“Nobody who’s ever been online would be surprised that comments can get nasty. But book reviews are new ground for this fight. Reviews are one of the only places where saying whether you don’t like the thing you’re discussing is kind of the point.”
Is Stonehenge One (Really Big) Carillon?
“A number of rocks, when struck, made ‘distinctive (if muted) sounds.’ They judged that enough made sounds such that once, they all would have rung, and furthermore saw marks on the rocks that might—upon further forensic testing—prove to be strike marks.”
Why Does Anyone Get A Ph.D. And What Do You Do With It After You Get It?
“I didn’t need a Ph.D. to work at Kickstarter, just like I wouldn’t have needed a Ph.D. to wait tables (though it adds color to both). In truth, nobody needs a Ph.D. Ok technically you need one to be a college professor, but it is not an indicator of whether you will be a good college professor.”
How Do You Figure Out The Future Of Theatre If You’re Stuck In The Past?
“I’m not suggesting for a moment that we should cease to celebrate, cherish and, indeed, support our rich theatre culture – and that includes what has gone before. But by playing it too safe, hunkering down and not shifting investment into grassroots, new forms and genuine risk-taking productions, there is a real possibility that you will destroy theatre’s many possible and as yet undreamed of futures.”
The Densest Music Ever?
“Black MIDI,” a subculture of electronic music remixing that mutated into existence in Japan five years ago, is an aesthetic snapshot of the early 21st century if there ever was one. It’s digital, viral, and truly “multimedia”–because it’s music, data visualization, and software demonstration at once.
Arundhati Roy: Activist Fiction
“I got into trouble in the past for my nonfiction, and I swore, ‘I’m never going to write anything with a footnote again.’ “
Wilmington, NC to Get Its First Opera Company
“Opera Wilmington is now formally incorporated and is applying for federal non-profit status … Plans now call for the company to mount a production of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow, in English, July 25-27 … with a cast of student and local singers.”
Today’s Universities Are Broken. So How Do We Fix Them?
“It’s clear that universities will have to figure out the balance between commercial relevance and basic research, as well as how to prove their value beyond being vehicles for delivering content. But lost in the shuffle of commentary here is something arguably more important than and yet containing all of these factors: culture.”
Stunning Move: Getty Images Makes 35 Million Images Free On The Web
“Getty’s not doing this out of the good of its heart. It recognizes that images on the Internet are treated as de facto public domain by many people on social networks, blogs, and the scummier parts of the content web. It knows it’s highly unlikely to ever get significant money out of any of those people.”
Denver’s New Cultural Plan: Lots More Art In The City
“The plan calls for more art in just about every venue within city reach, from its buildings and theaters to its parks and even the streets themselves. In addition, it lays the groundwork for more funding of art projects, as well as incentives for planners and developers who make art a priority.”
The People Who Bought Charles Ives’ House (And What They’re Doing To It)
“They have not just [hired] renovation architects, they’ve got restoration architects – historical, sensitive architectural work going on, so things are improved without changing.”
Here We Go Again: This Year’s Whitney Biennial – A Lot Of Dead Art
Jerry Saltz: “I kept hearing myself think, I see dead art: Work that looks and behaves like it is supposed to look and behave but that doesn’t make us see differently, that doesn’t rethink form, reimage structure, or explore material, color, or new orders.”
Are Big Tech Companies Gentrifying Buddhism?
“Ire at Google buses, tech-driven gentrification in San Francisco and Silicon Valley’s close collaboration with the NSA has been all over the news, but the demonstration at Wisdom 2.0 was different. It wasn’t just aimed at the tech industry; it was also aimed at what some see as an elitist streak in American convert Buddhism.”
BBC to Shut Down TV Channel BBC3, Save BBC4
The youth-oriented channel BBC3 will be pulled from the airwaves, with programming available only online, as part of BBC Director General Tony Hall’s planned £100 million in budget cuts. “His decision also signals a reprieve for its sister channel, the arts and culture specialist BBC4, which has faced calls for it to be axed and merged into BBC2.”
West End Will Close Without Lower Ticket Prices, Says Michael Grandage
The much-awarded director warns that we “make sure that young people have access to West End theatre, and the only way you can do that is through pricing. It stands to reason that if we don’t do it, the West End will close when this generation becomes senior citizens. Because who will replace the people who are now old?”
Even More Trafficked Art Seized In Queens
“The hunt for Indian antiquities allegedly smuggled into New York by Subhash Kapoor, a former Manhattan gallery owner accused of overseeing a $100 million art trafficking ring, led to a Queens warehouse Tuesday where federal officials seized hundreds of Southeast Asian and Indian items that they valued at $8 million.”
Creative Writing Courses, On the Contrary, Can Serve Very Useful Purposes
Anna Davis: “I knew this course would give me dedicated time to write, feedback from tutors and fellow students, and that most useful of all things – a deadline.” (Davis does think that a graduate degree in creative writing may not be worth the money.)
Meet the Doctor Using Sports Medicine to Heal Dancers’ Battered Bodies
Patrick Rump, “a broad-chested, broadly smiling German” and former karate champion, is working “to start a revolution in dance health.”
Venezuela’s Conflict Moves From Caracas’s Streets to Hollywood Boulevard
“From pop culture to high culture, Venezuela’s conflict is leading actors, artists, athletes and fashion designers to voice their support for the antigovernment protesters, with a minority backing President Nicolás Maduro.” And those celebrity statements have inspired conspiracy theories from both sides of Venezuela’s political divide.
Watching ‘The Act of Killing’ in Indonesia
Just this past weekend, The New York Times ran an article on how Joshua Oppenheimer’s award-winning documentary about the massacres after Indonesia’s failed 1965 coup is having little visible effect in Indonesia itself. Here another author describes a screening in Yogyakarta and suggests that the film is having a quiet but powerful effect in the country.
Amid the Chaos, There’s One Italian Opera House That’s Actually Functional
That’s Turin’s Teatro Regio, “where performances increased to 110 in 2012 from 85 in 2005, even with a reduction in staff. Its orchestra and chorus have also just announced an ambitious North American tour.” And there’s one individual who seems to deserve a lot of the credit.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.05.14
The Future of Alternative Weeklies, and Chiming Indie
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-03-05
“Morning Canvas” Debuts, But When?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-05
A Giant Come Too Early
AJBlog: PostClassic | Published 2014-03-05
Indispensability
AJBlog: Engaging Matters | Published 2014-03-05
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Obama Arts Budget – Meh…
“President Obama’s proposed federal budget for the coming 2014-15 fiscal year would lift spending 3.5% overall for the six main federal arts and culture agencies but provide no increase for the three grant-making bodies that disburse money to nonprofit groups outside Washington, D.C.”
Rafael Vinoly Talks About What The Cleveland Art Museum Makeover Does For The City
“The people that put money in this place could have gotten a villa in Italy, too, or bought more apartments in New York City. So there is a decision on the part of the citizens here that reflects that attitude.”
Study: Wealthier People Are More Musical
“Interestingly, it was the categories that seemed more objective such as ‘melodic memory’ and ‘beat perception’ that showed the strongest statistical correlation with wealth.”