“I’ve poked around online to find “best of” lists or other recommendations, but it soon became clear that there wasn’t even a provisional consensus on which books were the best or essential romance novels.”
Robert Moses Vs. Jane Jacobs: The Opera
The great primal battle of modern urbanism is coming to the lyric stage. courtesy of composer Judd Greenstein, librettist Tracy K. Smith (a Pulitzer-winning poet), and director Joshua Frankel.
Why Aren’t There More Studies On Cats’ Intelligence?
After all, it seems like some new research on cognition in dogs comes out every month or so. Why don’t cats get the same attention in the lab? As one of the world’s top animal cognition scientists put it, “We did one study on cats – and that was enough!”
Should Theatre Have Ratings Like The Movies Do?
For the most part, live theater — even that mass audience magnet, the Broadway musical — has managed to escape such labeling, with presenters convinced theater audiences tend to be sophisticated enough to do whatever “pre-screening” they might think necessary on their own, especially if they’re planning to “take the kids.”
There’s a Lost Generation of ’90s Indie Filmmakers
Richard Brody: “The paradox of independent filmmaking is that it often replicates, on a low budget and a small scale, the commercial mainstream’s production process and approach to acting. On the one hand, that’s why many independent filmmakers of that time turned out to be Hollywood-ready when things worked out right. On the other, that’s why, for some, it was tough to come up with a cinematic Plan B when they didn’t.”
Thomas Piketty’s Economic Argument Applies To Art, Too (And How)
“The French economist’s new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is a historic survey of wealth concentration that has quickly become a go-to text for the gathering debate on income inequality. … It is worth considering how the unprecedented amounts of money the wealthy have recently been spending on trophy artworks might be a natural extension of his argument.”
Artist Accuses Turkish Government of Deliberately Dumbing Down Populace
Ali Kazma: “Statistically, educated Turks do not vote for AKP … It seems like the interest of AKP lies in mobilizing the regressive parts of the society financially upwards while maintaining their low education levels, gender inequality and intellectual curiosity.”
‘He Was The Greatest Of Us All’: Salman Rushdie on Gabriel García Márquez
“I knew García Márquez’s colonels and generals, or at least their Indian and Pakistani counterparts; his bishops were my mullahs; his market streets were my bazaars. His world was mine, translated into Spanish. It’s little wonder I fell in love with it – not for its magic (although, as a writer reared on the fabulous ‘wonder tales’ of the East, that was appealing too) but for its realism.”
NY Times Architecture Critic Dives Into Transit Policy: Build A Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar!
Michael Kimmelman: “So while Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to refine his agenda, including that promise of 200,000 units of affordable housing, he might consider a streetcar connecting Red Hook to Astoria. … I’m not talking Ye Olde Trolley. This is transit for New Yorkers who can’t wait another half-century for the next subway station.”
$50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize Goes To Claudia Rankine
She said of the award, “Often a division is made between politics and poetry, and I like to think this is a moment when the intersection is recognized.”
Literary Fiction? It’s Nothing But Snob Marketing
“All books can be thrust into a genre, and lit fic is simply one of many. As a tag, it tells us nothing about the intrinsic value of any individual title.”
How Much Is The Work Of A Met Opera Chorister Worth?
“No one blinks when an experienced corporate manager earns a six-figure salary in this city. But an opera singer? We still romanticize the image of the starving artist. We like to think that talent will eventually fill dinner plates and checking accounts. But in real life, people who can’t pay their bills often put aside their passions, starved of the training, the attention and the resources they need to shine.”
It’s Been A Bloody Year For San Diego Arts Orgs
San Diego Opera is far from alone …
Meet The Philanthropist Who’s Saving San Diego Opera
“She’s been described as gracious, thoughtful and reserved, someone who only speaks up when necessary. And 17 days ago, she reluctantly stepped into the spotlight in a last-ditch bid to save San Diego Opera from extinction.”
The Birth of Soviet Rock
Revisiting the furtive, constrained, vibrant, heady early days back in the USSR with people who were there from the very beginning in 1970s Riga and Leningrad.
Las Vegas Philharmonic Names Music Director
“Resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the symphony’s Youth Orchestra since 2009, [Donato] Cabrera became music director of the Bay Area’s California Symphony and the New Hampshire Music Festival last year. He’s also music director of Wisconsin’s Green Bay Symphony, a post he’s held since 2011.”
Pianist And Critic Harris Goldsmith, 78
“A rarity in classical music for his simultaneous careers as a professional pianist and a music critic … [and] known for his humor, wit and encyclopedic memory of recordings and performances, Mr. Goldsmith was a frequent contributor Musical America and High Fidelity magazine … as well as a prolific writer of liner and program notes.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.21.14
The gender gap in wages
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-04-22
Toronto’s Good Idea: “Just Like Me”
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-22
Mayor, Governor, President
AJBlog: The Artful Manager | Published 2014-04-21
Can You Discern What Is A Caravaggio And What Isn’t?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-21
Capital, inequality, and investments in art
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-04-21
[ssba_hide]
CBC And The Cool Factor – Not Quite
“It must be alternately infuriating and demoralizing to work for the CBC. The English-language television broadcaster gets zero public praise. Everyone’s a critic and the private media seem out to delegitimize your very existence.”
Storm Brewing Around New York’s MoMA Focuses On Its Direector
Glenn Lowry is “himself sometimes personally blamed for the museum’s image as a place that has become cold and corporate, that exercises its power too blithely and that is often out of touch with the sensibilities of contemporary artists.”
Guerilla Comeback: The Odd Case Of The Writer Reclaiming Her Work
“Now, in one of the stranger comebacks in literary history, LJ Smith is independently resurrecting her stories about the adolescent undead. She’s publishing her own version of “The Vampire Diaries” digitally on Amazon, as fan fiction, creating a parallel fictional universe that many hard-core fans regard as more legitimate than the official canon.”