“I started looking into whether lead degrades in water, trying to find out why fisherman use lead weights and researching the composition of lead type, as I didn’t really know anything about the chemistry of it and wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to start looking for something that had rotted away.”
Data’s In: A Map Of The Most Popular Music In Every Country Of The World
“The biggest surprise is that pop music doesn’t get more social-media love from Brazilians, who frequently request that pop stars “come to Brazil!” to the point of Internet meme notoriety.”
The World’s Biggest Movie Superstar – Most Americans Have Never Heard Of Him
“Given that Bollywood films are watched by a global three billion people, Amitabh Bachchan has a good claim to be the most famous actor in the world. In India, he has long transcended his day job to become a national institution, Brando, Pacino and De Niro rolled into one. Across Asia and the Middle East, [he] gets mobbed in the streets.”
Whatever Happened To Henry Winkler (Whom We Won’t Call The Fonz)? He Became A Dyslexia Activist
His own case – undiagnosed at the time – of the learning disability was so severe that he just barely managed to complete high school; he only discovered the reason when his son was diagnosed with the same condition. Since then, he has traveled the world as advocate – and co-written 28 children’s books (so far) about a boy struggling with dyslexia.
How Languages And Genes Evolve Together (Geography Is Destiny)
“The thing we’ve done that no one else has is match worldwide genetic populations to their languages, so that you’re looking at a comparable set, … showing that language and genes do in fact share similar geographic fault lines.”
Simon Rattle Talks Sibelius
The Berlin Philharmonic’s chief conductor and Finnish music journalist/Sibelius expert Vesa Sirén spend an hour talking about the composer’s music – and what the Philharmoniker find easy and difficult about it. (video interview in English, web page in Finnish)
The Common Core Has Not Killed Literature
“The Common Core language-arts and literacy standards call for ‘a true balance of informational and literary texts.’ Many teachers and administrators misinterpret that. They immediately focus on the shift to nonfiction texts and forget the ‘balance.’ There’s nothing in the standards about Ponyboy, but I certainly see how I could use him, with some nonfiction and multimedia texts about gangs, to give my kids a rigorous learning experience. And that’s my choice.”
British Theatres Are Doing More Plays With Less Funding
“More plays were staged by the UK’s most-subsidised theatre companies in 2014 compared with five years earlier, despite fears about funding cuts, BBC research suggests. A total of 200 full plays and musicals were staged by 20 of the venues and touring production companies with the biggest government grants in 2014. That is up from 163 full plays in 2009.”
The State Of UK Theatre: Boom Or Bust?
“A few years ago, the theatre establishment mobilised stars from Danny Boyle to Dame Helen Mirren to warn about funding cuts. New figures suggest theatres have actually increased production levels in recent years. So what is the story behind the stats?”
You May Think You Can’t Dance But Nepalis Will Make You Try
“Peer pressure is integral to Nepali dance. There’s even a word for this: nachaune, ‘to make dance.’ … It’s an elaborate group flirtation. Coyly insist you can’t, and then once you’re begged, bust out all the moves. No matter how much you might rather drop dead on the spot than dance in front of a huge crowd of people, it’s useless to resist, especially if you’re a foreigner.”
All This Fuss Over English National Opera. What Fun!
I can’t help feeling we’ve been here before, and repeatedly, in the past – and not just with ENO, either, but with so many of our opera houses. The management-level soap opera that surrounds it all is always great gossipy fun, but whoever resigns, stays, joins, is fired, insulted, or otherwise slandered, Charlotte I think puts her finger on the bigger story, which is really about the cultural function of opera in the country.
Why It Took Harper Lee 55 Years To Publish A Second Book
The extraordinary career – or perhaps non-career – of Harper Lee bears witness to a quite different way of conducting a writing life. She wrote one novel, an immediate classic and perhaps the best-selling novel of the 20th century, To Kill a Mockingbird. Since its publication in 1960, Lee has published no other book.
The Peculiar History Of The Unicorn
“Today, the unicorn is a decidedly more magical, gentle creature, running around on rainbows and inspiring millions with regular appearances in My Little Pony and the occasional acid trip and in North Korea, apparently. I’d recommend against heading over to Pyongyang to find one, though. Maybe just stick to the acid.”
The (Improbably) Hottest Show In New York
“The mobile-ticket site, Today Tix, has between 1,500 and 2,000 entries daily for a lottery to two tickets offered for $10 each. Sporadic tickets are available on StubHub for exorbitant fees: a single ticket is listed for $650 for this Saturday.”
Obama Budget Proposal Calls For Slight Increase In NEA, NEH Funding
“President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2016 calls for slight increases in federal funding for cultural institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. But the proposed increases wouldn’t come close to reversing the cuts experienced by those groups during the previous five years.”
This Dance Venue Can Show The Rest Of Us A Few Things About Developing New Audiences
Sadler’s Wells in London “has started to build a programme of commissioned work for children and family audiences that runs throughout the year and not just at Christmas.”
Milan Kundera’s First Novel In 13 Years Is On The Way
“Faber will release Kundera’s The Festival of Insignificance, translated from the original French by Linda Asher, on 18 June. The short work was first published in Italy in 2013, and has since topped charts in Italy, Spain and France. … The US edition will be released by HarperCollins on 23 June.”
Philadelphia Museum Of Art Receives Five Major French Impressionist Paintings
“A late Cézanne view of Mont Sainte-Victoire, a Manet still life of fruit, a landscape and a cityscape by Pissarro, and a portrait of a young girl by Berthe Morisot – all [are from] a bequest from longtime museum supporter Helen Tyson Madeira, who died last year.”
New Arab News Channel Shut Down By State After One Day
The general manager of the network, called Al-Arab and based in Bahrain, said before launch, “We are going to be neutral; we are not going to take sides. We are going to bring in all sides in any conflict because right now we have a conflict in almost every Arab country.” And they did …
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.03.15
Minimum wages in the cultural sector: the case of Borderlands Books
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2015-02-03
The living dead
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-02-03
Andrew Patner
AJBlog: Life’s A Pitch Published 2015-02-03
Useful questions (1)
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-02-03
[ssba_hide]
Chicago Music Critic Andrew Patner, 55
“Patner’s sharp commentary and criticism, found in two weekly WFMT programs, ranged widely, from classical music and opera to theater, dance, visual art, books and films. He also contributed articles to numerous publications, including Art & Antiques, The New Yorker, Christian Science Monitor and New Art Examiner.”
The Long Wait: Harper Lee To Publish Second Novel
The recently discovered book, titled “Go Set a Watchman,” was completed in the mid-1950s, in the midst of the civil rights movement. It takes place 20 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Though it’s effectively a sequel, Ms. Lee actually wrote “Go Set a Watchman” first.
London’s National Gallery Workers Go On Strike
“Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union mounted a picket line outside the gallery in protest at plans to switch visitor services to a commercial provider.”