Some of it is the particular way Italian law looks at culture and heritage – and some of it, of course, is about cash.
America’s Shopping Malls Are Going Out Of Business
“Within ten to fifteen years, the typical U.S. mall, unless it is completely reinvented, will be a historical anachronism—a sixty-year aberration that no longer meets the public’s needs, the retailers’ needs, or the community’s needs.”
Nôtre-Dame de Paris Gets a Lighting Makeover
“Many things look better with crisp-edged LEDs – traffic signals, airplane cabins, perhaps even Christmas lights. But what about the moody, atmospheric interior of a 12th-century French-Gothic cathedral?” Oh, yes – have a look and see.
Missing Norman Rockwell Turns Up in Ohio
“The 1939 painting, called Sport, was used as one of the many Saturday Evening Post covers for which the artist is well-known. It sold last spring for more than $1 million at an auction in New York and disappeared later last year” – in Queens, yet again.
Okay, Folks, Don’t Expect ‘Cosmos’ to Save Science in America
“If only Americans loved science a little more, the thinking goes, we could end our squabbling about climate change, clean energy, evolution, and funding NASA and the National Science Foundation. These are high hopes to pin on a television show, even one as glorious as Cosmos.”
Sam Mendes’ 25 Tips For Directors
Avoid, please, all metaphors of plays or films as “pinnacles” or “peaks”; treat with absolute scorn the word “definitive”; and if anyone uses the word “masterpiece,” they don’t know what they’re doing. The pursuit of perfection is a mug’s game.
The Advantages Of Disadvantage
“There is this weird thing where having a little bit of resources is worse than having none. Or: having a few numbers of options is worse than having no options. It can be freeing to be at the very bottom.”
Van Gogh Museum Resumes Ban On Photographing In Galleries After Complaints
“Permitting photography led to constant tension between those who wanted a clear view for their camera and those who wished to look at the paintings. Many also insisted on photographing their companion or themselves in front of a picture. This led to numerous complaints from other visitors.”
The Future Of Books: A Netflix-Like Subscription Model?
“So now that we know that it’s possible to deliver books like magazines, to sell them like magazines, and to target them at clusters of readers like magazines, the big question looms: Do book enthusiasts actually want to engage with literature the way they engage with magazines? And can they afford to?”
Should America’s Broadcast TV Networks Abandon Free And Move To A Subscription Model?
“By going all-subscription now, the big networks would have a chance to define that future rather than becoming its victims.”
Tone-Deaf Minnesota Orchestra Board Bobbles Leadership
“This talented orchestra and Vänskä, who resigned as a show of support for his players, have almost come to represent a blue-collar crew who took on the elite in the city. But now with deadlines looming and the newfound attention the orchestra is receiving, there’s also a new pressure on the board to act.”
“Mozart In the Jungle” Gets Picked Up As A Series
Blair Tindall’s memoir turned into an Amazon.com series. “Amazon Studios has settled on four series orders among the 10 pilots the company announced last month were under consideration, according to sources close to the deals.”
Critics Hated This Show But It’s Finding An Audience. Here’s How
“So how come a show with no press support and a tiny marketing budget (we’ve had some tube posters) found an audience? The answer seems to be social media.”
Is Shakespeare’s Globe Wrong to Visit North Korea?
With the London-based company about to begin a two-year global tour of Hamlet that they hope will include every nation on Earth, Amnesty International has given them a scolding for including Kim Jong Un’s domain on the itinerary. Mark Lawson considers the precedent – the long boycott of apartheid-era South Africa – and whether the situations are comparable.
Dancing the First World War
English National Ballet artistic director Tamara Rojo and her three choreographers – Liam Scarlett, Russell Maliphant and Akram Khan – talk about creating their upcoming mixed bill, titled Lest We Forget.
West End’s Queen Musical to Close After 12 Years
We Will Rock You, “which has been seen by more than 6.5 million people at the cavernous Dominion theatre, will close on 31 May 2014. It will have run for a total of 4,600 performances, with an annual average of 600,000 tickets sold.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.11.14
Gerard Mortier’s Last Day in Salzburg (when Viennese Opera found its place on the lunatic fringe)
AJBlog: Condemned to Music | Published 2014-03-12
The Enigma of Acting, and Longing for Adelaide
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-03-11
The Met Aces A New Online Feature
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-11
Bruening: Part of the “New Joy” movement in Public Art
AJBlog: Aesthetic Grounds | Published 2014-03-11
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Haves/Have-Nots: Here’s Who Reads In England
“More than one in four (27%) of adults from the poorest socio-economic backgrounds said they never read books themselves, compared with just 13% of those from the richest socio-economic backgrounds.”
Ironic: Greece’s Economic Meltdown Has Been Huge Opportunity For Greek Filmmakers
“The same recession that brought misery to tens of thousands of families since 2009 has fueled demand for tales out of Greece — prompting the nation’s filmmakers not only to adapt to the new economic realities but also rack up awards in the process.”
New Smithsonian Secretary Has Been Champion Of The Humanities
“The funding we allocate to the humanities through our government has never come close to the value the humanities add to individual lives and to the life of our nation. Even in times of austerity, especially in times of austerity, sound investments must be made.”
Television Academy Updates What “Television” Means
Instead of referring to the electronic console as “television,” the group now embraces a more inclusive moniker — television means programming — in a nod toward the rise of disruptive new digital programmers, including Netflix.
A Computer Program That Analyzes Sentences And Identifies Authors
“The basic idea is that every word you say represents a choice. So when you speak, you’re making a million choices that you’re not aware of. The differences aren’t meaningful to the speaker.” But they are meaningful to a program that can catalogue and index all the possible options.
Joe McGinniss, 71, Author of ‘Fatal Vision’ and ‘The Selling of the President’
“More recently, Mr. McGinniss made headlines in 2010 when, for his next book, he moved in next door to Sarah Palin and her family in Wasilla, Alaska.”