“A lot of my students just can’t tell a story. They can write sentences but they don’t know how to make a story go from there all the way through to the end without people dying of boredom in between. It’s a difficult thing to do and it’s a great skill to have. Can you teach that? I don’t think you can.”
The Novel That Predicted Russia’s Invasion of Crimea
Published in 1979, the book “ends with Russia annexing Crimea after its citizens are snookered into requesting the invasion themselves: in other words, it eerily anticipates this week’s news.”
David Robertson Re-Ups at St. Louis Symphony Through 2017-18
Currently in his ninth season in Missouri, the American conductor has brought the orchestra back to (and maybe beyond) the national prominence it enjoyed under Leonard Slatkin. (He also recently began a second major post: artistic director at the Sydney Symphony.)
Rediscovered Leonardo Sold for $75 Million
The oil-on-panel Christ figure, titled Salvator Mundi, was identified during a 2011 estate sale; Sotheby’s brokered its sale last May. (And no, they’re not going to tell us who bought it.)
The Art Of Becoming “The Everything Store”
Jeff Bezos, who grew up reciting lines from Star Trek, at one point considered calling the company MakeItSo.com, after the iconic command of his hero Captain Jean Luc Picard.
Researchers: Why We Get So Much Satisfaction From Busywork
“With rote work, you get a feeling of accomplishment, but you haven’t exerted a lot of mental activity. It gives you a feeling of fulfillment, but there’s not frustration or stress.”
Want To Read 1000 Words Per Minute? Designers Work On Reinventing Reading
Spritz Inc. is attempting to redesign reading–and renaming it “spritzing”–by streaming one word at a time at speeds varying between 250 and 1,000 words per minute. Words are centered around an “Optimal Recognition Point” in a special display called the “Redicle.”
State Audit: New York Schools Are Failing Arts Education Mandates
“New York State public schools administrators aren’t taking art seriously, according to a new report filed by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli last Tuesday. The audit sampled 310 students who attended 166 public high schools from 2007 to 2011 and found that between 46% and 64% of them graduated without ever meeting the the minimum arts education requirements.”
It Was The Most-Watched Oscars Telecast In Ten Years
The 86th Academy Awards were seen by 43 million Americans Sunday, drawing the biggest audience of any entertainment program since the finale of hit sitcom “Friends” in May 2004, according to estimates by ratings service Nielsen.
What It Takes To Be A Dance Therapist
“Creative arts therapy, also known as expressive therapy, includes dance, drama, art and music, according to Ehrman-Shapiro. She said not just any artist can be a therapist. For dance therapy, it requires a master’s degree and more than 3,000 hours of supervision from a dance therapist, just like a social worker.”
Composer Robert Ashley, 83
“As well as being known for his radical reinvention of the operatic form, fusing electronic music into his operas and theatre works, Ashley also co-founded the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music in 1958 alongside Gordon Mumma, before creating the performing arts event ONCE Festival in the 60s. He won the John Cage Award for Music from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in 2002.”
Could Starbucks Replace Your Local Bank?
“At U.S. Starbucks stores, nearly one-third of the transactions are now handled with the company’s pre-paid cards — which act as tiny de facto savings accounts. How long before Starbucks takes this to the next level?”
The Oscars: Hollywood’s Conflicted Selfie
Andrew O’Hehir: “The 2014 Oscars may be mercifully remembered for who won what, rather than for Ellen DeGeneres’ labored pizza-delivery gag or the star-studded selfie that allegedly ‘broke Twitter’ and may finally have convinced an entire generation of young Americans that social media is hopelessly lame.”
West Bank’s Freedom Theatre, Three Years After Its Founder’s Assassination
“Jenin, a camp in the north of the West Bank with more than 16,000 registered Palestinian refugees, is at the heart of a cultural resistance movement. … And tucked away within the camp is Freedom theatre, founded in 2006 by Juliano Mer Khamis, who believed in using cultural resistance to fight against occupation. He was killed in 2011 by a masked gunman outside his theatre.”
The Germ Theory of Democracy, Dictatorship, and All Your Most Cherished Beliefs
“Our moment-to-moment psychological reactions to the threat of illness, [some researchers] suggest, … may explain many of the basic differences we observe between cultures. How does your culture behave toward strangers? What kind of government do you live under? Who are your sexual partners? What values do you share? All of these questions may mask a more fundamental one: What germs are you warding off?”
Someone Left Pompeii Out in the Rain (And It Started to Crumble, Again)
“Heavy rains over the weekend provoked several collapses at the archaeological site of Pompeii, highlighting once again the fragility of one of the world’s most famous open-air museums.”
U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Amazon Warehouse Employee Case
“The Supreme Court said that it would hear a class action lawsuit filed in 2010 by former employees of Amazon contractor Integrity Security Systems who claim that, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), they deserve back pay for the time” – 15 to 30 minutes each way – “they spent in security checks at the beginning and end of the day, which the warehouse mandated to prevent employee theft.”
‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ Led to Everything Wrong With Post-Reagan America
Well, that what Heather Havrilesky argues: “Reading [Richard] Bach’s novella can feel like pinpointing the exact moment in American history when our disillusionment and outrage at society’s massive, grand-scale failures yielded to a new kind of personal arrogance, a championing of the individual over the group no matter the cost.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.03.14
Robert Ashley, 1930-2014
AJBlog: PostClassic | Published 2014-03-04
Star-Power? The Detroit Institute of Arts?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-04
Novelists in the New Economy, and a National-ist Goes Classical
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-03-03
Hidden history
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-03-03
Structure matters
AJBlog: The Artful Manager | Published 2014-03-03
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