Stories

The Terrible Willy Wonka Glasgow Experience That Went Viral Is Becoming A Musical

Have we all been deeply punked? Was this the plan the whole time? Hm: "The show's lead producer, Richard Kraft, has assembled a team of writers and producers for the project titled Willy Fest: A Musical Parody.” - BBC

Change In Rules Opens Up Investment For West End Theatre

“This is a once in a generation transformational change that will ensure Britain remains the global capital of creativity,” stated composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber. - Forbes

Philanthropy As A Business Model

First, and most simply, philanthropy is most certainly a business model, or at least the core of such a model, because it is at the heart of financing nearly every private university and almost all of the country’s leading cultural institutions, from museums to the performing arts, as well as most organized religious institutions. - Second Rough Draft

Government Regulators Need AI Experts. They Just Can’t Pay (Well) For Them

As governments spin up new AI programs, regulators around the world are urgently trying to hire AI experts. But some of the job ads are raising eyebrows and even chuckles among AI researchers and engineers for offering wages that, amid the current AI boom, look pitiful. - Wired

Personality Typing Is A Multi-Billion-Dollar Business. Why Do We Want To Be Typed?

The self has never been more securely an object of classification than it is today, thanks to the century-long ascendence of behavioral analysis and scientific psychology, sociometry, taxonomic personology, and personality theory. - Hedgehog Review

Reframing The History Of Modernism Outside Of Its Eurocentric Story

“The main issue is Eurocentric modernism and its history, which can be dealt with by redefining modernism and re-writing its history. How can this be achieved when Eurocentric modernism is persistent in its domination of the art world with all its institutions”? - Hyperallergic

Sweden Is At The Forefront Of Music Technology. Is There Something In The Water?

Some music tech entrepreneurs argue the speed at which AI tools are growing globally is also putting pressure on Stockholm's well-oiled music tech ecosystem. - BBC

Ballet Dancers Are Not All Anorexic (Anymore) And Other Myths Busted

A principal dancer and the director of Munich's Bavarian State Ballet explain that dancers are athletes as well as artists, they're thin because they're exerting themselves for at least eight hours every day, and "ballet is a competitive sport in an artistic guise." - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Defining The Great American Novels

In setting out to identify that new American canon, we decided to define American as having first been published in the United States (or intended to be—read more in our entries on Lolita and The Bell Jar). And we narrowed our aperture to the past 100 years. - The Atlantic

The Frida Kahlo You Probably Didn’t Know About

Yes, we know she was intelligent and gifted, leftist and patriotic, long-suffering physically and emotionally. She also scorned the New York elites feting Diego, had to terminate a pregnancy in Detroit, and absolutely despised the French Surrealists who championed her work. - Artnet

The Fierce, Frustrated Life Of The Real-Life Inspiration For Strindberg’s Miss Julie

Victoria Bruzelius Benedictsson, marooned in a stifling Swedish village, began writing and publishing books and stories under the name Ernst Ahlgren, left her family for a gender-fluid life (half-Benedictsson-half-Ahlgren) of literary celebrity in Copenhagen, and then, rejected in love, committed suicide — whereupon Strindberg immediately co-opted her life as subject matter. - Aeon

Josh Kosman: Sizing Up Salonen’s Time At The San Francisco Symphony

Even after regular concerts resumed in earnest that fall, there was still that faint shadow across the proceedings, a sense that we had all gotten off on the wrong foot together. - San Francisco Chronicle

Meet The Last Of Venice’s Artisan Gold-Beaters

Three hundred years ago, the city had around 300 battilori hammering out gold leaf using traditional techniques. Today, Marino Menegazzo's family workshop is the last, and one of only a few in all Europe. Here's a look at how he and his daughter do their work. - The New York Times

Who Might Replace Salonen At The San Francisco Symphony?

While American orchestras have a propensity for pursuing and hiring conductors from abroad, MTT’s success here might lead SFS to consider hiring an American. And while women are still all too rare among today’s U.S. music directors, the orchestra might follow San Francisco Opera’s example and appoint a woman to the position. - San Francisco Classical Voice

Argentina’s New Right-Wing Populist President Is Defunding The National Film/TV Agency

"Javier Milei is forging ahead with his administration’s plans to defund the country’s film-TV institute INCAA, which will adversely impact national film festivals such as the Mar del Plata and federal aid for national film releases, state-run cinemas and film schools, among others." - Variety

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