“I am involved but not a micromanager. There is no chance that I could be. I am deeply involved but fully delegate to people who have the responsibility … I am not a coercer or a dictator but if I feel strongly about something I will advocate for it.”
One Of Television’s First Pop Stars, A Piano-Playing Indian Pandit, Was Really A Black Guy From Missouri
“According to press releases from the time, [Korla Pandit] was born in New Delhi, India, the son of a Brahmin government worker and a French opera singer. … Not once in 900 performances did he speak on camera, preferring instead to communicate with viewers via that hypnotic gaze. … The way he came to fame is one of those only-in-America fables where the audience and the performer are both invested in the illusion.”
Why Can’t The Great British Bake Off Translate Into A Successful American Spinoff?
“The most damning thing one can say about [the American] ‘Bake Off’ is that it’s sweet TV, the television equivalent of a feel-good Upworthy post that would go viral on Facebook (‘This Show About Cakes Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity’).”
Why So Many Facebook Live Videos Are So Bad – A TV Critic Explains
Willa Paskin: “Where Vine has fetishized brevity and Snapchat ephemerality, Facebook Live encourages video-creators to go long, more than five minutes and up to 90, and caches its videos. … The formal innovations of Facebook Live are length and durability, along with the ‘live’ aspect. And yet so far very few Facebook Live videos have figured out how to capitalize on any of this at all.”
Why Keeping Secrets Is So Difficult (And How To Make It A Little Easier)
“You have to pay a lot of attention both to what other people already know as well as to whether they’re allowed to know the secret information, too. This mental effort can be a problem in casual conversation, where it’s easy to let a piece of information slip unintentionally. Our minds have a limited capacity to process information.”
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum Goes In-House For New Director
“The board of trustees at the Rijksmuseum announced on Monday that Taco Dibbits, the museum’s director of collections, would replace Wim Pijbes as general director. Mr. Pijbes, who had seen the museum through a major expansion, announced his resignation in March after accepting a job as director of a new private museum.”
They’re Giving British Cops Special Training In How To Handle Protests Against Controversial Art
“The advice pack – put together by Index on Censorship and Arts Council England – hopes to create a more cohesive approach to policing across different forces, with an emphasis on avoiding censorship. Its publication follows protests in recent years against performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Barbican Centre, which resulted in the cancellation of both shows.”
Irving Benson, One Of The Last Of The Vaudeville/Burlesque Comedians, Dead At 102
“Mr. Benson won an amateur contest as a dancer in the 1920s and, by the mid-1930s, he was touring the country telling jokes. He worked in the vaudeville theater, in which a variety of performers – singers, jugglers, dancers, magicians – appeared on a single bill. For many years, he also appeared opposite strippers and other performers in burlesque shows, vaudeville’s more disreputable cousin.”
Beach Reading For Classical Music Fans: Anne Midgette’s Crowdsourced Guide
When she asked followers on social media to suggest works of fiction that did a good job of treating classical music, Midgette “got back a veritable flood of titles: short stories and novels, popular fiction and Nobel Prize-winners, and many books I’d never even heard of. So here you go: your summer fiction reading list, suggested and annotated by several dozen people.”
Washington Ballet’s Septime Webre Lands His Next Gig
“Webre will curate the S&R Foundation’s new performance series, titled Halcyon Stage, which will present music, dance and lectures on the arts, said Kate Goodall, the foundation’s chief operating officer.”
Tabloid Headline Of The Day: King Tut Dagger Made From Space Rock
A famous dagger found in the wrapping of Egyptian King Tutankhamun’s mummy was made with iron from a meteorite, a study confirms.
Remembering The Glorious Conceptual Extravagance Of Zaha Hadid
“There was, on occasion, an unwarranted backlash against the conceptual extravagance of Hadid’s practice and force of her personality that continued unabated throughout her life, but many of her relentless critics and detractors missed the essence of the work: a celebration of nature mated to technology, an all-encompassing way of life as lived by Zaha herself—an ascetic aesthetic, a rare notion in such a materially obsessed world.”
Can China Pull Off The Bilbao Effect In Harbin?
“It’s only May, but the international architectural press has already highlighted the Harbin Opera House, designed by the bad-boy architect Ma Yansong, as one of the year’s most interesting new buildings. … While cultural (and financial) capital becomes ever more concentrated, the dream of creative rebirth can be a seductive Pied Piper for administrators of languishing cities. After all, if every reader of design websites knows where Harbin is, then a full-throated recovery can’t be far off, right?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.31.16
Hard Times at NYC Museums: National Academy Homeless (with video); Staffing Cuts at the Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum, MoMA
Unlike the 2008 meltdown, there’s currently no major economic recession in the U.S. to blame for the recent epidemic of belt-tightening by three major New York City art museums – the Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-31
The Milt Jackson Quartet, Then And Then
A video of The Modern Jazz Quartet has been getting wide viewership on the internet. The YouTube presentation does not disclose that the group we see and hear is the MJQ’s predecessor, the rhythm section … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-31
Instead of Alexander Nevsky
For every screening with live orchestra of Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky (music by Prokofiev), there should be at least a dozen screenings with live orchestra of Paul Strand’s Redes (music by Silvestre Revueltas). … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2016-05-31
Making Friends
It has been over a year since I found an excuse to write about Nala (our dog). The time to do so again has come. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-05-31
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Wisconsin Ballet and Chamber Orchestra Consider Merger
“Last week, Madison Ballet and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra announced a $30,000 grant from the Madison Community Foundation to explore whether sharing administrative resources could help both grow. A feasibility study would examine how, exactly, a partnership would work, and what effect it might have on donations.”