“Many 19th-century newspapers are comprised primarily of content from other newspapers,” he said. “They were more aggregators than producers of original content. And often they were created by very small staffs, and scholars such as Ellen Gruber Garvey have shown that this aggregation is what allowed newspapers to spread as rapidly as they did in the 19th century, because you didn’t have to produce the whole thing.”
Why Translating Literature Is Torture
Breaking the Bulgarian structure out of the sentences and turning it into an equally strong and evocative phrase in English is a lot like doing 50 pushups. It’s painful and exalting. And one day, you get better. But sometimes you cry and swear, becoming haunted by Nabokov’s seminal, merciless essay, “The Art of Translation.”
Why We Need Poetry Now More Than Ever
“Conventional public discourse is boring, too familiar and brittle: the spray-on-tan blather of pundits on CNN, the coo of commerce, the drained, template-like rhetoric of political speech. That’s where poetry, that oft-forgotten form, comes in, a specific kind of verse called “civic poetry.” Civic poetry is public poetry. It is political poetry. It is about the hard stuff of life: money, crime, gender, corporate excess, racial injustice.”
Why Do Cities Still Build Over-Sized Performing Arts Theatres?
“For large-capacity halls that are only in the business of presenting touring commercial entertainment (including Broadway shows), the more seats the better. But in reality, many large-capacity halls were originally conceived and funded to present touring cultural programs — classical music, dance, opera — and to support local arts organizations by being available for rent. And here’s where we get into trouble.”
These Are The Songs That Were Cut Out Of The Original “My Fair Lady”
“The five songs that were cut before rehearsals include a tune called “Lady Liza,” sung by Higgins and his buddy Colonel Hugh Pickering; “Please Don’t Marry Me,” a lament for Higgins; and “Shy,” in which Eliza confesses she has feelings for her professor. The composers decided that wasn’t true to George Bernard Shaw’s original play, so they replaced it with “I Could Have Danced All Night,” where she expresses excitement rather than affection.”
Eccentric Frank Gehry Guesthouse Once Valued At $4.5M Sells At Auction For $750K
“Once valued at $4.5 million, the house had been estimated to sell for up to $1.5 million. But after less than five minutes of lackluster bidding, auctioneer Richard Wright declared it “Sold” to a telephone bidder for $750,000, plus auction house fees.”
Rant: Time To Stop Being Snobbish About Book Genres
“I’m tired of cultural pompousness passing as a form of intelligence and moral superiority, whether we’re talking about television, book, movie or music preferences. I record “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” while my boyfriend records “Nova”—does that make him a better person? Is that really what we want to pass down to the next generation—a way of one-upping ourselves over something that should be entertaining?”
Who Was It Who Declared That This Is The Year Of The REALLY Long Novels?
“I don’t fear the long novel as much as pine for good editors. A book can be any length, if the words earn their keep on the page. I rarely see the point in huge chunks of prose that don’t serve the story: writing has to be mesmerisingly good before that doesn’t feel self-indulgent to me. I also worry that we might be overlooking short novels.”
Digital Companies Make Big Inroads At Tradition-Bound Cannes
“Presentations by companies such as Netflix and virtual-reality outfit Oculus have been priorities for attendees. Agents who once never gave a second thought to nontraditional platforms are now courting them. Beefed-up teams from digital entities such as Amazon and Vimeo are pursuing rights with the zeal once reserved for studios like Universal Studios and Warner Bros.”
Where Artists Live Versus Where Scientists Live
“Basically, the science-based firms and industries are out in the suburbs, along highway interchanges, and in newer, low density suburban campuses. The creative industry locations are much more urban, dense, closer to the core of the city, walkable, mixed-use and often served by public transit.”
Back From Triumphant Visit To Cuba, Minnesota Orchestra Signs New Contracts With Osmo Vänskä And Musicians
Just 17 months ago, as the lockout dragged on and Osmo resigned as music director, it seemed just possible that the MinnOrch could shut down entirely. Now Osmo is signed through 2018-29 and the musicians through 2019-20, donors have pledged $6.5 million in new money to fund it all, and – get this – negotiations were completed with no lawyers involved.
László Krasznahorkai Wins Man Booker International Prize
“The Hungarian author, whose sentences roll out over paragraphs in what his translator George Szirtes has called a ‘slow lava flow of narrative, a vast black river of type’, has won the Man Booker International prize for his ‘achievement in fiction on the world stage’.”
