“We know that literary fiction is the record of the middle classes by the middle classes. Sometimes working-class characters exist, but they are there in the main to be ciphers or consequences. However, though it’s not a recent phenomenon, it is getting worse.”
Survey: Theatre, Dance Groups Say Going Green Has Paid Off
“About 60 theatre groups and 10 dance organisations reported either “some” or “substantial” financial savings after taking action to operate in a more sustainable way.”
Big Ratings Swings In LA Radio Lead To Questions About Nielsen’s Methodology
“The big ratings swings perplexed industry leaders and analysts. The correction in audience share raised questions about how just two families in Nielsen’s audience pool of 2,700 Los Angeles-area families could have such an enormous effect on the ratings.”
How Instagram Is Building A Culture Following
“There is a comparison to be made between what the printing press did for books and writing and what Instagram has done for photography and visual arts.”
TV Channels Are Obsolete. Here’s How You’ll Get Shows In The Future
“For the next generation of television the consumer product must be the service, not a device with individual content services added as an afterthought.”
Inside Louise Bourgeois’s House – Untouched Since The Day She Died
“The house is in the process of being joined to its neighbour, acquired in 2009 for $4.5 million dollars from a theatre designer, whose penchant for exuberant chandeliers and mirrors is still in evidence. Together the houses will form a centre for scholars – some will even be invited to stay in its upper rooms – with an intimate sculpture garden at the back.”
Antonin Scalia On Music In Public: “I’m Annoyed”
“I can understand that attitude: It parallels my own toward the playing in public of rock music or Stravinsky. And I too am especially annoyed when the intrusion upon my inner peace occurs while I am part of a captive audience, as on a municipal bus or in the waiting room of a public agency.”
Even The “A”-List Art Fairs Are Losing Their Essentialness
Instead of attending a few universally acknowledged “must-see” annual events, participants are taking a more personalised approach, tailoring their trips like a Twitter feed.
Apple Settles E-Book Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit
“The terms of the proposed settlement are sealed and have yet to be approved by the court. But by agreeing to any settlement terms Apple has effectively dodged a trial scheduled for July in which it faced up to $840 million in claims.”
California Arts Council Gets First Funding Increase In 11 Years – And It’s By 400%!
The budget just approved by the state legislature allocates $5 million to the CAC. “The council, which issues grants to nonprofit arts groups and arts education programs, had seen its annual allocation from state tax coffers stagnate at $1 million since 2003-04, down from a peak of nearly $31 million in 2000-2001.”
Turns Out Picasso Hid A Man In ‘The Blue Room’
“Using advances in infrared imagery, [researchers] have uncovered a hidden portrait of a bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand” underneath the 1901 painting. (Picasso evidently re-used the canvas.) “Now the question that conservators at The Phillips Collection in Washington hope to answer is simply: Who is he?”
Sherlock Holmes Is In The Public Domain, Rules U.S. Appeals Court
“The decision came in a suit between the [Arthur Conan] Doyle estate and Leslie Klinger, who was editing a set of stories inspired by Sherlock Holmes and other Doyle characters.”
Yet Another Problem For Journalism: Nobody Really Knows If Online Advertising Works
It’s true that advertisers have a lot more data – vast seas of data – from the Web than they ever did from print or broadcast. But researchers are finding that much of that data, and most ads, aren’t really useful for convincing people to buy things they weren’t going to buy anyway.
What Does All That Data From The Internet Tell Us? (That We Lie To Ourselves)
“The obvious answer is that it teaches us what you’re interested in. The less-obvious, but equally true, answer is that it teaches you what you’re interested in. If we merely asked what you wanted, without measuring what you wanted, you’d just keep lying to us – and to yourself. … Ask audiences what they want, and they’ll tell you vegetables. Watch them quietly, and they’ll mostly eat candy.”
Using Improv To Prevent Rape
“Something you don’t hear too often in the middle of an improv set: ‘Okay, and for the next scene, my opening line will be ‘I really didn’t rape that girl’.’ That’s the moment when Sex Signals, one of the country’s fastest growing sexual assault prevention programs, stops being so funny.”
Why The CIA Distributed Pocket-Sized Copies Of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ In The USSR
“Pasternak did not think of his novel as a weapon for intellectual warfare. … He wanted [it] treated as a novel, not a pamphlet. The CIA, on the other hand, was delighted by the media spotlight on the anti-Communist passages. The CIA also recognized that the symbolism of the situation made the Soviet Union look at least as bad as the novel itself did.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.17.14
What’s Left Unsaid About the Delaware Deaccession
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-18
Come down from the mountain
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-06-18
How Western Opera Came to China
AJBlog: The Great Flourishing | Published 2014-06-18
From Ashes to True Love
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-06-17
Taking Stock of the Ojai Music Festival
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-06-17
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John Adams Responds To Met’s Cancellation Of Klinghoffer Theatrecast
“The cancellation of the international telecast is a deeply regrettable decision and goes far beyond issues of “artistic freedom,” and ends in promoting the same kind of intolerance that the opera’s detractors claim to be preventing.”
Met Opera Cancels Movie Theatre Broadcast Of Klinghoffer
The Met decided to cancel its planned Nov. 15 Live in HD transmission of “Klinghoffer” to movie theaters and a radio broadcast after discussions with the Anti-Defamation League. The league praised the Met’s decision, saying that “while the opera itself is not anti-Semitic, there is a concern the opera could be used in foreign countries to stir up anti-Israel sentiments or as a vehicle to promote anti-Semitism.”
Two Royal Ballet Dancers Boycott Russia Tour Over Anti-Gay Laws
A Royal Ballet statement said: “Out of the 96-strong dancers in The Royal Ballet, just two dancers have chosen not to go on tour to Moscow for political reasons.”
YouTube Blocks Music By Indie Artists In Dispute Over Compensation
Some independents say they are being offered “highly unfavourable terms”. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien accused Google of trying to “strong-arm” labels into accepting low fees.
Why Does So Much Abstract Art Look So Generic?
Galleries everywhere are awash in these brand-name reductivist canvases, all more or less handsome, harmless, supposedly metacritical, and just “new” or “dangerous”-looking enough not to violate anyone’s sense of what “new” or “dangerous” really is, all of it impersonal, mimicking a set of preapproved influences.
‘Ring’ Cycle With Digital Orchestra Is Off (For Now)
“The effort to bring Wagner’s Ring cycle to Connecticut with digital samples instead of a traditional orchestra has been postponed. Organizers announced Monday that they were canceling their first offering, a production of Das Rheingold planned for August, saying that several artists had withdrawn, citing threats to their careers.”
So, U.S. Theaters, You Say You Can’t Find Any Good Plays By Women? We Found Them For You, So Produce Them Already
“All but daring American theaters to put on more new plays by women, an advocacy group of female writers and producers released a list of 46 such works on Monday that have been recommended for production by dozens of other playwrights, dramaturges and artistic directors.”
How Much Do People At The Met Opera Really Get Paid?
With union contract talks heating up, a tax filing for 2012 indicates that general manager Peter Gelb earned pay and benefits of $1.8 million, chorus and orchestra members average around $200,000 in pay and $85-100K in benefits, and that three of the five highest-paid employees are stage technicians.