“One of very few women in the record business at the time, Ms. Bienstock earned a reputation not only for toughness – her son, Robert, acknowledged in a eulogy for his mother that many of the businessmen she dealt with called her ‘Dragon Lady’ – but also for efficiency and for the kind of shrewd rule-skirting that the record business of the day required.”
Why Can’t Everyone Locate And Return Nazi-Looted Paintings As Quickly As The Dutch Royal Family Did?
“When the King and Queen read that Dutch museums had volunteered to be investigated, they felt it would be useful for someone to research their works.” So the commissioned a review of the royal collections at the end of 2013; it’s complete, and they’re returning one Old Master canvas promptly.
A Black, Female Hamlet? Absolutely!
Wilma Theater artistic director Blanka Zizka: “Hamlet is a remarkable play, and one that I have always wanted to direct, but I had to wait for an extraordinary actor, and it was not until I met Zainab that I knew it was time for our production.”
An Illustrated Guide To “The End Of Art”
“[Arthur] Danto, who was both a critic and a professor of philosophy, is celebrated for his accessible and affable prose. Despite this, Danto’s best-known essay, ‘The End of Art,’ continues to be cited more than it is understood. What was Danto’s argument? Is art really over? And if so, what are the implications for art history and art-making?” Tiernan Morgan & Lauren Purje explain – with pictures!
Now They’ve Done It: Steinway Makes A Piano That Doesn’t Need A Pianist
“When you buy a Spirio—not you, necessarily; they run upwards of $110,000—it comes with an iPad loaded with a Spotify-like app. This app communicates with the piano via Bluetooth, prompting the piano to play any one of the 1,700 songs recorded specifically for the instrument. New songs will sync every week. By itself, an iPad-controlled piano is nifty, if not exactly a technological marvel. What makes Spirio different is that it can play songs with an unprecedented level of accuracy and nuance.”
You Want Privacy? It’s Going To Cost You (Seriously)
“We increasingly live in a world in which our own personal data subsidizes our purchases and the services we use. Programs like Facebook’s now-defunct Beacon, which monitored users’ browsing activities all over the Web, have increasingly become the norm, with shadowy companies like Acxiom amassing profiles on hundreds of millions of consumers.”
Battle Raging For The Soul Of Country Music
“Today the debate about the soul of country music has extended far outside Nashville, and it’s now safe to say that the genre has a serious image problem. It’s not just stalwart country fans that see country being overrun with chauvinist posers in skinny jeans – it’s everyone.”
USArtists Is Back In The Business Of Supporting Artists
USA, as it’s known (is there a branding doctor in the house?), was launched in the prerecession happy days by four major funders—the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential, and Rasmussen Foundations. Together they donated $22 million in seed money for a new organization with a double mission: to “invest in America’s finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society.”
Report Details Digital Failures Of Library Of Congress
“Taken together, the reports reveal library mismanagement costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, and outdated and inefficient systems in the U.S. Copyright Office. And despite the library’s reputation as an early Internet pioneer, various reports have found that it hasn’t kept up with the rapidly evolving digital times.”
How “Sleep No More” Went From Avant-Garde Theatre Experiment To Thriving Commercial Enterprise
When the British company brought its immersive adaptation of Macbeth to New York in 2011 and parked it at an old hotel on the far West Side, the project was still experimental and risky, good reviews or no. Four years later, Sleep No More has a merch table, souvenir programs, and an associated bar and restaurant. It is, writes Alexis Soloski, “a case study of the relationship – sometimes cozy, sometimes uneasy – between art and commerce.”
Walker Art Center Begins $75M Capital Project With Overhaul Of Outdoor Space
“Positioning itself as a neighborhood green space and cultural gateway, Walker Art Center will add a new glass-walled entrance pavilion, groves of trees and acres of new grass … The Walker’s plans are designed to unify a 19-acre cultural’“campus,’ including the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, that stands as an anchor and gateway to the theater and arts district that Minneapolis intends to develop along Hennepin Avenue.”
Ballet Dancers Leap Into Instagram
“The photo-sharing app has become the go-to social-media platform for dancers of all ages, who post photos of bloody toes, mistakes in class, physical therapy and, of course, deliriously beautiful performances shot from the wings. As a virtual portal to the dance world, Instagram has also attracted an enthusiastic audience – and around that, a newly dance-centric marketing landscape has emerged.”
They Dug Up Richard III’s Bones – Why Not Shakespeare’s, Too? Here’s Why Not
“Inspired by the revelations about Richard III, recently liberated from a car park in Leicester, professor Francis Thackeray of Wits University, in Johannesburg, claims he is ‘very interested by the possibility’ of subjecting Shakespeare to the same treatment.” Andrew Dickson explains why he thinks that wouldn’t be worthwhile. (And no, it’s not the curse.)
Where Complex Black Characters First Integrated Into Mainstream TV – Soap Operas
“Daytime, before primetime, provided valuable space for black characters to be layered – and for viewers, black and otherwise, to appreciate their complexity. Every time I see these new-school characters, I remind myself of where I’ve seen them before.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.31.15
Could an L.A. Dance Hub Grow from a Mapping Tool?
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2015-03-31
Opening the Door, Inviting Visitors In
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-03-30
Lookback: on being sensitive to voices
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-03-31
Jazz Appreciation Month 2015
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-03-31
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So It’s Come To This: An Offer To Buy The New York Daily News For $1
“The offer would come one month after New York media and real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman said he was considering selling the newspaper and had hired Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N) to assist with the process. It underscores the declining readership and plunging advertising revenue that have plagued the tabloid for years.”
Don’t Underestimate The Classics: “Cinderella” Tops The Weekend’s Global Movie Box Office
“The rags-to-riches story of a woman who captures a prince’s heart while losing her shoe is also the studio’s second highest-grossing live-action release in China, having made $65.1 million in the People’s Republic. Globally, its total stands at a regal $336.2 million.”
America’s Most Prolific (And Generous) Art Forger
“It obviously isn’t a crime to give a picture to a museum, and they treated me like royalty. One thing led to another, and I kept doing it for 30 years,” says Mark Landis, one of the most prolific art forgers in US history.
Here’s What Angel Corella’s First Season Running Pennsylvania Ballet Will Look Like
“Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon: They’re among the hottest young choreographers in ballet today. And Pennsylvania Ballet will dance their works and more next year in a blockbuster-packed season, artistic director Angel Corella announced Monday. This is the sort of world-class programming that dance fans anticipated when Corella was hired in the fall.”