard, maybe even too high for a human being. Our current situation is paradoxical: on the one hand, it means isolation, on the other, it brings us closer. While isolating ourselves, we should be able to – we are even forced to – appreciate our relationships in a small circle and to tend to them.” – Estonian World
Are Patents And Copyrights Slowing Down Innovation?
Whether we’re talking about vaccines or groundbreaking clean energy, lifesaving technologies shouldn’t be treated as precious commodities to be hoarded for private gain. In the midst of global emergencies, they’re public goods to be deployed as rapidly as possible. – The New Republic
Issues
COVID Upside: HUGE Increase In Consumption Of Online Arts
The huge numbers reported in watching and listening to streaming performances are in stark contrast with “decades of dire warnings and disheartening statistics about shrinking classical audiences — because of aging patrons, changing tastes, and more competition for the entertainment dollar.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Prince Charles Warns About Endangered Arts
“It is a very expensive art form, but it is crucial because it has such a worldwide impact… and so we have to find a way to make sure these marvellous people and organisations are going to survive through all this.” – BBC
Turning Point? Will The Culture World Continue To Take Money From Unsavory Sources?
Sponsors and donors’ valuation of our public culture is of an order very different from everyone else’s. For big oil, big pharmaceutical companies and the arms industry, it is not simply a case of doing good. For them, sponsorship of the arts is not charity; it is a strategic expenditure. – The New York Times
‘Fear Of Jerks’ Is Why New Yorkers Are Nervous About Coming Back To See Live Shows
“A New York Times/Siena College Research Institute poll, administered [last week], sought to gauge how soon New Yorkers would be comfortable attending live performances like Broadway shows. … And for the hesitant, their single greatest concern is their fellow audience members, who they worry will show up without masks or ignore social distancing rules.” – The New York Times
Philly Fringe Festival Will Happen This Fall, At Least Partly In The Flesh
No specific program has been announced yet, but “look for some combination of performances presented online, outside, or in other ways that maintain social distance. The festival will continue [from Sept. 10] through Oct. 4, and organizers expect it to include eight to 12 curated works, as well as a virtual bookstore, artist talks, and independently presented works.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Media
Movie Theaters May Be Reopening In Some States, But Audiences Aren’t Flocking Back
In places such as Georgia (the first state to reopen), Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah, independent cinemas are operating again. (The chains are staying closed for now.) Yet attendance is generally around a quarter of what it would be this time of a normal year. Even so, say owners, it’s important to get used to running with new safety procedures in place before customers start arriving in larger numbers. – Variety
Police Arrest Suspected Arsonist In Deadly Anime Studio Fire
“The July 18 attack on Kyoto Animation, a famed anime studio that produced popular ‘slice of life’ shows and movies,” killed 36 people and was the worst mass murder in Japan in decades. “Officials said that the attacker had shouted ‘Die!’ as he entered the building and then tried to escape, but collapsed on the street outside and was subdued by workers.” – The New York Times
How EDM (Electronic Dance Music) Quickly Evolved Online And Reached A New Audience At Home
“What I like about streaming right now is I get excited about it … My mom’s in Guatemala. My mom and dad are retired and my mom tunes into the streams,” Nonfiction said. “My parents never really got a chance to see me DJ … but with the streaming, they can be involved. They get to see me do what I do.” – Voice of Orange County
Michael Moore’s ‘Planet Of The Humans’ Yanked From YouTube
The controversial documentary — produced by Moore, directed by Jeff Gibbs, criticized by many mainstream scientists, and championed by parts of the far right — incorporates a clip from the project Rare Earthenware by videographer Toby Smith, who opposes Planet of the Humans and went to YouTube alleging copyright infringement (which gets a video automatically removed). Gibbs and Moore invoked the fair use doctrine and say their work is being censored. – The Guardian
What It’s Like To Go To An Indoor Movie Theatre Right Now
First of all, yikes. However, many of us miss the moviegoing experience, and so a few movie theatres in Texas are trying to “create an early blueprint for all the other theatres that are still trying to figure out how to reopen safely.” – Vice
Music
BBC Proms Plans For This Summer Finally Settled
Well, mostly settled. “A virtual first night in July will see more than 350 musicians play together in a Beethoven ‘mash-up’ [of the nine symphonies] having each recorded their part from home. … The Royal Albert Hall will be home to live performances in the final fortnight of the season, starting from August 28,” with audience numbers to be determined by the social-distancing guidelines in place at the time. Meanwhile, the BBC will air specially selected archive recordings of previous Proms each night for the first six weeks of the festival. – London Evening Standard
