“Arabs often see MSA’s decline as the failure of their nations to uphold the legacy of Arabic, the language of the Qur’an and Islam. Though some rejoice in the strengthening of vernaculars, the so-called colloquials or dialects, as a sign of local identities gaining prominence, the withdrawal of MSA is in fact a warning about the weakening social infrastructure and declining education system.”
Seattle Was Recently Named A UNESCO “City Of Literature.” So What Does That Mean?
“If this plays out right, people will be coming from all over. They’ll be looking for readings, visiting bookstores, making pilgrimages to our downtown library — they’ll know about all the things we have to offer. Once that positive reinforcement loop gets going, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
The Secret To Great Old Violins’ Sound? Human Vowels
Extensive research by Taiwanese scientists – who tested singers and Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati violins with spectrometers – found that the old violins emit sets of frequencies that match those that form particular human vowel sounds. (The sound of Amatis matches the vowels of basses and baritones; Strads match tenors and altos.)
Authors Of Color Are Pulling Fantasy Fiction Away From Norse And Celtic Mythology Models – And Readers Are Following
“While the field was largely dominated by white men in decades past, today diverse writers are bringing new voices to the conversation, imagining futures based on more inclusive readings of the past, and creating multiethnic worlds that can help people understand their own. Certainly, speculative fiction writers since at least Octavia Butler – the first science-fiction writer to win a MacArthur grant – have looked beyond Europe for inspiration. But no longer can they be dismissed as niche. From the $1 billion-plus box office of Black Panther … to this spring’s breakout debut novel, Children of Blood and Bone, by Nigerian-American author Tomi Adeyemi, audiences and readers are flocking to well-drawn worlds inspired by African and Asian countries.”
How A Ten-Year-Old Funding Measure Has Transformed The Arts In Small-Town Minnesota
Legislation known as the Legacy Amendment, passed in 2008, has provided over $440 million for cultural projects in the state, and that money has had a powerful effect in rural communities like New London (pop. 1,355, about halfway between the Twin Cities and the North Dakota state line).
Time Inc. Was Once A Colossus. Now It’s Been Brought Low
The flush times went on for a while. But then, starting about a decade ago, the company began a slow decline that, in 2018, resulted in the Meredith Corporation, a Des Moines, Iowa, media company heavy on lifestyle monthlies like Better Homes and Gardens, completing its purchase of the once-grand Time Inc. in a deal that valued the company at $2.8 billion. The new owner wasted no time in prying the Time Inc. logo from the facade of its Lower Manhattan offices and announcing that it would seek buyers for Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated and Money. The deadline for first-round bids was May 11.
That Jesus Painting In The Museum Basement Turned Out To Be A $30 Million Mantegna
“A painting that spent more than a century in the storerooms of a provincial Italian museum will be attributed Wednesday to one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. The attribution to Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) has the backing of Keith Christiansen of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the world’s leading expert on the artist. It means the painting, a wooden panel depicting Jesus’s resurrection, may be worth about a thousand times more than was previously thought: between $25 million and $30 million.”
Demand For Nigerian Art Is Growing – Not Just In The West, But In Nigeria, Too
“The newfound interest there is part of a larger cultural and economic revival. It wasn’t long ago that moving abroad or catering to outsiders’ perceptions of their country was the only way for artists here to survive. But as the economy has surged — diversifying from oil into manufacturing, telecommunications and a thriving film industry to give Nigeria the biggest gross domestic product in Africa — so has interest in fashion, music and art. That has fueled a rise in the number of galleries and auction houses. It has also allowed many artists to make a living at home.”
A New Project Gives Access To Digital Scans Of Endangered Or Destroyed Cultural Site. What Could Be Wrong With That?
War, natural disasters and climate change are destroying some of the world’s most precious cultural sites. Google is trying to help preserve these archaeological wonders by allowing users access to 3D images of these treasures through its site. But the project is raising questions about Google’s motivations and about who should own the digital copyrights. Some critics call it a form of “digital colonialism.”
Museum Sues, Wins, Fighting Brazilian Airport Fees Of $66k/Day To Store Art
In a new interpretation of the existing rules, the Campinas airport attempted to charge the museum 243,000 reais ($66,000) per day to store six paintings—Dorelia in a Black Dress (1903-4) by Gwen John, Coming Out of School (1927) by L.S. Lowry, The Bride (1949) by Sylvia Sleigh, Seated Figure (1961) by Francis Bacon, They Always Appear by Ibrahim El-Salahi (1964), and Head of a Man (1965) by F. N. Souza—based on their market value because they were deemed “import cargo of high specific value”. The museum avoided the charge after a court ruled that the works were of a “civic-cultural nature”
Technology Has Changed How Dance Gets Made And Preserved. But…
“I am trained in the classical Indian dance of Kathak, a tradition passed on through non-technological means, carried in the memory, the body and the mind. So each time we share it, it’s evolving. It’s like telling a story – no one ever tells it the same way twice. It changes each time you tell it, because you are human, because you are alive. By contrast, digital preservation of work and its perfect, infinite reproducibility – freed of context – potentially creates a more sterile transmission mechanism for ideas and art.”
Is Bonhams Auction House For Sale?
The financial advisory group NM Rothschild has reportedly been drafted in to oversee the possible sale. Bonhams declined to comment.
