While administering a language-based experiment, psychology researcher Chris Westbury “noticed that people always laughed when they saw the non-word ‘snunkoople.’ That got them wondering – was there something in particular about nonsense words that made them funny? If so, could it be measured? Turns out there is and it can.”
Archives for November 2015
HBO’s Documentary ‘Bolshoi Babylon’ Says Sergei Filin Wasn’t Simply Blameless Victim Of Acid Attack
The film “avoids presenting Filin as a martyr. Instead it gives voice to dancers who describe him as biased and imperious, and highlights Filin’s tense rapport with the Bolshoi’s general director Vladimir Urin, appointed by the Kremlin in September 2013 to put the house in order.
Balanchine Is Getting A Hollywood Biopic
“David K. Israel is adapting Elizabeth Kendall’s acclaimed book Balanchine & the Lost Muse: Revolution & the Making of a Choreographer [for] Gulfstream Pictures … Set against the backdrop of the Russian revolution, the film tells the coming-of-age story of Balanchine, during his tenure at Mariinsky Theater and school where he met his muse, Leda Ivanova.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.24.15
Making Lulu musical
How to tell if a Lulu performance is going to be musical: Listen carefully to the orchestra in the prologue, the scene with the animal trainer that begins the opera. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-11-24
Leaked Release: National Academy’s Feel-Good Statement on Carmine Branagan’s Departure
The chaotic, unprofessional rollout of the National Academy’s leadership transition (which I chronicled in the above-linked posts) continues with today’s anonymous leak to me of the very overdue, nearly finalized press release, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-11-24
Other Matters: The Gingko Drops
In front of Rifftides world headquarters is a magnificent gingko tree. The previous owner of the house was a medical missionary in China. When he returned to the United States, he and his family brought the gingko as a sapling. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-11-24
Lookback: Thanksgiving service
From 2004: To be sure, the one thing a new friend can never do for you is say I knew you when, and I find it rather sad that there are so few people in my life who can speak those words. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-11-24
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Danish Composer Wins This Year’s $100,000 Grawemeyer Prize
The song cycle “let me tell you” by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen has earned the 2016 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, according to the University of Louisville, which distributes the prize each year. The prize includes $100,000.
Why So Many New Christmas Movies On Cable TV?
Simple. “These holiday movies are proliferating because they’re cheap to produce, generate strong ratings and lots of advertising revenue for the television networks. Hallmark parent Crown Media Holdings credited its holiday programming for helping to spur an 11% increase in advertising revenue last year to $328 million.”
Ticket Fraud Widespread As Online Re-selling Sites Proliferate
“Nearly 3,000 cases were reported between May and October, with the Rugby World Cup, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift particular targets, said Action Fraud. On average, customers who bought fake tickets lost £444 per transaction.”
Singapore Opens New National Museum
“The project is part of the city-state’s wish to become a centre of culture and the arts and to overcome its traditional reputation as a money-driven, and somewhat sterile, environment.”
Found: New Home For The 2016 Tony Awards
The 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall has long been the preferred home for the awards because of its size and proximity to Broadway. But Radio City will be booked this summer with the new “Rockettes New York Spectacular.”
Adele’s New Album Sets New Record For First Week Sales
On Tuesday, Nielsen Music said that in just four days the British singer broke the record previously set by ‘N Sync in 2000. The boy band’s “No Strings Attached” sold 2.416 million albums in its first week.
Tod Machover’s Sprawling Symphony Of Detroit Spills Off The Stage
“The result was less a purely musical work than a sprawling, ceremonial communion. As an exercise in sincere civic engagement and community building, the project was unimpeachable.”
One Year After Crisis: Detroit Institute Of Arts Still Figuring Out Its Future
One year after the city emerged from bankruptcy, the DIA still finds itself at a crossroads.
Toronto Symphony Reports 57 Percent Increase In Fundraising
“The symphony ended the 2014-15 season with a small surplus of $135,781, its second in a row, on total operating expenses of $27,952,748. This positive report follows earlier surpluses reported for the National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian Opera Company and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.”
