“In a contemporary, literary twist on old homesteading incentives, a new nonprofit organization called Write a House is refurbishing three two-bedroom houses in Detroit and accepting applications this spring for writers to move in, rent free. Poets, journalists, novelists, and anyone who falls somewhere in between are encouraged to apply.”
How Did The Art From The Cover Of A Science Fiction Book Become A $5.4 Million Painting?
How did this happen? Glenn Brown basically reimagined Chris Foss’ work — although it looks as though all he did was repaint it, and fool around with the colors slightly.
Did Disney Really Need To Reinvent Prince Charming?
The new animated blockbuster Frozen subverts the fairy tale idea of a handsome, noble, chivalrous suitor by making him the surprise villain of the story. The gambit presumes, of course, that the Prince Charming myth needs debunking. On the contrary, argues Akash Nikolas, that myth serves some very useful and healthy purposes.
Russia Reclaims One of the Great Avant-Garde Painters
Natalia Goncharova and her husband left Russia in 1915 to work with Diaghilev; after the Revolution, they never went back. With a big retrospective at the Tretyakov Gallery, art lovers in Goncharova’s homeland and beyond are getting a fresh look at her work.
Seems Like Hollywood’s Shooting Movies Everywhere But In Hollywood
“How much longer can Hollywood claim to be the movie capital of the world? Can the California Legislature reverse the slide of film production away from Los Angeles simply by enhancing tax credits for the movie and television industry or, one day, will the Oscars be presented in Atlanta or Toronto or New Orleans?”
Is America Making Too Many Movies? (Hard To See The Screens For All The Clutter)
“There are, bluntly, too many lackluster, forgettable and just plain bad movies pouring into theaters, distracting the entertainment media and, more important, overwhelming the audience. Dumping “product” into theaters week after week damages an already fragile cinematic ecosystem.”
The Case For… (Erg!)… Listicles
“Are lists overused? Probably. Useful things often are, and lists are really, really useful. Here’s why we like ‘em, and why they probably won’t — and probably shouldn’t — go anywhere soon.”
Museum Of Modern Art Says It Will Tear Down Former Folk Art Museum After All
“The analysis that we undertook was lengthy and rigorous, and ultimately led us to the determination that creating a new building on the site of the former American Folk Art Museum is the only way to achieve a fully integrated campus.”
New Rules Threaten UK Online Art Market
“Under EU law, buyers already have the right to cancel purchases made through a website or outside the seller’s business premises where the buyer is not able to inspect the goods before the sale. Until now, auctions—whether conducted in the saleroom or online—were excluded as it was thought the right to cancel would encourage irresponsible bidding and could leave auction houses vulnerable to covering costs.”
Secret Readers – Mein Kampf Is A Best-Seller Online
“People might not have wanted to buy Mein Kampf at Borders or have it delivered to their home or displayed on their living room bookshelf, let alone get spotted reading it on a subway. But judging by hundreds of customer comments online, readers like that digital copies can be quietly perused then dropped into a folder or deleted.”
Meryl Streep Blasts Walt Disney
Presenting an award to Emma Thompson at the National Board of Review’s ceremony, Streep called Disney (among other things) “a gender bigot”.
World’s Most-Visited Art Museum Sees Dip in Attendance
You know which one it is, most likely. Its number of visitors for 2013, though down by half a million from an unusually successful 2012, is still about one-third higher than the figure for the runners-up.
Another Fat-Shaming Ballet Brouhaha, This Time in London
“The English National Ballet School has been accused of putting pressure on its students to lose weight in a controversial message on Facebook. A call for students … to ‘work off” Christmas calories appeared on the school’s Facebook page … It comes despite widespread industry concern about the issue of eating disorders among dancers.”
Traveling Across China, Playing the Hollywood Hits
The hardy musicians of the American Hollywood Film Orchestra “schlep by bus, train and plane to more than a dozen [Chinese] cities from late December to mid-January, offering up crowd-pleasing medleys from movies such as Titanic, Dances With Wolves, The Incredibles and The Godfather.”
Meet Senator Renzo Piano
The starchitect has been appointed to a lifetime seat in the upper house of Italy’s parliament.
Today’s Top AJBlog Posts 01.08.14
Go to the Gemba
Source: Engaging Matters | Published on 2014-01-08
Barbican loses its head of music
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-08
The Return of Pythagoras
Source: PostClassic | Published on 2014-01-08
Second-Rate Or “One Of The Greatest Ever”?
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-09
TT: So you want to see a show?
Source: About Last Night | Published on 2014-01-09
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A Manifesto For The Place Of Musicians In The World
“For starters, let’s decommission our obsession with being geniuses. Three-fourths of the people reading this are geniuses. Who in our world is not a genius? Such a diluted, entry-level position. Such resting on wilted laurels of cleverness. We all took the big leap into pursuing a career in the arts because we were crowned geniuses back wherever we came from. And now it’s the classic scenario: we’re the former high school football stars grateful to be riding the bench in the big leagues.”
Report: London Theatre Collapse Didn’t Keep Audiences Away From Theatres
“When I heard about the Apollo I said, ‘That’s it, we’re going to see some damage here’. But we’ve had a better [Christmas] period this year than we did last year – and that was when we were in our honeymoon period.”
Data Everywhere. So What Does It Tell Us About Culture?
“With museum archives, ancient manuscripts, and whole libraries being digitized, some researchers argue that data analysis will let studies of culture finally claim some of the empirical certainty traditionally associated with “hard” sciences like chemistry and physics.”
Newly Revealed: DeGaulle Was Contender For Nobel Literature Prize
“The Swedish Academy keeps all information about nominations and selections for the literature Nobel secret until 50 years have passed. Newly opened archives in Sweden show De Gaulle was one of 80 individuals suggested for the 1963 honour, alongside more obvious candidates including Pablo Neruda, Samuel Beckett and WH Auden.”
3D TV Didn’t Take Off So Now TV-Makers Are Pushing ULTRA-HD
“The moves are meant to coax consumers to pedal faster on their TV upgrade cycles. At the moment, most Americans buy new TVs about once every seven years.”
Yeah The Bafta Nominations Have Been Announced (So What Do We Learn From Them?)
“This year’s Bafta film nominations have been announced, and Gravity leads the field with 11 nominations. But what else is there to note about this year’s shortlist?”
‘The Piano World’s MacArthur Grant’ Goes to Rafal Blechacz
The 28-year-old has been named the seventh recipient of the $300,000 Gilmore Artist award, for which you can’t apply or even be told that you’re a candidate. Blechacz is in exalted company: his predecessors include Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ingrid Fliter and Kirill Gerstein.