“Mr. Dafoe takes a very physical approach to his roles. He starts by rehearsing his movements, ‘because when you devote yourself to an action, that frees you up emotionally,’ he explains. … He calls some of his past movie work ‘dancing,’ but he admits that definition may be ‘lost on your average moviegoer.'”
Television Station Challenges Ban On Airing Ads On Public TV
The government’s argument is that selling ad spots would change the nature of public TV. An executive from another public TV station, WGBH-TV in Boston, testified that were they allowed to start selling ad time like commercial stations do, funding from federal and state government sources, as well as foundations and not profits, would be “jeopardized.”
Was The Tupac Shakur Musical A Flop? Or Just Ahead Of Its Time?
“Saul Williams, the poet and performer who played the lead role in Holler If Ya Hear Me, tells Kurt Andersen it’s inevitable that hip-hop will carve out a place for itself on Broadway. What killed Holler, Williams says, were people who wrote it off before they saw it.” (audio)
The Best Way To Support An Artist
“You may want your supportive activities to make her happy, but for some artists happiness doesn’t lead to creativity; they do their best work in times of turmoil or struggle – and they know it.”
How The First World War Destroyed Everything In Europe Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible
“We think of the First World War as a four-year affair. We forget, though, that Austria-Hungary lost half of its men within the first two weeks of the war — 400,000 men, including 100,000 who were taken prisoner by the Russians.”
Finally, Starchitect Norman Foster Gets His N.Y. Moment
These four buildings “come after a few notable setbacks for Mr. Foster, including the New York Public Library’s recent decision to rethink its planned conversion of part of its research flagship into a circulating library using a Foster design.”
What Happens When You’re A Memoirist With No Parents?
“I don’t know that I would be this free. I don’t know that I would be who I am. I don’t know that I would be writing, and I certainly don’t know that I’d be writing about the stuff that I’m writing about.”
Author Of ‘Up The Down Staircase’ Dies At 103
Bel Kaufman was “a former New York City schoolteacher whose classic first novel, ‘Up the Down Staircase’ — shot through with despair and hopefulness, violence and levity, bureaucratic inanity and a blizzard of official memorandums so mind-bendingly illogical as to seem almost Kafkaesque — was hailed as a stunningly accurate portrait of life in an urban school when it was published in 1965.”
When A Small City Wants Professional Musical Theatre
“What we’re talking about is everybody is paid, from the top down. …And they’re all paid at as close to (Actors’ Equity) scale as possible.”
What’s It Like Working With, And Managing, Robots?
“When the errors crop up–and they always do, in spectacularly catastrophic ways–it sort of feels like a rebellion because I am telling it to do this thing, and it doesn’t follow my instructions. And then it becomes this question of management. Can I convince this entity to do for me what I want it to do and what the entire company is telling it it should be doing?”
Poetry Is Made For Twitter – Yes, Really
“What’s on Twitter are not diseased firings of glitchy minds. They’re epigrams, aphorisms, maxims, dictums, taglines, headlines, captions, slogans and adages. Some are art, some are commercial; these are forms with integrity.”
Italy’s Minister For Culture Pledges ‘Revolutionary’ Autonomy For Italian Museums
“If the proposals go ahead – there is a chance that they will be watered down — 20 museums and archaeological sites deemed of ‘major national interest’ will become self-governing institutions, no longer run by civil servants in the culture ministry.”
Hey Chicago Art Institute, Time To Consider Going Free?
Around the country, a flurry of high quality art museums have made the switch and reaped financial rewards, but “it is hard to imagine a major museum here going free, especially when the trend in Chicago has been to raise prices and to start charging admission.”
Her One (Overwhelmingly Big) Job? Saving Canada’s Public Radio
“Last month, while staff were still trying to digest a cut of 657 jobs announced in April, they responded icily as Conway helped unveil an overhaul of the public broadcaster that will axe about another 20 per cent of their colleagues, or 1,500 positions across English and French services, over the next five years.”
With Lockout Threat Looming, Met Orchestra Musicians Turn Their Anger To Peter Gelb
“The musicians said they believed that the Met could save millions of dollars by staging fewer new productions each year, performing fewer long operas that run into overtime, rehearsing less and lowering ticket prices.”
Here’s How Much UK Performing Arts Earned For Live Movie Theatre Broadcasts Last Year
“Ballet took £2.1 million, classical music £900,000, popular music £500,000 and comedy £100,000. The other two non-theatrical categories were film documentaries, which generated £2.2 million, and museum exhibitions, which took £900,000.”
US Congressional Computers Banned From Editing Wikipedia For Editing Abuses
The 10-day block comes after anonymous changes were made to entries on politicians and businesses, as well as events like the Kennedy assassination. The biography of former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an “alien lizard”.
Denver Seriously Considers Tearing Down Its Concert Hall
“The CSO is set to move out — temporarily — at the end of the 2014-15 concert season to accommodate a planned $17 million upgrade of the facility. It had hoped to return a year later. But, according to e-mails between the CSO and the Arts & Venues department, the plan may be changing.”
US TV Networks Make Progress On Diversity
“If you look at shows that appear to lack diversity, they actually look dated because “America doesn’t look like that anymore.”
The Streaming Debate – Some Musicians Love it. Then There Are Those Who…
“The problem seems to be the enforcement of legacy contracts that were signed before streaming even existed and that don’t operate within the streaming environment.”
Julian Lloyd Webber: Corruption Is Rampant In International Music Competitions
“Lloyd Webber said corruption was rife in Britain and abroad, singling out the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, held every four years and open to musicians between the ages of 16 and 30, as the most prestigious example of unscrupulous judging.”
Canadian Festival Bans Native Headdress At Concerts
“As feather headdresses have become popular fashion accessories at concerts and EDM festivals, they have become an increasingly important site for conversations about First Nations relations and cultural appropriation.”
The Practice Versus Talent Debate Continues
“We concluded that deliberate practice is undeniably important – it’s just not as important as proponents of the deliberate practice view have claimed.”
Scientists Print A Monet With A Nanoprinter
“Regular printing—the kind your home office inkjet is capable of—uses dots of pigments to create the spectrum of colors you see on a page. The type of printing the Singapore team is investigating instead uses microscopic pillars topped with aluminum nanodisks that resonate at visible light frequencies. The process is able to produce more than 300 colors by focusing beams of electrons onto variously-sized pillars.”
Salzburg Festival Opens With Increased Audience And A Difficult Financial Future
“The number of performances rose and so did the number of visitors — Alexander Pereira insisted this was necessary to renew a festival that was becoming “increasingly inconspicuous”. Behind the scenes however, there was increased grumbling among artists and staff about the crowded programme, which looks to be reduced once Pereira is gone.”