“This idea of following logic till its endpoint, when it becomes a solution to a problem we never really knew existed, is clearly visible in Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks and René Magritte’s paradoxical pipe. But it’s also in SkyMall’s ridiculously haphazard utilitarian offerings. What could be more invested in breaking the reign of logic than a rappel backpack or the Siamese Slanket?”
Artist Shows Us All How Not To Respond To A Negative Review
Loris Gréaud decided to tell everyone who’d listen that Lauren Smart, arts editor at the Dallas Observer, needs to get laid.
At The (Very Crowded) Jaipur Literary Festival
“The heaving, barging, chattering throng of a thousand or so people, packing the aisles and testing the walls of the auditorium … was remarkable and exhilarating. It was a much younger, livelier and more euphoric crowd than literary festivals usually attract. It wanted to be provoked, was eager to laugh and fought to be heard: as the microphones went around for questions, eager hands snatched at them.”
Why The Idea Of Machines That Can Think Creeps Some Of Us Out
Tania Lombrozo: “My sense is that the valley of ‘uncanny thinking’ is real, but elicits a more existential than visceral response. And if that’s so, perhaps it’s because we’re threatened by the idea that human thinking isn’t unique, and that maybe human thinking isn’t so special.”
Looks Like The Tate Gave Itself To BP For Cheap
The (40% state-funded) group of museums, having lost its years-long battle against environmental activists demanding disclosure, revealed how much it has been receiving in sponsorship money from the petroleum giant over the past 17 years. The amount has been described in press headlines as “surprisingly low”, “embarrassingly small”, and “laughably small”.
D.C. Theaters Expand Helen Hayes Awards Into “Helens” And “Hayeses”
“The split generally falls along professional lines. If most of a show’s performers are Equity (union) actors, that’s a Hayes show. If they aren’t, it’s a Helen, regardless of theater. Got it? … Illustrating how the ‘Helen’ and ‘Hayes’ distinctions really go show by show, not theater by theater, is the case of Arena Stage.”
Why Do All American Movies Have Scenes In Diners?
Okay, not absolutely every one, but the roadside eatery is so common in films that American viewers have long taken a diner scene for granted. As it turns out, a diner serves a couple of very useful purposes in a screenplay.
Did Archaeologists Just Find Cervantes’ Grave?
“Archaeologists made the find over the weekend during excavations to solve the centuries-old mystery of where the famed Spanish writer was laid to rest. The initials on a plank of the coffin were formed with metal tacks embedded into the wood.”
Is There TOO Much Arts Journalism?
It’s uncomfortable to think that more arts writing is creating less substantive engagement with the arts, but the arts are not the only field wrestling with this issue. As Alice Robb reported (ironically, in The New Republic, last September), “Science has never been so democratic. It’s just not clear whether democracy is what science needs.” There may be no correlation between current arts participation numbers and the increase in arts journalism, but arts journalism played a significant role in audience development during the 20th century.
She Won Two Oscars But Facing Moving Out Of Her Apartment For Lack Of Work
Dianne Weist “earned Oscars for best supporting actress for 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, both directed by Woody Allen. But after that, she found she was only getting offered roles to play “a nice mom, and that’s it. That’s all that ever came, except in theater.”
What Do Conductors Really Do? Two Of Them (Both Women) Tell Us
Rising young Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra and mid-career Australian maestra Simone Young discuss learning and shaping a score, keeping your head about you on and off the podium, and why they’d rather not have to deal with the woman-conductor thing. (audio)
Osipova And Goddard Make History At Britain’s National Dance Awards
“The Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova and contemporary dancer Jonathan Goddard become the first to win in both major dancer categories, while Carlos Acosta takes home the lifetime achievement honours.”
The Many (English-Speaking) Lives Of “Anna Karenina”
“Why does a novel that already has at least six or seven English-language editions need yet another update? Journalist and author Masha Gessen discusses the difficulty of translating a literary masterpiece and argues the more the better.” (podcast)
Learning How To Sound Like A Woman After You’ve Become One
‘The hormones used in male-to-female transitions have no effect on the vocal cords, meaning that even after a cosmetic and surgical transition into women, the male-sounding voice often keeps transgender people tied to their old identities.” So a small group of voice specialists have developed techniques to teach transgender women how to make their speech patterns match their gender expression.
Why TV Is the Perfect Place for Indie Filmmakers
James Poniewozik: “There is, arguably, richer potential in landing a TV deal than making an independent movie, shopping it around, and trying to get it attention in theaters. … But I’d also argue that TV is a good match for indie filmmakers for other than economic and practical reasons.”
Which Show Pioneered Race-Blind Casting On Broadway? (Hint: It Was In 1944)
“Bucking Broadway’s trend,” the musical’s creators – all children of Jewish immigrants, and so no strangers to discrimination themselves – “cast African-Americans to play ‘full-fledged citizens who were portrayed equitably with their white colleagues’.” And they cast a Japanese-American as the ingenue – in 1944.
Is Disney Diluting Its Brand As Animator of Classic Children’s Tales?
“A crucial part of the Disney magic has always been its total control over ‘the vault,’ its 80-year-old catalog of animated features that are only released for sale for a limited time before becoming artificially scarce again.” But the studio has been busy remaking many of its classic animated titles – Sleeping Beauty (as Maleficent), Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast (not to mention the 1996 101 Dalmatians) – in live action. Why?
Old Master Paintings Are Almost Cheap These Days
“That $3 million Caravaggio is looking like a bargain compared to an $81.9 million Andy Warhol.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.26.15
Sotheby’s Raises Its Buyer’s Premium. How Much Is Too Much?
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-01-26
Monday Recommendation: Bley, Sheppard, Swallow
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-01-26
Equal Parts Hip-Hop and High Art, Seattle’s Amy O’Neal Finally Tours
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2015-01-26
Ruff stuff
(David Jays on reviving Jacobean tragedy)
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-01-26
AAMD’s Midwinter Meeting: Cultural Property, “Public Trust”
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-01-26
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The Show Must Go On: Blizzards Don’t Shut Down Broadway (Well, Almost Never)
Playbill looks at two decades worth of big storms, and has to go back to 1996 to find one that closed more than a very few shows. (Except for Sandy, which didn’t have any snow.)
But This Snowstorm IS Shutting Down Broadway (Blame Gov. Cuomo)
“Broadway theatres will go dark the evening of Jan. 26 as a major winter weather system bears down on the Northeast, with anywhere from 18 to 24 inches of snow forecast to fall across the New York City area in the next 24 hours. Several productions have already canceled Tuesday performances.”
As New York Faces A Monster Snowstorm, The Times Gives The City A Guide To The Arts From Their Apartments
“Your stereo is searching for something better than what you’re listening to now? You need a new book? We hear you. Here are our recommendations for what’s streaming on TV, what should be rocking your apartment and great reads to curl up with.”
Apparently, Coloradans Love The Arts More Than The Rest Of Us Do
“‘Once you recite a line of Shakespeare, you are hooked for life,’ said Jeremy Shamos, board chair for Curious Theatre Company, which has an aggressive youth outreach program that includes a workshop for aspiring teen playwrights.”
The People Who Say Michel Houellebecq’s New Novel Is Islamophobic Are Wrong: It’s *Francophobic*
Adam Gopnik: “Houellebecq is, simply, a satirist. He likes to take what’s happening now and imagine what would happen if it kept on happening. … The principal target of the satire [in Submission] is not French Islam – which is really a bystander that gets, at most, winged – but the spinelessness of the French intellectual class”