Alice Coote: “Having been stepping into male eyes for two decades now for around 70% of my working life I, by necessity, have had to dwell in a place where my mind feels increasingly separate from my sexual body. It has made it complex for me to return to daily life as a woman: I feel in sharp relief the way a … woman’s personal and public relationship power is utterly unlike that of a … male’s expectations and power relationship to the world. Cross-dressing on the stage reveals less to me about gender than it does power.”
Facebook’s ‘Instant’ Goes Live, And Media Immediately Post The Longest Form Longform Articles Possible
“In the beginning, having access to Instant will provide a huge advantage over publications that don’t. Eventually, publishers’ numbers will even out as competition increases. Easy traffic will be harder to come by, and certain tricks — as on the web — will wear out and become useless. This will be good in that it will prevent lazy behavior.”
Inheriting A Kindle Library And Realizing The Value Of Print
“While my younger sister was going through our mother’s personal belongings, she came across something she thought I might like. ‘Do you want mum’s Kindle?’ she asked via text message. I stared at the message and thought about the irony of the endless debates I had with my mother. Now that she was gone, all I cared about were her physical books.”
What Difference Does It Make Who The Next Berlin Philharmonic Conductor Is? Not That Much, Says Alex Ross
“The Berlin Philharmonic is unquestionably a magnificent organism … but the idea that its chief conductor is the Pope of classical music is a relic of the Karajan cult. … Not the least of the challenges that classical music faces is the increasingly unworkable celebrity-maestro model – a twentieth-century mutation.”
Gregor Samsa Metamorphoses Into Different Creatures In Different Translations
Did he awake from troubled dreams to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect, a giant verminous bug, a gigantic cockroach, or an enormous bedbug?
William Zinsser, Author Of The Classic Guide ‘On Writing Well,’ Dead At 92
“[The] perennially popular book … became an indispensable classroom and newsroom guide, making its author one of the most influential writing teachers of the past half century.”
Ha – TV News Broadcast Blurred Out Abstract Breasts In Picasso Painting While Reporting Its Sale
When a Fox news station reported on the record-breaking $179 million sale of Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O) at a Christie’s auction, it outdid itself by blurring out the abstract breasts in the painting.
Claim: Altering A New York Cultural Landmark Is Sure To Ruin It
“It is our obligation to preserve for future generations the essential experience of the Four Seasons that its creators originally intended. Simply put, our obligation and that of the Landmarks Preservation Commission is to treat the Four Seasons like the world-class landmark it most certainly is.”
The Art World’s First Billion-Dollar Auction Week
“On Wednesday, Christie’s said it sold $658.5 million worth of work at its postwar and contemporary art auction, added to the $705.9 million for 20th-century works auctioned off on Monday. The billion-dollar threshold was a symbolic coup for Christie’s and seemed to widen the divide with its rival Sotheby’s, even if actual profits were unclear.”
Last Of The Rock Stars (And What Does That Mean, Anyway?)
“What defines a rock star in 2015? We could very well be at the point where genre transcends the very term. Do rappers count as rock stars? Kanye West and Jay-Z have a rock swagger, to some, as do both Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Most modern country acts like you would see at RodeoHouston are more about sparkly jeans than starched Wranglers, trying to strike a rock pose all their own. That’s something rock purists shudder to think about.”
How Marvel Is Killing The Popcorn Movie
“The human mission has been lost: these are faceless Stormtrooper movies, unleashed in waves upon the presumed-to-be-faceless Stormtrooper audience. Stories are an affirmation of our human value; they teach us what life means, make and keep us human. Marvel, by removing the human from its storytelling, may be bringing about the end of story altogether.”
Juilliard String Quartet’s New Cellist Is An African-American Woman
Joel Krosnick is retiring at the end of next season after 42 years with the group. His successor is Astrid Schween, who performed for 20 years with the Lark Quartet.
