“In 2012, total industry sales in the book business fell just under 1 percent over all, but those of downloadable audiobooks rose by more than 20 percent. That year, 13,255 titles came out as audiobooks, compared with 4,602 in 2009.”
The Typical Arts Worker in Britain Is –
– a 34-year-old Londoner who makes just under £20,000 a year. She has a university degree, likely works two jobs (at least one of which in administration), has had five jobs in the past ten years, and isn’t being supported by anyone else. Behold the UK Arts Salary Survey 2013/14
Why Is Peter Pan Always Played By a Woman?
There are certainly teenaged boys who could do it, and J.M. Barrie originally wanted the stage role to be filled by a male. So how did we end up with Mary Martin and Cathy Rigby? A combination of historical happenstance and English labour law.
Why People Have So Much Trouble Recognizing Their Own Incompetence
“‘The best lack all conviction,’ wrote the poet W. B. Yeats, ‘while the worst are full of passionate intensity.’ Turns out he wasn’t just describing Europe after World War I. He was describing any given Wednesday.”
Carlos Acosta Meets Christiane Amanpour
The CNN superstar interviews the Royal Ballet superstar as he begins to wind down his ballet career. (He says he may do classical dance for only one more season.) (video)
Is TV’s Pilot Season Officially Dead?
And if so, what does a year-round schedule mean for actors?
Dance’s Injury Problem (Why Does It Have To Be This Way?)
“Ballet has for centuries been taught by its high priests like a sacred mystery, shut off from medical analysis of its principles. Given the horrendously high rate of injury it seems to entail (mostly related to repetitive strain rather than sudden accident), isn’t it time that a comprehensive review, informed by modern physiology, was made of its theories and practices?”
Want To De-Motivate Your Unconfident Kid? Praise Them
“As the researchers predicted, inflated praise led children with low self-esteem to choose the less-challenging assignments. For children with high self-esteem, it had the opposite effect, increasing the likelihood they’d pick the more difficult task.”
Ballet San Jose Makes Extra Budget Cuts Before Season Opener
“The South Bay’s major resident dance company, which has long struggled with its finances, announced Thursday that it will cut its sparsely attended Saturday matinees as well as replace its substitute recorded music for a live orchestra at its Feb. 14-16 performances.”
Show Us Your Audience Data, Says Arts Council England
“Arts Council England is to introduce new conditions on funding that would force its national portfolio organisations to share their audience data.”
Ousted ‘WhatsOnStage’ Editor To Sue
“Former WhatsOnStage chief Terri Paddock has spoken out for the first time about her shock departure from the theatre website at the end of last year, describing it as ‘sudden and unexpected’. She said she had asked solicitors to pursue legal action on her behalf.”
Terrifying News of the Day: A Lot of ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Was Not Fiction
Okay, not the precious bodily fluids obsession, and not the part about Slim Pickens astride a nuclear missile, but beyond that …
Here’s the Latest Hot Hollywood Movie Director to Take Up Series Television
David O. Russell (I ♥ Huckabees, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) and scriptwriter Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) have been commissioned for 13 episodes of “an upstairs/downstairs soap centered on a private country club.” (And this will be for network television rather than cable.)
Atom Egoyan on Why Actors in a Feature Beat Real People in a Documentary
“In the documentaries [about the West Memphis Three] many of the characters implicate themselves by virtue of the fact that they’re performing for a documentary camera … And I felt that dramatically, using professional actors you could actually achieve a degree of naturalism that maybe in a documentary [you can’t, because] there’s always an agenda.” (audio)
Alice Munro Explains Why She Used to Get Hate Mail
“Many people then, and quite a few people now, want to read books that make them feel good, make them feel happy. … I didn’t understand that you read books in order to feel that the world is better than it is, and so I was offending without really understanding it for quite a while.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.23.14
Are You a Board Member or a Bored Member?
Source: Field Notes | Published on 2014-01-23
Just in: Dutch Police arrest suspects with 1731 violin
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-23
The moral of the story
Source: Sandow | Published on 2014-01-23
Other Places: Teachout And Iverson On Ellington
Source: RiffTides | Published on 2014-01-23
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Should America Have A “Creative Laureate”? (Portland Has One)
“I feel like we are really falling behind. We need somebody to advocate creativity on a nationwide level. It’s not like the National Endowment for the Arts hasn’t done that, but maybe we need a fresh face. Maybe we need something that is very non-partisan and can start a different way of dialogue, not necessarily government-mandated.”
Digital Publishing Has Changed What It Means To Be An Author
“Only 20% of the 1,600 self-published authors surveyed, and just a quarter of the almost 800 writers with a traditional book deal, judged it “extremely important” to ‘make money writing books’. Shift the issue to publishing ‘a book that people will buy’ and the figures leap to 56% and 60% respectively.”
English National Opera Loses Music Director, Gains Another
“After leading English National Opera to arguably its most successful and consistent period of musical achievement in for the last 20 years or so, the company has announced this morning that its music director, Edward Gardner, will leave ENO at the end of the 2014/15 season after eight years in the job.”
Critic and Artist Douglas Davis, 80
“[He] had parallel careers as an art critic for Newsweek and as an artist himself, doing work that explored the possibilities of video and the Internet as creative and interactive mediums.”
Berlin Philharmonic Offers Abbado Concerts For Free Viewing
“The Berlin Philharmonic have decided to mark the passing of their former Chief Conductor by making all of his concerts in their Digital Concert Hall free to view for anyone who cares to pay an online visit.”