Reasons Why We Might Not Want To Find Intelligent Life Out In The Universe
Hidden civilizations offer one possible answer to the Fermi Paradox, which raises the question of why we haven’t found evidence of intelligent alien life if many such races exist out there. Rather than support Enrico Fermi’s theory that intelligent life is unique to Earth, Dark Forest Theory raises the possibility that alien life is too intelligent to be detected, either because it’s hiding and/or because it’s plotting another race’s destruction.
Sony Pays $2.3 Billion To Buy EMI Music Publishing
“The deal values EMI Music Publishing at $4.75 billion including debt, more than double the $2.2 billion value given in 2011 when a consortium led by Sony won bidding rights for the company. Sony, which has run the business since then, will buy a 60 percent stake owned by [UAE sovereign wealth fund] Mubadala Investment Company, lifting its ownership to around 90 percent from 30 percent currently.”
World-Changing? Art Sputters In Protest, But Is It Really?
This brings up a problem that often arises in conversations about art: how can it participate in networks of power that its content willfully rejects? Often, so-called ‘political art’ simply aestheticises protest or resistance. Sometimes, it has the effect of moral licensing – instilling in its viewer a false sense of having accomplished something. Art and power have always been begrudging bedfellows. After all, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto from the comfort of La Maison du Cygne, a gilded restaurant in Brussels.
Eight Things I Learned As My First Book Was Published
“It feels awkward at first. Whenever I pester people to write Amazon reviews for me or relentlessly bang on about my book on social media, a part of me worries that people will get fed up with it. Maybe they will. But being shy won’t get me anywhere, either. People can always ignore me or say no, but if I don’t ask them I’ll never know. And so far I’ve found that people are often more than happy to help.”
‘Stop Relying On Old Media’: Lyn Gardner On Leaving The Guardian And The Future Of Theatre Criticism
“My loss of a platform at The Guardian doesn’t mean that theatre criticism is dead, merely that the conversations are taking different forms and moving elsewhere. … There is a lesson in this for theatre itself and how much it remains in thrall to mainstream theatre writing, even as that coverage crumbles away. Theatre is in trouble if it places too much faith in the words of a single individual – whether that happens to be me or someone else – and just a few mainstream platforms; the media boulders that only really care about their own survival in the final reckoning.”
Why It’s So Difficult For The Dance Field To Root Out Sexual Harassment
The cases of Peter Martins and Marcelo Gomes are the only ones from the dance world to have hit the national media in the #MeToo era, and the movement’s momentum seems to have faded in the field seems to have dissipated. “[Yet] we’ve barely scratched the surface of the dance world’s harassment problem. One reason why: The same culture that makes harassment possible in dance makes it uniquely difficult for artists to speak up,” writes Lauren Wingenroth in an essay exploring the issue.
What’s The Biggest Obstacle To Boys Studying Ballet? Often, It’s Dads
Scott Gormley, filmmaker and dance dad: “I’ve spent the last two years creating a documentary about the struggles that young men face when they choose to dance ballet ― when they choose to thumb their nose at what boys ‘should do.’ … What I found the most upsetting were the attacks that came directly from family members: fathers, stepfathers, uncles, brothers, many of whom feared that ballet would ‘turn’ boys gay.”
After 50-Year Run, Andy Warhol’s ‘Interview’ Magazine Collapses Amidst Lawsuits And Resignations
“The magazine was owned by Peter Brant, a billionaire art collector, who acquired the magazine in 1989. Its closure comes after months of turmoil, including staff being locked out as part of rent dispute, a lawsuit brought by a former editorial director over back pay and the resignation of a fashion director accused of sexual misconduct.”
Robert Indiana’s Caretaker And Publisher Sued For Putting Out Flood Of Counterfeits
“In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, a day before Mr. Indiana’s death at 89, a company that says it has long held the rights to several of Mr. Indiana’s best-known works proposed an answer, arguing in court papers that [caretaker Jamie Thomas] and New York art publisher [Michael McKenzie] had tucked the artist away [in his island home in Maine] while they churned out unauthorized or adulterated versions of his work.”
Rothko Chapel In Houston Vandalized With Paint And ‘It’s Okay To Be White’ Leaflets
In the early hours of Friday morning, “white paint was spilled near the chapel’s entrance and in the reflection pool surrounding the Barnett Newman sculpture, The Broken Obelisk, which is dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. [There were also] ‘handbills’ strewn around the grounds and the pool that read, ‘It’s okay to be white.'”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.21.18
Monday Recommendation: Get To Know Tom Talbert
Demands on time and resources have sidetracked plans for a new Monday Recommendation. Hey, stuff happens. The Rifftides staff’s solution is to reach back to the earliest days of this blog, and … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-21
Weekend Extra: Zeitlin, Williams and Wilson Together Again
Denny Zeitlin, Wishing On The Moon, Live At Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola In New York City
Pianist Zeitlin has recorded three albums with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson, beginning in … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-20
Architect Will Alsop, 70; His Designs Were “A Little Insane”
A Falstaffian provocateur, Mr. Alsop believed that his visually spectacular projects brightened their landscapes, and that architects had a calling to inspire the public. “Lifting the spirit, whether you’re working in a building or walking past it every day, is the job of the architect,” he told CNN in 2005.
German Museums To Audit Their Collections For Colonial Restitution
German museums’ collections of colonial-era artifacts, statues and art are being put under extra scrutiny as the country moves towards a nation-wide restitution effort. Germany’s culture minister, Monika Grütters, and the German Association of Museums published a code of conduct this week that outlines how curators can determine whether historical artifacts were acquired unethically or unlawfully by today’s standards.