A Carnegie Hall Debut Re-imagined Online
Bucking the trend in classical music of often low-quality livestreams, yet not wanting to lay low completely, Timo Andres decided to salvage his Carnegie program by documenting it as a series of videos on the platform. – The New York Times
€50,000 A Day: What La Scala Would Lose By Operating Under Social-Distancing Rules
That’s the grim figure that the Milan opera house’s new superintendent, Dominique Meyer, will present to its board of directors on Thursday. Under the law that Italy’s parliament passed last week, La Scala could accommodate only 200 people, including the performers. – Gramilano (Milan)
Philip Glass’s Lost ‘Music In Eight Parts’ Has Been Recovered
“For decades, [the piece] seemed, to Mr. Glass’s circle, to exist only as fragments in his archive. Then the final manuscript for Music in Eight Parts resurfaced near the end of 2017. … Now in the hands of Mr. Glass’s publisher, it has been realized anew for his ensemble and, 50 years after its premiere, released on a recording by Orange Mountain Music this week.” – The New York Times
Salzburg Festival 2020 Will Go Ahead — In Reduced Form
“Bucking the trend of the vast majority of international festivals and opera companies that have been forced to shutter due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Salzburg Festival announced today that it plans to present a modified festival this summer, with fewer performances in shortened formats taking place from August 1 through 30.” No details of the programming were revealed. – Opera News
People
Playwright And AIDS Activist Larry Kramer, 84
An author, essayist and playwright — notably hailed for his autobiographical 1985 play, “The Normal Heart” — Mr. Kramer had feet in both the world of letters and the public sphere. In 1981 he was a founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first service organization for H.I.V.-positive people, though his fellow directors effectively kicked him out a year later for his aggressive approach. (He returned the compliment by calling them “a sad organization of sissies.”) – The New York Times
Alan Jacobi, 67, Self-Taught Engineer Who Revolutionized Stagecraft
A self-taught engineer, AJ virtually created the rigging industry out of a background in theatre lighting. When he began, in the early 1980s, technicians still hung their own lights, but in the era of extravagant musicals, rock concerts and spectaculars AJ saw an opportunity within the gravity-defying ambitions of designers and directors. – The Guardian
Opera Conductor Joel Revzen Dead Of COVID At 74
A staff conductor at the Met for 21 years, Revzen served as artistic director of Arizona Opera (2003-2012) and Berkshire Opera (1991-2005) and was, from 2012, the founding artistic director of the Nevada summer festival Classical Tahoe. – The Strad
Pioneering Op Art Painter Richard Anuszkiewicz Dead At 89
“[He] devoted his career to studying how some of the fundamental elements of art could be manipulated to create perceptual effects. His experiments with color led him to make paintings of geometric shapes that seem to vibrate and emanate light.” – The New York Times
Africa’s First Million-Selling Singer, Mory Kanté, Dead At 70
“[He] came from a family of griots, the dynastic West African musicians whose songs carry news and chronicle history. Steeped in those traditions, he electrified the kora, the traditional griot’s harp, and he fused African music with styles and instruments from Western pop. … [His] 1987 single “Yé Ké Yé Ké” was a hit, first in Africa and then across Europe. It became the first African single to sell more than a million copies and has been licensed frequently for commercials and film soundtracks.” – The New York Times
Theatre
The Pandemic Has Shown Us The True Realist Among Playwrights: Samuel Beckett
Charles McNulty: “Stuck indoors with little to distract us from the bewilderment of our metaphysical predicament, we are like one of his immobilized characters, not scrunched into trash cans like Hamm’s elderly parents in Endgame but confined all the same to a narrow loop of existence.” – Los Angeles Times
Here’s What Actors’ Equity Wants To See Before It Tells Members It’s Safe To Do Shows Again
Saying “I do not think that making everything safe for the audience – although that is important – and leaving the the people on stage to be epidemiological guinea pigs is the right answer,” Equity president Kate Shindle and the union’s public health consultant released a set of four principles on which the reopening of theaters should be based. – Deadline
Cirque du Soleil Founder Wants To Buy It Back To Save It
In 2015, Guy Laliberté sold the Cirque du Soleil to American private equity investment firm TPG Capital, Chinese investment company Fosun and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for a reported US$1.5 billion. In late March, the Montreal-based circus laid off 95 per cent of its staff, close to 4,700 employees, after all of its shows around the world were shuttered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. – Montreal Gazette
Actor Showcases Go Online – A Push To The Future?
