Among the 40 films he helmed were several World War II epics; Alfie, which earned five Oscar nominations and made a star of Michael Caine; the Bond titles You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker; and Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.
Archives for February 2018
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.27.18
One Wo/Man Band
I am frequently asked whether an arts organization can successfully engage communities with just one person assigned the responsibility for “engaging.” One answer, given with considerable trepidation is, “It depends.” … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-02-27
The Adjacent Possible
So much of leadership, management, and change narrative is about “gap analysis.” The thinking goes that we achieve a desired future by describing a bold vision, defining our current location, mapping the gap between here and there, … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2018-02-27
Far Out! Psychedelia at Metropolitan Museum’s “Golden Kingdoms” (with video)
In a tweet today, Joanne Pillsbury, the Metropolitan Museum’s curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas, called attention to one of two miniature objects that caught my eye (perhaps for the wrong reasons) at … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-27
How Bands Are Starting To Keep More Of The Money Their Music Makes
“We never used to make any money because we were always paying off our advances. We’d get about a 20% share of revenues and the label would keep the rest. Now we get to keep about 90% of what we earn …it’s such a difference, it just made sense.”
Kevin Spacey Foundation Shuts Down; “No Longer Viable”
The foundation said on its website Tuesday that its trustees have concluded the work of the foundation “is no longer viable.” The foundation helped identify young artists and provide them with training and resources as they developed careers.
Inside Teaching The Movie Star To Look Like A Credible Ballerina
“I wanted her to understand what muscle groups were involved, and how most people walking on the street are internally rotated with their shoulders — their palms are facing back. With ballet dancers, you have to spin that back so it looks more like their arms are an extension of their back, and that whole alignment lengthens your neck. It widens your shoulder line.”
Lyn Gardner: So What If Reviews Give Away The Ending?
There is an undoubted pleasure in watching a classic play unfold to an unknowing audience. I once saw Hedda Gabler in a regional theatre where it was clear from the gasps that most of the audience had no idea that she – spoiler alert – kills herself. But very few people would decide against seeing Three Sisters again because they already know they never get to Moscow – or feel no desire to watch Medea because they are aware she kills her kids.
Cameron Mackintosh’s Plans For New Non-Profit Theatre In London’s West End Approved
“The proposals will lead to most of the existing Ambassadors Theatre being demolished, with the existing West Street facade and part of the Tower Court facade retained. Under the plans, the building will then be redeveloped into a flexible performance space with 450 to 475 seats and a new floor built above the auditorium to house a rehearsal space for larger shows.”
Canadian Academics Sue Over Country’s Copyright Laws On Fair Use
The core issue involves what the Canadian and international publishing industries see as a deeply damaging expansion of “fair dealing” copyright compensation (called “fair use” in other countries). As we’ve reported earlier, vague and imprecise language in the Copyright Modernization Act has resulted in universities setting their own fair-dealing guidelines, in many cases copying and distributing material to students without paying the publisher or copyright holder. This has created patterns of usage which other educational institutions, including K–12 schools, have then adopted. Canadian publishers have estimated they’re losing more than $50 million annually in copyright revenue.
Turmoil, Staff And Donor Departures At Boston’s Venerable Atheneum
The tumult is extraordinary at the Athenaeum, an elegant private library on Beacon Street whose five galleried floors house a valuable collection of more than 750,000 objects, including paintings by John Singer Sargent, a first edition folio of Audubon’s “The Birds of America,” and sections of the personal library of George Washington, among other rarities.
Prisoner Gets Book Deal, And State Decides It Wants To Bill Him For Room And Board
“In the summer of 2016, Curtis Dawkins, a felon who is serving a life sentence in Michigan for murdering a man during a botched robbery, got some unexpected good news. Scribner, one of the top literary publishing houses in the United States, wanted to publish his debut collection of short stories, and offered him $150,000. … But his surprising literary debut also caught the attention of Michigan’s attorney general, who now wants Mr. Dawkins, 49, to use his financial windfall to pay for his incarceration.”
Is Africa’s Film Industry Finally Starting To Get Some Traction?
Many cinemas in Africa also have a hard time simply staying open: expensive film rights, high rent and pirated copies of movies have caused a movie-slump on the continent. And the theatres which are in operation mostly show Hollywood productions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), all cinemas were sold in the 1970s during the rule of former president Mobutu Sese Seko. Political unrest and armed conflict made it difficult for filmmakers to work freely and creatively over the next few decades. The situation only eased after 2010 and in 2014, the first international film festival took place in Kinshasa. Cinemas are now popping up again around the country.
Rethinking China’s Rote Education System
There are growing complaints – especially from entrepreneurs – that China’s education system encourages emulation rather than innovation. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, has voiced such concerns. “If we are not innovative…if we are not creative enough it will be very difficult to survive in this century.” As the economy matures, manufacturing shrinks and services expand, these worries will grow.
