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- Who decides what “best” even means?
Good Morning,
Tom Service asks a question the classical world mostly avoids: what does it mean to call the Berlin Philharmonic the best orchestra in the world, and how has the label survived a half-century of conductors, politics and technology? (The Guardian) The answer isn’t in the playing. It’s in who confers the title and why it sticks.
Reputation, it turns out, is a poor predictor of survival. Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences announced its closure Tuesday and got a rescue deal Wednesday (Philadelphia Inquirer) — 200 years of standing bought it exactly one news cycle. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, after 34 years, got no rescue and no announcement; the board simply went quiet (ArtsATL). A Louisville high school’s cancelled Ragtime drew a million views and Broadway’s attention before it got the district’s (Playbill). What decides who gets saved isn’t age or quality, it seems to be whether anyone with money or a megaphone is watching.
Boston Ballet had someone watching: an anonymous patron just wrote a $10 million check (People). Edinburgh’s arts groups will get their pay from tourists, through a visitor levy worth up to £50 million a year (The Stage) — the city finally billing the crowds for the culture that draws them.
Also: at 25, Adult Swim TV channel is thriving while the rest of cable dies, and even its own people can’t explain why (TheWrap).
All of our stories below.
- How Is Adult Swim Still Prospering When Most Cable TV Is Fading Away?
“It feels like a wicked joke that Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block — already an aberration when it launched in cable’s heyday in 2001 — is somehow thriving, … even as the rest of cable slowly slides into oblivion. Even the folks behind Adult Swim don’t really understand it.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- What Replaced The World Trade Center Should Have Been So Much More
The twin towers were a product of their time, the mid-1960s, and what has replaced them is still, sadly, in too many ways a product of that same time. We have learned a lot about building cities since the World Trade Center went up, and we did not put nearly enough of that knowledge to use. – The New York Times
- Is The Berlin Philharmonic Really The Very Best Orchestra In The World?
Tom Service: “What does being the ‘best’ mean? And how and why have the Berliners acquired, and held on to, their globe-topping orchestral reputation for so many decades, through changes of conductor and personnel, political upheaval and technological transformation?” – The Guardian
- There’s A Difference Between Celebrating Innovation and Trying To Understand It
Journalist Nicholas Carr called the online world “the shallows” for the way it erodes concentration. But the paradox is that its depthlessness arrives as immersion. – The Walrus
- Why There Are Fewer English Majors In Universities Today
The decline of the English major offers a lesson in what young people want. Teenagers in the 2020s have a spiritual thirst that is unmet by a curriculum without order and greatness and charm. A field without a bible like the Norton doesn’t satisfy them. – Portico Quarterly
- Americans Are Fascinated With Art Heists. Not So Much Fascinated By Art?
If you are a fictional character and you happen to be stealing art, odds are excellent that you’re in a heist movie. At this point, the genre is so famous, and mocked, that plumbing it for serious lessons about art and the art market may seem quixotic. – ARTnews
- Thanks To New Tourist Tax, Edinburgh Arts Organizations To (Probably) Get 25% Increase In City Funding
“The distribution of funds raised by the Scottish capital’s new visitor levy, which is expected to raise up to £50m annually, has been the subject of intense debate in recent weeks. … (Organisations now) face a ‘deeply frustrating’ delay until the uplift is confirmed.” – The Stage
- Bookshop.com Has Directed $50M To Indy Bookstores
The company launched in 2020 to offer shoppers a way of buying books online that supported independent bookstores and to divert sales away from Amazon and competing platforms. It operates both as a proprietary sales channel and offers affiliate sales for independent stores and influencers. – Publishers Weekly
- US Government Agency Weakens Protections For Cultural Heritage Sites
Proposed federal rule changes would eliminate the requirement for public feedback and consultation with key parties like Tribal Nations and ultimately lead to the destruction of much of our cultural heritage. – Live Science
- A Deal To Save Philadelphia’s Academy Of Natural Sciences
The announcement comes one day after Drexel and the Academy said they would close the Academy’s museum effective Sept. 30 and that Academy CEO Scott Cooper would be stepping down immediately. Sept. 27 will be the last day the museum will be open to the public. – Philadelphia Inquirer
- How D.C.’s Dance Place Fell Apart
This past May, Dance Place executive director André Mazelin abruptly fired artistic director Tariq O’Malley and eliminated his position. In July, at a town hall, former staffers, performers, and choreographers gave accounts of severe staffing, management, and interpersonal difficulties. (Mazelin himself resigned in August.) – Washington City Paper
- Somebody Just Gave Boston Ballet $10M
The money was given by “an anonymous, long-time patron” of the organization who found themselves “inspired” by its transformation during Nissinen’s time there, according to the news release. – People
- Singer Cassandra Wilson, 70
Wilson’s catalog showcased the full breadth of her native Mississippi’s musical heritage, drawing primarily from jazz but spanning every foundational American genre. – Los Angeles Times
- Yo-Yo Ma At 70
“There’s a real relationship between the way he plays and the way he talks. There’s a sense of gathering the room, gathering a community, and you’re drawn into the emotional experience of his playing.” – The New York Times
- A Filmmaking Couple And The Hit That Transformed Both Their Careers And Their Relationship
When Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — famous in their native Spain as “Los Javis” — took their film La Bola Negra to Cannes this year, they earned a 20-minute ovation, the Best Director prize, a bidding war over distribution rights, and Oscar buzz. They’ve also learned something serious about themselves. – The New York Times
- A Kentucky High School’s Production Of “Ragtime: Was Abruptly Cancelled. Then Broadway Spoke Up.
