“Nielsen BookScan reports that a total of £83.3m worth of print books were sold in the run-up to Christmas, which marks the highest since 2007.” Perhaps not entirely coincidental that the (previously) final Harry Potter book was published in … 2007.
This Year’s Oscar Swag Bag Is Worth $200K
“Oscar nominees in the acting and directing categories at this month’s Academy Awards will be given a 10-day, first-class trip to Israel valued at $55,000, included among other goodies in their $200,000 gift bag.”
The Massive, And Strange, New Cultural Center That Was The Kirchners’ Parting Gift To Argentina
Housed in the handsome (and enormous) old Buenos Aires central post office, with up to 50 performance spaces, a full modern art museum, a brand-new 1,800-seat concert hall called “the Blue Whale” and resting on concrete pillars, no signs, and way too many staffers, the Centro Cultural Kirchner has divided opinion as sharply as the couple themselves did.
Is The Internet Making It Difficult For Us To Read Deeply?
“Done badly (which is to say, done cynically), the Internet reduces us to mindless clickers, racing numbly to the bottom of a bottomless feed; but done well, it has the potential to expand and augment the very contemplative space that we have prized in ourselves ever since we learned to read without moving our lips.”
How Humans Learn What Constitutes ‘Fairness’
Maria Konnikova looks at research into when – and where – children don’t accept an uneven distribution of goodies, even if the unevenness is in their favor.
How The Naming And Classification Of Clouds Transformed Landscape Painting
“The clouds in many 19th-century European paintings look drastically different than those in the 18th century. There are layers to their texture, with whisps of cirrus clouds flying over billowing cumulus, and stratus hovering low. Clouds weren’t classified by type until 1802, and their subsequent study influenced artists from John Constable to J. M. W. Turner.”
Short Stories Used To Be Able To Shock Us. No More.
“Perhaps the short story in America has matured to a point where the form can no longer be shocked.”
Does Theatre Need To Have Some Clarity, Or Is Hanging Out, Confused But Together, Cool?
“We were ushered into the New Ohio Theatre, where the seats had been replaced by red felt mats, and we lay down for an hour, while the sun (or moon) before us turned from red to orange to silver to white and back again, and the sound track offered the sound of crickets, and waves, and the occasional folk song, and perhaps the distant yelps of a dingo. It was a lovely rest period, more pleasant and certainly longer than any I spent in kindergarten.”
Netflix Used Big Data To Design ‘House Of Cards’ As A Big Hit
But big data only goes so far: “Amazon’s show wasn’t a booming success because they used data all the way. Netflix, however, looked at what users like and used that insight to think up a concept for what they believed would be a hit show, and it clearly worked.”
The Lyric Opera Gets More Renee Fleming And More New Voices
“Modeled after the ‘American Voices’ initiative Fleming brought to Washington’s Kennedy Center in 2013, ‘Chicago Voices’ will partner Lyric’s community engagement department, Lyric Unlimited, with the Chicago Public Library, Chicago History Museum and Columbia College Chicago to engage and interact with city residents in various disciplines and musical genres.”
Cynthia Harvey Named Artistic Director Of American Ballet Theater School
“Her appointment comes with the retirement in April of the current artistic director, Franco De Vita, who became the school’s principal in 2005 before taking on the directorship in 2013.” Harvey danced with ABT for 20 years before retiring in 1996.
The Most Popular Course Online? How To Learn
The course is “aimed at a broad audience of learners who wanted to improve their learning performance based on what we know about how brains learn.”
We Used To Regard Books As Dangerous…
Throughout the 19th century, novels were regarded with the same suspicion with which we treat, say, Eli Roth’s ‘torture-porn’ Saw movies today. They were dangerous not simply because of the stories they might contain – the romantic expressions of wish-fulfillment, for example, that led Emma Bovary down the garden path of adultery – but also because reading itself was seen as a kind of possession: an encroachment of the ‘other’ upon the self.
Pasadena Playhouse Artistic Director To Step Down
Sheldon Epps, who departs at the end of next season, “helped Pasadena Playhouse to become one of the most prominent regional theaters while making strides toward diversifying the shows it mounted and the people who came to see them.”
Off-Broadway Powerhouse Signature Theatre Hires New Artistic Director From Lincoln Center
“Signature Theatre has settled on a successor to founding artistic director James Houghton, who will step down in June after 25 years. Effective July 1, Paige Evans will take on the new role … after guiding Lincoln Center Theater’s emerging artists program, LCT3, since its inception in 2008.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.07.16
The descent into order
Anyone who took physics or wore a black turtleneck and smoked clove cigarettes will know about ‘entropy’ – the tendency of a system to descend into disorder, to lose working energy over time. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-01-07
Making the World Safe for Julius
Julius [Eastman] is not someone you spring on an unsuspecting public unprepared: how do you warn a wide audience that you’re performing pieces with titles like Crazy N… … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-01-07
Cribbing from Frankie
I have never been one to post lists of what I’m listening to lately, for quite a number of reasons. One is that it would often be embarrassing. Right now I’m driving around listening to … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-01-07
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“Star Wars” Passes “Avatar” To Beat All-Time North American Box Office Record
The studio claims the JJ Abrams film has passed the $760.5m (£520m) taken by Avatar over its lifetime, but has yet to give official figures.
Anish Kapoor Donates Million-Dollar Sculpture To Help Fund New Dance Program
The choreographer Stephen Petronio, who is beginning a $3 million fund-raising campaign to establish a choreographic residency program in Pawling, N.Y., announced Thursday that he had received a lead gift from the artist Anish Kapoor, who donated a sculpture that is expected to fetch $1 million in a private sale.
Total Music Sales Declined In 2015
According to Nielsen Music’s 2015 year-end report, total album sales dropped 6.1 percent from 257 million in 2014 to 241.4 million in 2015. Even digital track sales declined 12.5 percent in 2015 compared to 2014.
Numbers: Music Consumption Increased In 2015
“US music consumption rose 15.2 percent in 2015 from a year earlier to 549.4 million albums or their digital equivalent, reversing a decline in 2014, Nielsen Music said in an annual report.”
Detroit’s Music Hall Needs Money Or It Will Close
Music Hall officials said failure to meet its April 30 deadline could lead to the institution closing its doors. “It’s dire,” said board secretary Shaun Wilson. “We need to raise $1.7 million or we have a serious situation.”
NYS Attorney General Challenges Plan To Revive NY City Opera
“The filing … does not offer a formal opinion on whether the NYCO Renaissance plan is workable. But it raises serious questions about whether the reorganization relies on overly rosy projections of high donations and low expenses, and argues that the group should offer more evidence that its plan would be sustainable beyond its first few years.”
Alan Gordon, 70, Longtime (And Combative) Leader Of Singers’ And Dancers’ Union
“As the executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, Mr. Gordon represented chorus members, soloists, dancers, choreographers and production personnel at major companies across the country, from the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet to the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet. Since many cultural institutions have been trying to curb their spending, he often used unorthodox tactics to fight for the interests of his members.”