John Luther Adams Is Crowdsourcing A Sound Installation For the Met Museum’s New Building (The Old Whitney)
“Soundwalk 9:09 … will ask NYC wanderers to email field recordings from the blocks separating what Adams calls the ‘Big Met’ and the new building. When the collection period ends on July 31, Adams will begin molding the recordings into a piece that will last exactly as long as its title, nine minutes and nine seconds. ‘I find the breath of the city itself, that roar, really beautiful, like the roar of the sea,’ Adams says.”
‘Turn To The Pigs For Inspiration’: How I Became A Countryside Choreographer
Ben Duke: “I am currently working on a solo version of Paradise Lost. I am playing God. I haven’t seen him around here any more than I did in London, but such a self-obsessed bit of casting is easier down here where there are far fewer people to tell me it is a stupid idea. If it doesn’t work out, I will turn to the pigs for inspiration.”
New York’s New Pop-Up Theatre Built For An Audience Of One
“Many theater owners like to say they offer an intimate show but only one really means it. That would be Theatre for One – a 4-foot-by-8 foot portable theater that allows one audience member at a time to see one short play performed by a single actor. … This year, new plays were commissioned from Craig Lucas, Will Eno, Lynn Nottage, Jose Rivera, Thomas Bradshaw, Zayd Dohrn and Emily Schwend.”
Is This The Year Of The Very Long Novel? Or Does It Only Seem Like It?
“Maybe it was ever thus? ‘I don’t think the long novel ever went away,’ says Jennifer Brehl, who edited Neal Stephenson’s forthcoming 880-page sci-fi story Seveneves. … But the notable thing about these books isn’t that their heft is unprecedented; it’s that all the forces Hallberg alluded to in 2010″ – basically, culture-wide gadget-induced ADD – “are exponentially stronger today.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.19.15
Pro Bono Ono: Yoko Sees Her MoMA Show as Encouragement for Those Long Overlooked (with video)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-05-19
An Amazing Composer in Seattle
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2015-05-19
Tweets in search of a context: a visit to flyover country
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-05-19
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Brooklyn Museum Appoints Anne Pasternak As New Director
“The choice of Ms. Pasternak is unusual because she has never held a job in a museum. After a brief period working for a commercial art gallery, her career has unfolded entirely within the nonprofit world of up-by-your-bootstraps alternative spaces and nomadic arts groups. But at Creative Time, where she assumed the directorship in 1994, she had become well known for both her socially engaged programming and her skills in negotiating the shoals of New York City government, real estate and fund-raising, where she made artistic events accessible partly by removing them from museums.”
Poll: Americans Think Art Is “Important” But Unsure About…
Beyond the study’s muddled findings about the ways US citizens value visual art (or don’t), YouGov’s more tangential poll questions turned up some amusing results. For instance, when asked “Do you own any paintings, sculptures, or other art works?” a full 4% of respondents — or about 40 people among the 1,000 polled — said they were “not sure.”
Surprise: Whitney Museum Announces A New Chief Curator
“At a meeting with the board of trustees on May 19, director Adam Weinberg announced that Scott Rothkopf, 38, is getting a promotion to chief curator. Currently the Nancy and Steve Crown family curator and associate director of programs, his new title will be deputy director for programs and Nancy and Steve Crown family chief curator. The current chief curator, Donna De Salvo, will be moving into a newly created position: deputy director for international initiatives and senior curator.”
If You Were A Festival Which One Would You Be? (A Quiz)
“Anyone who’s been to a festival can recognise an archetypal attendee. But what if the festival itself were a person?”
Data’s In: Are Song Lyrics Getting Dumber?
“Conducted by data analyst Andrew Powell-Morse, the study looked into 225 songs that have topped pop, country, rock and R&B/hip-hop Billboard charts for three weeks or more. “I turned to the Readability Score,” said Powell-Morse, who used writing-analysis tools such as the Flesch-Kincaid index, a readability test to measure reading difficulty, to determine the average reading level of a section of text.”
Tired Of Having Your Favorite TV Show, Movie Or Book Ruined By Spoilers? Now There’s An App For That
“Spoiler Shield comes as a Chrome extension and an app for iOS and Android. It creates a special version of your Facebook and Twitter feeds with all of the annoying spoilers removed.”
Finally – A Picture Of Shakespeare? (Experts Are “Deeply Unconvinced”)
“I can’t imagine any reason why Shakespeare would be in a botany textbook,’ he said, adding: “I don’t think very many people are going to take this seriously.”
Cannes Film Festival Stops Women Not Wearing High Heels From Walking The Red Carpet
A number of women in their 50s, some reportedly with medical conditions, were denied access to the showing of Todd Haynes’ entry Carol on Sunday night, according to Screen magazine.