“Researchers have found a key that may unlock the only library of classical antiquity to survive along with its documents” – from a villa in Herculaneum, destroyed along with Pompeii by the Vesuvius eruption – “raising at least a possibility of recovering vanished works of ancient Greek and Roman authors such as the lost books of Livy’s history of Rome.”
A Charlie Hebdo Survivor’s Testimony
Philippe Lançon: “I thought about Bernard, Cabu, and the others in my narrow field of view, all dead now, and I wondered, with no idea of how seriously I was hurt, what determined life or death … The only difference between us was a couple of inches’ variation in the paths of the bullets and our respective locations when the black-legged men came in.”
Henri Matisse – The Lost Interview
“On August 5th 1946, two years after Paris was liberated from the Germans, a young American soldier named Jerome Seckler visited Henri Matisse. … Until now this interview has never been published.”
Ballet Dancers Say It Would Be Easy To Improve Australia
“The pair do not subscribe to Australia’s old ‘cultural cringe’; they are living proof of what the country is capable of artistically. But asked how they would improve Australia, they answer immediately and in unison: ‘More money to the arts.'”
Playwrights Need To Belong In Order To Thrive
“It empowers both the writer and theater to take risks to create the stories not being written. In addition, writing for a particular community––if you truly honor that audience’s needs––produces plays that are more specific, which in fact makes them more universal and ready for other productions elsewhere in the country.”
Music Journalists Don’t Take Women Seriously As Writers, Producers Of Their Own Music
“Everyone is prejudged and sorted into preexisting categories. Man with guitar: songwriter. Man at a mixing console: Producer and mastermind. Woman with a shiny outfit: pop star.”
Women Fight On Many Fronts To Gain Equality In Hollywood
“Increasing numbers of people — if mostly women — are pushing back hard at the industry’s biases. And they’re pushing back publicly, a gutsy stance in an industry that runs on secrets, lies and fear.”
Actors Who Impress Web Shorts Or Series Directors Are Finding Larger Roles
Which is good, because web shorts pay in what’s known in the biz as “deferred compensation” – aka nothing.
Someone Broke Off King Tut’s Beard – And Glued It Back On With A Ruinous Epoxy
“The mask should have been taken to the conservation lab but they were in a rush to get it displayed quickly again and used this quick drying, irreversible material.”
Where Science And Science Fiction Meet
“Many scientists and engineers acknowledge that science fiction helped to spark their imagination of what was possible in science (immersion in the genre from a young age might help explain why I now research unconventional computers). And science fiction authors are inspired by future science possibilities. But how do novel scientific ideas get into SF authors’ heads in the first place?”
You Should Never Worry Alone
“Worrying alone does not have to be toxic, but it tends to become toxic because in isolation we lose perspective. We tend to globalize, catastrophize, when no one is there to act as a reality check. Our imaginations run wild.”
Here Are The Artifacts Tourists Have Stolen From Pompeii
In recent years hundreds of objects have been sent back to Pompeii in envelopes and packages, often accompanied by letters of apology. “There is a colourful legend that says that those who steal from Pompeii will be persecuted by bad luck.”
New National Theatre Head: Here’s Why Support Of Theatre Is Important
“One of the many arguments for public and private support of this organisation, and organisations like this one, is we are the compost, the manure, the fertiliser that feeds culture worldwide.”
A Revolutionary New Piano?
With promises of a “revolutionary piano” and its strapline “Sound Beyond Time” (I have literally no idea what that means) comes the Bogányi piano, named after its creator, the Hungarian pianist Gergely Bogányi.
Four Ways Artists Have Figured Out “Premium” Funding For Their Work
“Artists themselves are realising that their most devoted fans can bankroll the rest of their careers. Not only are they able to cut out the middle man, but they can make their runs far more limited – the extreme being just one person purchasing their goods. Here are some of the creatives who have cracked 21st-century patronage.”
The Arts World’s Diversity Problem (In All Its Forms)
“There is a severe problem with diversity in the arts, and the media, right across the board. It’s so obvious that you don’t even need statistics to see it. And it’s getting worse, now that the cost of living in many large cities plus, for example, the falling revenues in the music industry – means that it is much, much harder to make it. Those who do make it will typically have somewhere to crash during those lean years, and those who do are disproportionately well-off.”
Two Things The Canada Council Needs To Do To Make Its Arts Funding More Relevant
“One is to start devoting as much energy to engaging Canadians in the arts as it does to helping art get made, a direction that is becoming politically important in a democratic culture where the barriers (and even the distinction) between consumer and producer are breaking down. The other is figuring out how to channel funding to younger artists without destroying the achievements of the previous generation.”
Director Of Valencia’s Opera House Fired And Arrested
Helga Schmidt, who has long been criticized for lavish spending – on her lodging and travel expenses as well as on such expensive artists as Lorin Maazel, Plácido Domingo and Zubin Mehta – has been accused of manipulating contracts and accepting commissions on artists she engaged at the Palau de les Arts, part of the futuristic arts-and-sciences complex designed by Santiago Calatrava.
Chaos At India’s Film Censorship Board
“India’s film censorship organisation is in crisis after the resignation of its chair, Leela Samson, amid complaints of ‘interference, coercion and corruption’, and more than half its board members.”
Julie Taymor To Stage New Play About Drone Warfare
It seems such a good match of director and subject that you wonder why nobody thought of it sooner. George Brant’s Grounded features only one (human) character, to be played by Anne Hathaway.
‘This Is Not Just A Show About Fat Happy Dancing People’
“Kate Champion, artistic director of Force Majeure, and Kelli Jean Drinkwater, associate artist and fat activist, talk about the company’s new show featuring big-bodied performers. Nothing to Lose is ‘driven by dance’, says Champion, but also draws on the dancers’ real-life experiences to challenge preconceptions and reclaim a performance space for large bodies.” (video)
English National Opera Chair Resigns (He Just Can’t Stand Any More Funding Cuts)
“The chairman of [ENO], Martyn Rose, will step down from his position on 15 February, reportedly because he believes that a full-time commitment is required to guide the organisation through its £5m drop in Arts Council England funding.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.21.15
Engagement Principles: Current Thoughts
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-01-21
New Horizons in Microtonal Neoclassicism
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2015-01-21
Excited audience
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-01-20
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Why Mark Rylance Won’t Be The Next Artistic Director Of The Guthrie
“I’m in a moment in my career after 10 years at the Globe where all this kind of film stuff is opening up,” he said. “It very challenging and interesting to me.”
How Should Artists Be Paid. Here’s One Idea
“The campaign is lobbying for artists to be paid a fee for showing their work in public galleries. It found that 71% of UK artists have not been paid to display their work in publicly funded galleries over the past three years and 63% of artists have turned down exhibitions as a result. The research was based on 134 galleries that regularly receive funding from the arts councils in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.”