Some representatives believe that, even after social distancing measures fade, schools will begin to incorporate video into at least part of their showcase models. On-demand video allows agents and managers to avoid the hassle of attending a live event, to choose the time when they view the showcase, to take meetings with students over a longer period and to see actors who they are considering for television or film projects onscreen. – The Hollywood Reporter
Broadway League President Says A January Reopening?
Charlotte St. Martin said that in the last ten weeks Broadway has been losing an average of $35 million a week; this will remain so for however long Broadway remains closed. If this continues to January, that means a total loss of around $1.5 billion—with the sum heading towards $2 billion if the closure continues into next spring. – The Daily Beast
Visual
‘Perfectly Preserved’ Roman Mosaic Floor Uncovered Near Verona
“Archaeologists were astonished by the find as it came almost a century after the remains of a villa, believed to date to the 3rd century AD, were unearthed in a hilly area above the town of Negrar di Valpolicella.” – The Guardian
Philadelphia Museum Of Art Staffers Make Official Request To Unionize
At least two-thirds of eligible employees have signed authorization cards to request that the National Labor Relations Board oversee a union election, according to organizers. The union at the museum would be affiliated with AFSCME District Council 47, which “currently represents most white-collar employees of the city, including workers at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Zoo, [as well as] workers at several museums around the country.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Guy In Hazmat Suit Tries To Steal Painting That Banksy Gave To Hospital
The piece, titled Game Changer and showing a boy leaving his other superhero action figures behind for one of a nurse, had been in Southampton General Hospital in England for all of two days when a man wearing a protective coverall and carrying a cordless drill was caught walking past the painting five or more times, “clearly having a good look.” – Artnet
Italian Museums Reopen: A Survey Of How They’re Doing It
As museums begin to reopen, many are requiring visitors to book tickets in advance, wear masks, use hand sanitizer upon entering or undergo temperature checks, according to Fortune. In Munich, the Bavarian State Painting Collections’ museums are limiting the number of visitors to one person per roughly 215 square feet, reports CNN’s Karina Tsui. At the Giacometti Institute in Paris, meanwhile, just ten people are allowed in every ten minutes, and public bathrooms remain closed. – Smithsonian
How Did Renaissance Architects Build Church Domes Without Columns? High-Tech Analysis Has Found The Answer
The broad cupolas in Italian churches of the era were constructed by laying bricks in a “complex cross-herringbone spiraling pattern” called a double loxodrome, according to a team of engineering researchers at Princeton and the University of Bergamo. – Artnet
Words
Do We Need A Different Way Of Categorizing Books?
A category only exists in relation to other categories, similarly constituted. You would need to establish a number of other clearly defined hierarchies of value, or centers of interest, generating distinct, or at least recognizable, types of plot and character interaction. For example, stories in which good and evil are absolute, not subordinated to the community, which in this case would matter only in so far as it fosters goodness, not vice versa. – New York Review of Books
Philip Larkin’s Love(r’s) Letters
“A cache of 2,400 letters between the poet and his long-time lover and muse, Monica Jones, … reveal[s] the full extent of her fury, fears and frustrations over a painful four-decade-long partnership with the man who wrote some of the most cherished verse in the English language.” – The Observer (UK)
With Lockdown Lifting, This Country’s Bookstores Are Having A Boom
“Booksellers around the country say they’re experiencing ‘Christmas’ levels of demand post-lockdown, as many readers have sworn off shopping offshore following the Covid-19 crisis, which claimed 21 lives in New Zealand.” – The Guardian
English Landscapes And Landmarks Inspired Important Spots In Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Ring
Perhaps that’s obvious, but a new book “will argue that many assumptions previously made about the origins of scenes from the sagas are wrong.” – The Observer (UK)
Who Has The Rights To The Omegaverse?
You might (or might not) consider wolf erotica a niche market. It’s a bigger niche that is now walking through a minefield of copyright questions, with larger implications for genre writing. “As the genre commercializes, authors aggressively defend their livelihoods, sometimes using a 1998 law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to get online retailers to remove competitors’ books. When making a claim, a creator must have a ‘good faith belief’ that her ownership of the work in question has been infringed. But what does that mean when the ultimate source material is a crowdsourced collective?” – The New York Times