Last week the principal of Louisville’s performing arts high school told the cast and crew that the school district had cancelled their production due to community concerns about subject matter. The students posted a video online; it quickly tallied a million views — including by members of the current Broadway team. – Playbill
- Georgia Ensemble Theatre In Metro Atlanta Quietly Shuts Down
“The company opened in 1992 at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, served thousands of patrons over the years and collaborated with a ‘who’s who’ of area performers. On April 19 of this year, the Board of Trustees decided to close the company with no fanfare and no public statement.” – ArtsATL
- Oxford University Press Staffers Strike Over Offshoring
“Oxford University Press plans to offshore its financial operations department to EXL Services, which will provide the service from the (Indian) subcontinent. More than 30 Unite the Union members walked out on Tuesday over the plans, with the industrial action set to last until 11 September.” – BBC (Yahoo!)
- Should Marc Chagall’s Famous Painting Be Taken Off The Ceiling Of The Paris Opera?
Perhaps surprisingly, that is possible: in 1962, the untitled work’s 24 canvases were glued to a plastic shell. Then that was installed on the dome of the Palais Garnier’s ceiling over the original 1869-71 mural by Jules-Eugène Lenepveu — whose great-great-great-great-grandnephew is now campaigning to have his relative’s work uncovered. – Artnet
- After 205 Years, The Saturday Evening Post Will Discontinue Its Hard-Copy Version
“The magazine’s January issue will be its last in print, according to Joan SerVaas, the president and publisher. In a letter to The Post’s 50,000 subscribers …, she attributed the decision to a combination of rising production costs, declining advertising revenue and shifting reader habits.’” – The New York Times
- Gloria Steinem Dead At 92
A pioneering journalist who became the face of second-wave feminism, she first vaulted to public attention with an exposé for which she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny, then made history as co-founder and editor of Ms., arguably one of the most influential magazines of the 20th century. – The Guardian
- What Do You Get When You Cross Indian Classical Dance With A 1980s Video Game?
You get semi-improvised Bharatanatyam — normally a highly codified form — by three dancers basing their moves on a game of Ms. Pac-Man which they’re playing live onstage. – BBC (MSN)
- Are Classical Music And Heavy Metal Really Brothers?
Metal and classical: deeply different, or close companions? As a musician straddling both genres, I feel they have much more in common than they differ. – San Francisco Classical Voice
- Thousands Of Japanese Are Moving A Historic Castle — Hauling It By Hand
In 2015, the fortified tower of Hirosaki Castle was moved, in one piece, about 260 feet from its old site to allow repairs to the compound’s outer walls. Now a horde of volunteers, working 80 at a time pulling ropes, are towing the tower back to its site, centimeter by centimeter. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- Director Of The Art Gallery Of Ontario To Depart After 10 Years
Within the Canadian art scene, Stephen Jost’s leadership has been polarizing. He has drawn praise for making a significant investment in modern and contemporary art at the AGO. But Jost’s tenure was also marred by controversy over the past few years. – ARTnews
- California Passes Bill To Employ More Local Journalists
Assembly Bill 2222, known as the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, creates refundable tax credits for the state’s news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. – NiemanLab
- She Who Controls The Logistics…
- The Son Of 1960s America’s Most Notorious Leftist Revolutionaries Ended Up A Playwright And Northwestern Professor
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, raised their kids while blowing up buildings and fleeing the FBI. Their older son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, is ambivalent about his upbringing but says there was plenty of love. So how did he become an academic and a playwright? – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Consider The Lowly Bollard
The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. – The New York Times
- Could More Movie-Theatre Versions Of Broadway Shows Fix The Bottom Line?
While filmed Broadway shows have long been the province of PBS’ Great Performances, cinematic releases of stage shows is a growing trend. – Playbill
- Why Letting AI Do Our Writing Is A Bad Idea
The act of writing is an act of thinking, and to automate our paragraphs is to populate our screens with words without filling our minds with the ideas necessary to conceive of them. – Derek Thompson
- Britain’s Working Class Is Getting Priced Out Of The Arts Entirely. Look Out For What Comes Next.
With the shrinking of arts instruction in schools and free higher education, it’s ever harder for non-rich artists to train. Then there’s the ever-rising cost of getting your work seen, even at open-access events like the Edinburgh Fringe. In response, Ivan Hewett writes, a “radical class-consciousness” is starting to appear. – The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
- Remembering A Master Music Critic
For 12 years he delivered what seems like an almost endless chain of exemplary reviews and essays, all framed in his distinctly personal, uncluttered prose, witty, now and then biting, but most often illuminating. – The New York Times
- Philadelphia’s Academy Of Natural Sciences To Close After 200 Years
The Academy of Natural Sciences will close its Parkway museum at the end of the month, ending a nearly 200-year run as a destination for generations of visitors. The museum, founded in 1812 and opened to the public in 1828, has long been a fixture for families, students and educators. – 6 ABC