Steppenwolf Theatre Co. Is Selling Some Real Estate To Pay For A Fourth Theater
The Chicago company is selling a building it own just south of its main campus, where it already has three theaters of various sizes.
How Do We Teach Young People In The Theatre To Advocate For Themselves?
“Our industry cannot afford to keep sending the message to its actors that they must suffer in silence, and the change begins in theatre education. How can we train young actors to be advocates for their emotional, physical, and mental well-being? How can we empower students to recognize and respond to their intuition rather than ignoring it? What does it look like to teach self-protection and preservation as part of youth theatre curriculum?”
Tamara Rojo Says Her Boyfriend Dancing In The Company She Runs Isn’t Nepotism (He’s Too Good For That)
The former Royal Ballet star and current artistic director of English National Ballet has been catching some flack for her romance with principal dancer Isaac Hernández (who’s 16 years younger). SDhe insists there is “not even a possibility” of conflict of interest: “He has won all the awards you can possibly win, so there was nowhere I could promote him.”
Distracted? We Need A “Slow Thought” Movement. And Here’s A Manifesto
Slow Thought is a porous way of thinking that is non-categorical, open to contingency, allowing people to adapt spontaneously to the exigencies and vicissitudes of life. Italians have a name for this: arrangiarsi – more than ‘making do’ or ‘getting by’, it is the art of improvisation, a way of using the resources at hand to forge solutions. The porosity of Slow Thought opens the way for potential responses to human predicaments.
Roxane Gay: I Can Write The ‘Batgirl’ Movie; DC Comics: Okay, Let’s Do It
“After Joss Whedon stepped down as the film’s writer and director on Thursday, Gay tweeted saying, ‘Hey [DC Comics] I can write your Batgirl movie, no prob.’ The tweet quickly garnered attention, leading Michele Wells, a Warner Bros. vice president who also works on DC films, to respond to Gay’s message. ‘If you’re serious … contact me,’ Wells wrote, providing her email address.”
Indianapolis Symphony And Ex-Principal Bassoonist Settle Age Discrimination Lawsuit
“John Wetherill, 63, filed the lawsuit in March against the Indiana Symphony Society Inc., the not-for-profit that oversees the ISO. The 17-page complaint alleged years of age discrimination and harassment by ISO music director and conductor Krzysztof Urbanski, and said ISO leadership knowingly allowed the behavior to occur.”
The CD Isn’t Dying – It’s Just That Its Market Is Changing
“As streaming takes over the music business, there are signs that the CD is still going strong – just not at Best Buy or Target.”
Filmmaker Kevin Smith Does Standup Comedy Gig, Has Massive Heart Attack
The director of Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma and other films had finished shooting the first of two comedy specials at a club near Los Angeles when he suffered a “widow-maker” coronary, with one artery fully blocked.
Comcast, Elbowing Murdoch And Fox Aside, Makes $31 Billion Bid For European Satellite TV Giant Sky
“U.S. cable giant and NBCUniversal owner Comcast has made an unsolicited $31 billion (£22 billion) takeover bid for European pay TV giant Sky, offering more than Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. NBCUniversal’s parent company unveiled its all-cash offer of £12.50 per share ($17.48) to Sky’s shareholders early Tuesday London time. That marks a 16 percent premium to Fox’s existing bid of £10.75 per share.”
New Lead In 50-Year-Old Case Of Stolen Caravaggio
The 1609 painting Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence was stolen from a Palermo church in 1969, and since then many mafia informants have told authorities tales about it ranging “from the unlikely to the absurd.” But now someone has offered an account of the work’s fate that may be credible.
Fire Breaks Out At 1,300-Year-Old Temple In Tibet, And Outside World Has No Idea Of Damage
“On Saturday evening, Tibetan social media users posted photos and videos of the ancient Jokhang Temple complex in the region’s capital, Lhasa, a UNESCO world heritage site, with one of its golden roofs engulfed in flames. … The blaze may have severely damaged the 1,300 year-old temple and many of its precious architectural features, murals and relics; or perhaps it was small and quickly extinguished, and the temple is more or less fine.” The Chinese government says the latter, but many observers don’t trust its account.
London’s Southbank Centre Pulls Ads From Daily Mail After ‘Homophobic’ Column About Famous Gay Couple’s Baby
Great Britain’s largest performing arts center is one of several organizations who have said they will no longer advertise in the UK tabloid following a column by conservative pundit Richard Littlejohn about the child that Olympic diver Tom Daley and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black are having with a surrogate mother.
Mixed-Race Teenager Chosen To Be Joan Of Arc In French Parade; Racists Flip Out
“Mathilde Edey Gamassou was chosen among 250 girls Monday to play Joan for a spring festival marking the victory of the Catholic warrior saint in breaking the English siege of Orléans in 1429. … But the announcement has been met with a flurry of posts on Twitter and on far-right websites branding her nomination an exercise in ‘diversity propaganda’ and an attempt to re-write French history.”