Many literary works today do not appear in translation, but are written for translation from the beginning. They are “born translated.” Adapted from “born digital,” the term used to designate artworks produced by and for the computer, “born-translated literature approaches translation as medium and origin rather than as afterthought. Translation is not secondary or incidental to these works. It is a condition of their production.”
Matthew McConaughey’s New Career: Marketing Guru For Bourbon
“Mr. McConaughey – Oscar winner, Texan, renowned bongo player – has signed a contract … to serve as creative director for Wild Turkey bourbon. The multiyear deal goes far beyond pitching a product, … he will write and direct the spots. He has also involved himself in recording music for the campaign.”
Is Donald Trump’s Favorite Opera Aria Maybe A Little Bit … Fascist?
The GOP presidential nominee used to use Pavarotti’s famous recording of “Nessun dorma” from Turandot at rallies (until the tenor’s heirs told him to stop). It’s unclear how much Trump really knows about Turandot, but there certainly are scholars convinced that the work has Fascist overtones, and Puccini himself was an admirer of Mussolini (to whom Trump is sometimes compared).
One Enlightenment Philosopher Anticipated Donald Trump 250 Years Ago
“No Enlightenment thinker observing our current predicament from the afterlife would be able to say ‘I told you so’ as confidently as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an awkward and prickly autodidact from Geneva, who was memorably described by Isaiah Berlin as the ‘greatest militant lowbrow in history.'”
Egypt’s Oldest Written Papyri Revealed – And They’re About Building The Pyramids
“Roughly 4,500 years old, they describe the daily routines of workers during the Fourth Dynasty reign of King Khufu as they worked on national projects, highlighting in particular the physical labor of constructing the pharaoh’s Great Pyramid of Giza.”
When Do Musicals Cross The Line And Become Operas? Anne Midgette Considers
“What’s the difference between an opera and a musical? Theories abound. Some say opera is through-sung while musicals include spoken dialogue (although there are many operas with spoken dialogue; think Carmen). Some say opera is unamplified, while musicals are mic’d (except that there are many operas written for amplification, and many musicals that weren’t). But ask Stephen Sondheim … and you’ll hear that it has to do largely, simply, with the expectations of the audience. Sondheim should know.”
When Architecture Was Optimistic
“Looking at the saturated images of such vibrant, eccentric architecture, it’s hard not to feel a yearning for that kind of experimental optimism in our structures today. However, the era is also a reminder that architecture can’t solve our problems. In the end, it’s the people using the buildings who determine their successes, and perhaps the reason architecture took a different turn is that people don’t generally want to live in UFOs and modernist caves.”
What Is Science Doing At A Music Festival?
“What we do is help people bridge that gap themselves by stimulating them. The trick is communication. Music is about communicating emotion. Science is about discovering facts, but if you can’t communicate them there is little point in discovering them.”
Five UK Amateur Orchestras Compete On TV Show To Play In The Proms
The five finalists were selected after a nationwide search for the UK’s most inspirational amateur orchestra.
UK Report: Number Of Children Participating In The Arts Falls
“Overall, 98% of five to 15-year-olds engaged with the arts in 2015/16, the report claims. However, numbers for specific genres including theatre, music and dance, have decreased.”
What Happens When We’ll Be Able To Edit Out Memories From Our Brains?
“Most of the time, we’re still better at subconsciously editing our own recollections than any new technology is. But with researchers working on techniques that can chisel, reconstruct and purge life’s memories, it becomes crucial to ask: do we need our real memories? What makes us believe that memory is so sacrosanct? And do memories really make us who we are?”
A New Tactile Language Helps Create Comic Books For The Blind
“‘Comic books have a language,’ says comic artist Ilan Manouach. ‘They have specific devices’ to convey certain actions or emotions, like ‘a lightbulb, [or] a drop of sweat,’ that get lost when a visual story is translated into a fully language-based one. But Manouach believes he’s found a way to overcome that particular hurdle.”
Press [W] To Waterboard: A Video Game That Lets You Torture Iraqi Prisoners
“What if there were a way to make sense of state-sanctioned torture in a more visceral way than by reading a news article or watching a documentary? Two years ago, that’s exactly what a team of Pittsburgh-based video-game designers set out to create: an experience that would bring people uncomfortably close to the abuses that took place in one particularly infamous prison camp.”
It’s Not Just Meryl Anymore: A Crop Of Older Actresses Have Become Box-Office Draws
“Streep, at 67, is no longer an outlier defying all conventional wisdom about the box-office viability of an actress north of 50; she’s part of a trend.”
A Farewell From ‘The Man Responsible For The Spelling Mistakes In The Guardian’
David Marsh: “The brief given me was, broadly, to stop people calling the paper ‘the Grauniad’. Or, since this professional suicide mission was always unlikely to succeed, at least give them less reason to do so.”
I Spoke Out On YouTube About The Time I Was Sexually Harassed In An Orchestra Rehearsal – Here’s What Happened Next
Double bassist Lauren Pierce talks with Douglas Rosenthal about the internal conflicts she went through after the incident, her decision to go public, and the reactions from supporters and trolls alike.
Toronto’s Biggest Theatre Company Its Putting On Its Own Festival In New York
Soulpepper is staging the month-long event – titled ‘Soulpepper on 42nd Street: Canada Crosses the Border,’ – next summer in honor of the company’s 20th anniversary and Canada’s 150th.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.01.16
Attention Deficit Disorder: Our Walled-Garden Problem
As the digital world pummels us with more information and choice, many of us react by walling off the things we simply won’t pay attention to. It’s a survival strategy. … read more
AJBlog: diacritical/Douglas McLennan Published 2016-08-01
Evanescent Permanent Collections: Warhol Museum’s & Fisk University’s Stealth Deaccessions
Recent revelations of secret disposals of artworks held in public trust by a museum (the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh) and a university (Fisk in Nashville) suggest that the AAMD and the AAM need to offer periodic refresher courses on professional ethics regarding deaccessions. …read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-08-01
Die Kunst der Gadgets
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my Ten Wind Gadgets, a set of trios for every possible combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, all based on a single motif. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the question of why I would embark on such a project, … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-08-01
Just because: NBC Opera’s 1952 production of Billy Budd
A very rare kinescope of the NBC Opera telecast of scenes from Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd, originally telecast on October 19, 1952. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-08-01
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Study: TV Watching Increases Risk Of Heart Attacks
“After adjusting for other factors, they found that compared with watching TV less than two and a half hours a day, watching for two and a half to five hours increased the risk for a fatal clot by 70 percent, and watching more than five hours increased the risk by 250 percent. For each extra two hours of watching, the risk of death rose 40 percent. The effect was independent of physical exercise.”
Reclaiming Public Life After A Dictatorship, Using Snacks And Architecture
“The kiosks offer affordable and traditional drinks and snacks, conversation and community – and also employment in a country struggling with the staggering levels of unemployment and recession gripping much of western Europe.”
How Mexico’s Great Architect Got Turned Into A Diamond
An American conceptual artist got the family of Luis Barragán to give her his ashes, which she had carbonized into a 2.2-carat diamond – all as part of a gambit to free up access to Barragán’s all-too-closely-held archives in Switzerland.