“To say that Evgeny Morozov has gone out of his way to irritate powerful and influential people in the tech world doesn’t quite capture it. Doing so is his primary occupation.”
North Africa’s First Major International Photo Museum Opens in Morocco
The Marrakesh Museum of Photography and Visual Art has taken root despite difficulties in a country unused to the idea of art photography and, in some quarters, still suspicious of photography as a whole.
Chinese Archaeologists Save Ancient Cliff Tombs
“Archaeologists in China’s Sichuan Province recently conducted a rescue excavation of 600 cliff burials, the oldest of which date to the Eastern Han dynasty (AD25-220).”
2013’s Most-Pirated Movies (And The Highest-Selling)
“Despite the high number of pirated films, however, Hollywood isn’t hurting. The latest numbers show that 2013′s box office is poised to be the best yet with $10.9 billion domestically, slightly edging out 2012′s $10.8 billion.”
Here Are The Top Box Office Broadway Shows For 2013
“Records set over the Christmas period included a best-ever week for a straight play on Broadway when the Barrymore Theatre’s revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall earned $1.4 million (£845,000).”
She Learned To Dance In A Year On YouTube (Here’s How She Did It)
“I realized that things that look like magic are often just many hours of invisible practice. Since then I’ve learned guitar, cello, singing, card tricks, juggling, unicycling, origami, public speaking and design. There’s something really rewarding about not knowing how to do something, practicing like crazy, and then being able to do it.”
Baby Boomer Culture – Defined By Narcissism?
” I read the other day that a “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” lunch box from 1973 now sells for $1,200—and that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History owns one. I’m not quite sure which of those facts makes me sadder.”
Revisiting A Foot Soldier Of The Culture Wars
Sadly, Ron Athey’s career remains emblematic of a perverse trend: another American artist exiled because of the fierceness of his or her talent.
The Real Real Estate Of Edith Wharton’s ‘Age Of Innocence’
“Much of the 1920 book is centered on Mary Jones’s remarkable row of stone houses on Fifth Avenue, from 57th to 58th Street. But almost absent from Wharton’s writings is Mary’s sister Rebecca Jones, who built an equally impressive row just two blocks south.”
Fan Fiction Is Who We Are
“Like a funhouse mirror (usually a useless metaphor), fan fiction isn’t just entertaining for what it exaggerates, but for what it reveals in the exaggeration.”
Is High School Theatre Dying Because Of Censorship?
“Why aren’t more high schools producing David Mamet plays, or Neil LaBute, Yasmina Reza, John Logan, or Rajiv Joseph, and thereby exposing the students and the school community to new works? Because they’re too busy with Beauty and the Beast, Seussical, and The Wizard of Oz.”
Sharing Your Netflix Password Will Probably Get A Lot More Expensive
Uh-oh: “Selected customers pay more if increased number of people log in to the account at the same time.”
How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood
You know those weird Netflix genre categories you’ve seen on your “recommended” screen? Well: “Netflix possesses not several hundred genres, or even several thousand, but 76,897 unique ways to describe types of movies.”
Writer Elizabeth Jane Howard, 90
“[She] won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize in 1951 for her debut novel, The Beautiful Visit. But she is best known for her five-part family saga, The Cazalet Chronicles.” Martin Amis (her stepson) declared her “the most interesting woman writer of her generation.”
Cincinnati Art Museum Director Stepping Down
“Aaron Betsky is leaving his post as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum after seven years in the job.” Says the board chairman, “It’s time to give someone else a chance. He has done an incredible job and gotten done what he set out to do.”
West End Theatre Where Ceiling Collapsed Closed For Additional Week
“Performances of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Apollo Theatre have been cancelled for an extra week until January 11.” The auditorium ceiling at the Apollo fell in mid-performance on December 19.
The Sweet Science of Punch Sound Effects
“What is the sound of one hand punching? It depends what movie you’re watching.” It could be a human body part, a turkey, pizza dough, a watermelon, or dry pasta shells.
Postcards From Antartica’s Poet-in-Residence
“The National Science Foundation sent Jynne Dilling Martin to Antarctica this winter (the austral summer) as an artist-in-residence. [Here] are two poems she wrote from there.”
Top AJBlog Posts For 01.02.14
How a Brilliant Writer Got in His Own Way
Source: Straight|Up | Published on 2014-01-02
What Cooking and Writing Have in Common
Source: Out There | Published on 2014-01-02
Betsky Out At Cincinnati Art Museum
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-02
Hot video: Possibly the most horrible piano recital of the year
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-02
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The 20 Most-Pirated Musicians Of 2013
Although these year-end numbers show piracy is alive and well, BitTorrent piracy has been in decline in recent years, Musicmetric EVP Daniel Savage tells Billboard. “Previous research that we’ve done indicates that the increased availability of music via streaming is a contributing factor.”
Lawyer Fined For Outing JK Rowling Pseudonym Last Year
“Chris Gossage of London law firm Russells Solicitors — which represents Rowling — told a friend of his wife that the “Harry Potter” creator was author of “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” published last year under the name Robert Galbraith. The friend tweeted the information, and it was followed up by the Sunday Times.”
Lawsuits Mounting Over Faked Art Scandal
“It has become clear that some of the forged works remain in museum storage, that two were returned to the gallery and that the whereabouts of many more are unknown. Some of the duped buyers are taking action: three new lawsuits have been filed, bringing the number of ongoing civil cases to eight.”
What’s Killing New Music?
The idea that “the audience does not matter as much as “the music,” and that considering the audience as an essential part of music composition is tantamount to pandering.”