Yoko Ono And The Myth That Deserves To Die
“Why is it such a perennial youthful rite of passage to misunderstand, to underestimate, even to hate Yoko Ono? What is this strange power she continues to wield? … Beginning to love Yoko Ono is a dangerous experience, because then you wonder: If Yoko Ono was something more than the woman who broke up the Beatles, then what other lies have I been told?”
American Ballet Theatre At 75
“In France, and later in Russia, ballet had to reinvent itself alongside political revolution. In America, ballet was reinvented again, and American Ballet Theatre is a main character in the story of ballet in this country.”
How Oakland Ballet Rescued (And Made) Dance History
“For decades, [company founder Ronn] Guidi had been fascinated by the repertoire of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. … He engaged the original choreographers, or their appointed emissaries, and he reproduced the decor and costuming of the original productions, some of which were originally signed by museum names – Picasso, Derain, Chanel, Bakst, Benois and Goncharova. Dances we despaired of ever seeing live arose from the pages of the history books on the Paramount stage.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.13.15
Slinging the Art-Market Lingo: A Crash Course for Confused Journalists
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-05-13
Christie’s Maintains Contemporary-Art Dominance with $658.53-Million Sale
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-05-13
When Humor Misfires: Warren Buffett Edition
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-05-13
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A Philosophy Of Philosophy That Has Left Women Philosophers Out Of The Canon
“Overlooking these women’s contributions doesn’t just misrepresent the era, it’s also helped solidify philosophy’s status as a white men’s club. About 35 percent of U.S. philosophy faculty members in 2009, the most recent year for which reliable data is available, were women, and just 30 percent of the doctorates awarded that year went to women, according to data from Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The numbers are similar across the globe, including in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.”
Why The Berlin Philharmonic Is Having Difficulty Picking A New Music Director
“The fact that they’re dampening down expectations of a quick re-election suggests this is more than a tussle of wills over a few preferred candidates. It points to a profound disagreement over fundamentals. The classical music world is changing, and that makes the business of finding a new leader for the BPO challenging, in a new and troubling way.”
Astronomical Rise In Prices For High End Art Illustrates Rising Global Financial Inequality
“The astronomical rise in prices for the most-sought-after works of art over the last generation is in large part the story of rising global inequality. At its core, this is the simplest of economic math. The supply of Picasso paintings or Giacometti sculptures (one of which sold for $141 million in the same auction this week) is fixed. But the number of people with the will and the resources to buy top-end art is rising, thanks to the distribution of extreme wealth.”
UK Theatres And Unions Make Agreement On Higher Pay For Backstage Workers
“With this framework, we have a real opportunity to transform pay and terms and conditions in the theatre industry.”
Leading UK Scientists Lobby To Get Arts Education Prominence Alongside STEM
Leading British scientists and engineers are calling on the incoming government to give arts education the same value as science, technology, engineering and maths. It comes after education secretary Nicky Morgan said last year that choosing to study arts subjects could “hold [students] back for the rest of their lives”.
Plan To Get San Jose Repertory Theatre Back Up And Running Again
“Built in 1997, the city-owned $31.6 million facility has been largely dormant, with the exception of pop-up retail ventures, since last June when the Rep announced it was filing for bankruptcy after 34 years. The death of the city’s premiere theater company has been a considerable blow to downtown business such as bars and restaurants which depend on arts patrons.”
Is Suing Hollywood Studios The Best Way To Get Them To Hire More Women?
The ACLU is giving it try. “There are a lot of parties involved in putting together a film,” Robinson said. “If they do bring a lawsuit, one of the challenges of plaintiffs in court would be showing who’s responsible for the hiring decision. The studios will do what’s minimally necessary to avoid government scrutiny.”
Seattle’s Main PBS Affiliate Cuts Local Production. Does It Deserve To Be Supported Locally?
“The problem is that being able to perpetuate yourself is not the same as having a distinctive mission. KCTS is a tax-exempt organization licensed to use the public airwaves in the public interest. Our region deserves better. Only a little more than half of KCTS spending is on program services. The rest goes for fundraising and administration.”