She was the great-aunt of P.L. Travers, the writer who created Poppins, and Travers wrote about her in a 1941 short story, originally intended as a private Christmas gift, which will published this holiday season.
Inside The USSR’s Secret Hoard Of Erotica
“It was the kinkiest secret in the Soviet Union: Across from the Kremlin, the country’s main library held a pornographic treasure trove. Founded by the Bolsheviks as a repository for aristocrats’ erotica, the collection eventually grew to house 12,000 items from around the world, ranging from 18th-century Japanese engravings to Nixon-era romance novels.”
George Saunders On How Chicago Made Him Funny
“I think I got the idea that the high-serious and the funny were not separate. The idea that something could be gross and heartfelt at the same time. Some of the funniest things in South Chicago were also the most deeply true – these sort of over-the-line, rude utterances that were right on the money and undeniable. Their truth had rendered them inappropriate; … they responded to the urgency of the moment.”
This Man Is Not The Walt Disney Of Japan
“There is one famous animator who rebukes modern technology in favor of hand-drawn, 2-D conventions. His grumpiness knows no bounds … From his hard-line environmentalism and anti-Fabian leanings to comparing, in July of 2010, the act of using an iPad to public masturbation, he has painted himself as a Luddite with rigorous creative standards that have resulted, ironically, in his becoming an entertainment icon.”
UK Music Charts To Begin Counting Streaming
“Sales are increasingly an archaic way to measure both the consumption and the popularity of music. If a modern chart is to reflect both of those properly, then streaming must be a part of it.”
Making Cable TV More Aware Of What We Like To Watch
When people say, “There’s nothing on TV,” it isn’t because there’s nothing on TV. It’s because there’s so much on TV that they can’t find the stuff they really want to watch.
A Debate About Reading On EBooks Versus Paper
“There is some evidence that reading on screen can result in less comprehension and even affect sleep patterns. But the research here is complex and inconclusive and, in any case, it is actually doing something far more interesting than telling us which medium is superior. It’s making us think more about what it means to read.”
Philadelphia Arts Struggle With Major Changes In Its Arts Funding Support
“Philadelphia’s art funding has been through a tumultuous period the last few years, with major foundations like Annenberg moving to Los Angeles, the Pew Charitable Trusts – which funds the Center for Arts and Heritage – moving to Washington D.C., and the William Penn Foundation putting a lot of its money behind audience development.”
Promoting New Plays By Women Playwrights – So What Kind Of Advocacy Is This?
“We thought the point of 50-50 in 2020 for women playwrights was to force the industry into a tacit affirmative action plan. (50-50 in 2020 meant 50 percent of new plays produced would be by women by the year 2020.) We thought it was born of that boiling ’00s moment in which Emily Glassberg Sands made public her research on gender inequality on new-play production, fitting neatly with the larger national conversation about gender parity in American life, especially in business.”
Giant Head Takes Up Residence In Chicago’s Millennium Park
“White as an iceberg and nearly as blank, she presides over the park entrance at Michigan and Madison with a commanding view to the west.”
Newspaper Makes Deal With Arts Organization For More Arts Coverage (Pay To Play?)
“In our agreement, the News & Record has committed to publishing at least 70 stories about local arts topics during the next year. That’s 70 more stories than we would have published without this agreement.”
Sondheim Responds To Concerns About Changes In “Into The Woods” Movie
An article in The New Yorker misreporting my “Master Class” conversation about censorship in our schools with seventeen teachers from the Academy for Teachers a couple of weeks ago has created some false impressions about my collaboration with the Disney Studio on the film version of “Into the Woods.”
Soprano Fired By Opera Australia After Online Anti-Gay Tirade
“Opera Australia has released soprano Tamar Iveri from her contract following a furore over ‘unconscionable’ homophobic comments posted on the singer’s Facebook page.”
UK National Gallery’s Director To Retire
“The National Gallery in London is on the hunt for a new director after Nicholas Penny announced his intention to retire after six years … in which visitor numbers reached record highs.”
How Being A Professional Ballerina Helped Me Succeed As A CEO
Leigh Thomas: “If you start every day with a class, followed by rehearsals, then performances evenings and weekends, you know what work is.”
‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ Heads Home As Mauritshuis Reopens
The museum in The Hague reopens on Friday “after a €22m renovation and expansion project begun in 2008,” and its director hopes that being back in business, and the return of the famous Vermeer from a world tour, will remind people that Girl With A Pearl Earring is not, in fact, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Stephen Sondheim Backpedals On Disney’s Changes To ‘Into The Woods’
After last week’s New Yorker post, Sondheim has released a statement saying that the article “has created some false impressions about my collaboration with the Disney Studio … The fact is that James [Lapine, who wrote both the show and the movie] and I worked out every change from stage to screen with the producers and … director.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.23.14
Maybe The Ka-Nefer-Nefer Dispute Isn’t Over
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-24
From Jeffrey Nytch: Entrepreneurial transformation (1)
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-06-24
Another Great Job Opens Up — In London
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-24
Why The Morgan’s Roger Wieck Is A Surprising Proselytizer
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-23
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When Stephen King Writes A Book With The Same Title As Yours, How Do You Spend Your Unexpected Royalty Money?
“Last night Stephen King responded to Entertainment Weekly about this project of mine. He graciously said, ‘I’m delighted for her, and I’m going to order her book.’ So I bought his book too.”
After 100 Years, Does Chaplin Still Matter?
“Charlie Chaplin was famous in a way that no one had been before; arguably, no one has been as famous since. At the peak of his popularity, his mustachioed screen persona, the Tramp, was said to be the most recognized image in the world.”
Stephen Sondheim Reveals How Disney Is Changing ‘Into The Woods’ For The Movie Version
To a group of drama teachers talking to him about why school administrators make them bowdlerize the plays their students perform – such as Into the Woods – Sondheim said, “Well, you’ll be happy to know that Disney had the same objections.” (includes spoilers)
“Disruption” Is All The Rage These Days. Thing Is, It’s A Dumb Concept
Ever since “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted. There are disruption consultants, disruption conferences, and disruption seminars.
Why It’s Getting Increasingly Hard To Choose What We Want
“By and large, when it comes time to choose, the impulsive, unreflective parts of the brain dominate the analytic parts. Or to put it differently, adults are a lot more like children than we might care to admit.”