Opera Colorado Comes Back From Austerity With A New Plan For Audiences
“Anything we’re doing outside the opera house is to engage a different audience. It’s not about bringing this audience we have out into the community.”
Denver Wants To Reimagine What Its Performing Arts Center Can Be
“The city believes it has to adapt the site, since audiences for the traditional arts have tapered off. At the same time, people want more informal and engaging cultural experiences.”
NPR’s Audience Is Getting Smaller And Older, And All Of Public Radio is Worried About It
“Listening among Morning Edition‘s audience, for example, has declined 20 percent among people under 55 in the past five years. As audiences drift to newer on-demand audio sources such as podcasts and streaming, the bonds with local stations – and the contributions that come with them – may be fraying.”
Sound Without Barriers: Recording Contemporary Music
“No longer do composers require the endorsement of a large corporation to get their music recorded and released as they did 50 years ago; as a result, the diversity and quality of the recordings that listeners have at their fingertips has never been greater.”
France Plans To Offer ‘Asylum’ To Antiquities Threatened By ISIS
“Jean-Luc Martinez, the president of the Louvre, has drawn up a 50-point plan to protect cultural treasures around the world. He was asked to do so by President François Hollande and one of his key recommendations – that France offer ‘asylum’ for artefacts under threat – is immediately being pushed through as law.”
We Need More Welders And Fewer Philosophers, Says Marco Rubio. Let’s Ask A Philosopher Who Used To Be A Welder
“I know there is currently a shortage of skilled welders, but which is more likely: that the machines will someday replace all the welders or that the machines will someday replace all the philosophers?”
Public Battle Over Leadership Of San Francisco African-American Arts Center
“In San Francisco, a call last week for the dismissal of the executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex has created a firestorm, adding a public relations challenge to already-existing tensions around mission and finances.”
Ballet CEO Accused Of Embezzling Resigns; He And Company Sue Each Other
In August, Joburg Ballet chief executive Dirk Badenhorst was suspended by the company’s board following allegations that he had misappropriated R890,000 ($63,000). Last week, Badenhorst resigned just as a disciplinary hearing was about to start; now he and Joburg Ballet have each announced civil suits.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky Talks About His Brain Cancer Treatment, Recovery, And Return To The Opera Stage
“I’ve turned half-bald. Lost all hair on the back of my head. At a US hospital in Rochester I underwent a mighty biopsy under general anesthesia. … In fact, I had holes drilled in the base of the skull. If you bring your hand close enough to the irradiated area, you will feel it is warmer than others. Occasionally, when blood rushes to this place, I have strong pulsations there. Feel[s] pretty close to hearing music.”
Unexpected Faulkner Work Rediscovered: A Play – And A Light Comedy, No Less
“Written when the future Nobel laureate was in his early 20s, ‘Twixt Cup and Lip was discovered in the University of Virginia archives by The Strand Magazine managing editor Andrew Gulli, who over the past few years has also tracked down long-lost and obscure works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and many others. The play appears in the Strand‘s holiday issue, which went on sale Friday.”
Want To Know How To Speak Shakespeare? Listen To Rap, Says Mark Rylance
“If I have a general criticism, which is true of my Shakespeare acting and most Shakespeare acting I hear, is that it’s too slow. It’s too reverent. It’s like taking a rap song in 400 years from now, that we think is really wonderful, and deciding it really should be said slowly so all the lovers of rap can hear every word.”
Joseph Silverstein, 83, Longtime Boston Symphony Concertmaster And Utah Symphony Music Director
Said one longtime friend and colleague, “Above and beyond being just an incredible musician and perhaps the greatest concertmaster ever, he was a very, very humane person. … The music was never about himself, as it is with many conductors and violinists. It was always about the music. In that regard, he was very humble. He always took a backseat to the composer.”