“[He] is known in the English-speaking world for his lyrical, densely descriptive novels, but as a journalist he was acerbically funny, charming, and slightly bizarre. The young García Márquez devoured what surrounded him. Everything was raw material for his newspaper columns – film adaptations of Faulkner, nudism, dancing bears, the letter X, a woman he saw in an ice cream parlor who may have been the ‘ugliest I’ve ever seen in my life, or, on the contrary, the most disconcertingly beautiful’.”
Tampa Bay’s Florida Orchestra Names Next Music Director
“The global search went on for three years, but in the end it took just two key performances for Florida Orchestra leaders to know they had their conductor. On Tuesday, they named British musician Michael Francis as the orchestra’s new music director. Leaders were so wowed by Francis, they ended their hunt a full year earlier than expected.”
The Five Ingredients That Make A Great Movie Showdown
“Yet despite $200 million budgets and A-list actors and auteur-ish directors and world-class composers, editors, set designers, and writers, [the supposedly climactic scenes of big Hollywood films] rarely thrill. In fact, they generally disappoint.” T.R. Witcher looks at what’s missing – and which movies get it right. (includes video clips)
Deborah Rutter On Her Years Running The Chicago Symphony
“It is really important that we understand who our audiences are, and how they are going to participate in the music-making. We have to stay current (with respect to) programming, our use of electronic media, the experience of being in the concert hall, also the experience of hearing music outside the concert hall. My effort (has been) to sustain and nurture this institution and figure out how to make it more meaningful (to more people).” (includes video)
‘Artwashing’, Gentrification And Real Estate Development
The formerly run-down Balfron Tower public housing project in East London, where artists are being given temporary leases as the complex is being converted to higher-end apartments, is the latest high-profile example of a process that “presents regeneration not through its long-term effects – the transfer of residency from poor to rich – but as a much shorter journey from neglect to creativity.”
Why Cities Should Be More Skeptical Of New Cultural Centers And Expansions
“A new book of research reveals that civic leaders and arts patrons tend to fall prey to specific planning fallacies when it comes to building new museums, performing-arts centers, and cultural expansions.”
Report: Movie Theatre Simulcasts Of Stage Performances Don’t Cannibalize Ticket Sales
“Theatres in England have experienced no decrease in attendances from audience members living near cinemas that screen NT Live shows since NT Live was launched in 2009, data from research charity Nesta and consultancy organisation the Audience Agency has shown.”
Needed: A New, Expanded Role For Museums
“The time has come for museums to become active participants and problem solvers in the current Age of Disruption. The problems and uncertainties are unprecedented, yet the possibilities and opportunities for change and renewal have never been greater.”
When A Chicago Festival Failed To Pay Its Musicians, They Didn’t Complain. Why?
“Why were the wronged musicians and their friends still so quiet? And, come to think of it, why did we maintain silence for nine months as we awaited sums of money that, to us, make or break our ability to pay the rent? For me, the story of the Beethoven Festival is a story of vulnerability: my own individual vulnerability, that of my colleagues, and that of our entire musical community.”
How Many Museums Are There In America?
A lot. “That’s roughly one for every citizen of the country of Liechtenstein. It’s also more than double the number of museums that, back in the 1990s, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) expected to exist in this country by the year 2014.”
Small Recording Labels Say YouTube Dispute Is Fight For Money For Musicians
“Executives and advocates for the indies say they are vulnerable to strong-arm tactics by Internet giants like YouTube, which has recently threatened to block some labels’ videos unless they sign new licensing deals. Like the standoff between Amazon and the book publisher Hachette, the dispute has crystallized a fear that access to the online marketplace controlled by a few has become a privilege affordable only by the biggest and richest players.”
Hachette Buys Perseus Book Group
“The Perseus Books Group, founded by the late Frank Pearl in 1996, is being sold to the Hachette Book Group. Through the deal, Hachette will then sell Perseus’ distribution business to Ingram [Publisher Services].”
Monet Water Lilies Sells For $54M, Leading Mega-Rich Sotheby’s Auction
At £31.7 million, the 1906 Nymphéas was the highest-selling item in a £122 million ($208 million) London auction that also included works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Mondrian, as well as two other Monets.
OK, Guys, Musical Skill Really Does Help You Land Hot Babes (It’s Evolutionary Science!)
As with male birds and their songs or courting dances, “when you’re able to display that you have the time and resources to perfect your ability, then that ends up being attractive to a potential mate … If you can take care of yourself and learn a skill like music, then you can likely take care of a mate.”
‘Sorry’ No Longer Seems To Be The Hardest Word
“As a word, ‘sorry’ has entered that puckish pantheon of Terms That Seem to Say a Lot but Actually Say Very Little. … Our assumptions about What Apologies Mean are often completely misaligned with the way we actually use apologies in our day-to-day lives.”
How Weird Is This Summer’s Serpentine Pavilion?
“Is it a giant cocoon? The site of a pagan ritual? Or a 60-tonne pebble? Chilean architect Smiljan Radic breaks new ground with his creation for the annual experimental commission” in London’s Kensington Gardens.
They’re Going To Build A Garden Spanning The Thames
“Bursting out of the river in the form of two conjoined mushrooms, it would create a floating forest between Temple and the South Bank, held aloft on a shimmering copper canopy. It is scarcely less improbable than the heroic failures that have gone before – and yet it seems very likely to happen.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.24.14
“The Disruption Machine” and the Arts
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-06-24
Aging, as in Fine Wine
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-06-24
Koons: One Big Show In More Ways Than One
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-25
What art does
AJBlog: About Last Night | Published 2014-06-24
From Jeffrey Nytch: Entrepreneurial transformation (2)
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-06-25
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Wikipedia Has Been Ensnared By Bureaucracy
“Currently, the English Wikipedia has more than 50 official policies with a word count close to 150,000 (enough for a thick book). But that’s just the tip of the administrative iceberg. In addition to the policies, there are guidelines and essays—more than 450 devoted solely to proper conduct. You will also find more than 1,200 essays containing comments on the policies and guidelines, advisory notes, and analyses of the community.”
Do Artists Need More Control Of Their Work?
“What’s needed is a rebalancing of resources to give artists more autonomy and control over how they work and what they make. Why? Because it’s under these conditions that some of today’s most interesting artistic experiences are being created and new connections with audiences made.”
US Ivory Import Ban Causing Havoc For Museums, Musicians
“The directive puts the burden of proof of how the ivory was obtained on the instrument owner instead of on federal agents. They don’t have to prove anything. All they have to say is, ‘You don’t have the right documentation,’ and your object is gone.”
Steve Rossi, 82, Half Of Legendary Mid-Century Comedy Duo
“With Mr. Rossi as the good-looking one who sang and [Marty] Allen as the zany, childlike one who got the laughs, Allen and Rossi were reminiscent of the hottest comedy team of the early 1950s, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But whereas Martin and Lewis specialized in broad physical comedy, Allen and Rossi’s humor was mostly verbal.”