“The original film paints a bleak picture of deeply unhappy people working blue-collar jobs and passively hoping for, rather than actively seeking a way out of their circumstances. The musical gives the source material a bright coat of Broadway paint with an upbeat and gorgeous pop score.”
That Time Atlanta Got All Dressed Up To Host The Olympics. Then The New Yorker Made Fun…
Imagine then the shock and disappointment when the July 22, 1996 issue of The New Yorker arrived at our house. The cover illustration featured a farmer in overalls with a pig under one arm and the other arm holding a torch. Roosters were at his feet as he stood ready to light the cauldron beneath a display of the Olympic rings. Across his chest a banner read, “Howdy.”
America Is Quickly Getting Older. Are Our Arts Going To Be Increasingly Age-Specific?
“Some industries will forsake the senior audience, other industries will court it. And those decisions are likely the result of research and judgments. Which end of the spectrum will we end up on, and is it likely some arts organizations will embrace the senior growth market, while others of us, flee from it?”
Theatre’s Next Big Thing Problem
“At its best, artist development is terrific, providing opportunities and genuine benefits for early-career artists; at it’s worst, it can be like butterfly collecting, and just as cruel. That’s because too many artist-development schemes are not designed to support ambition and scale and so they don’t help artists develop sustainable careers in the industry.”
Do We Want Bots Determining Ownership Of Art?
“It seems outrageous to demand a photographer be asked to pay for the use of her own work, particularly when she has gifted that work to the public. It seems like another example of corporate bullying. But the suit will undoubtedly be complicated, as everything to do with posting images on the Web is. If, for example, an image is free, does it mean anyone else is free to charge for cataloguing it and giving access to it? If you put your old dresser on the curb and I pick it up, can’t I sell it myself?”
UK’s National Theatre Opens Virtual Reality Studio
“Anyone visiting the new National Theatre studio might experience the soul-destroying misery of the Calais jungle, take part in the 1916 Easter Rising or sit on a toilet while being serenaded by a giant psychedelic cat.”
Jim Northrup, 73, Poet, Author, Ojibwe Indian Leader
“An award-winning writer of books, columns, plays and poetry … Northrup was a storyteller, known for his stark and honest writing about his experience as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam and his early years at a federal boarding school. He was funny and pointed in his writings about everyday life on the reservation, politics and change in Indian Country.”
Book Publishing Has Always Been A Gut Instinct Business. Data Is Changing That
“Digital books made it possible to track the way people read and companies like Amazon and Apple could gather that data, but didn’t share it with publishers. Now a number of businesses have sprung up that specialize in reader analytics and they are sharing their findings.”
The Clown School Where Movie Stars And Hot Young Stand-Up Comics Go To Study
“An exercise has gone badly wrong at École Philippe Gaulier” – whose alumni include Emma Thompson, Simon McBurney, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen. “‘You are the definition of a bad student,’ croaks the septuagenarian teacher. ‘This is boring. It is so shit!’ Gaulier’s student gawps at him, chastened and gormless, as his classmates laugh cheerfully at his discomfort. … But for those aspiring to be funny, this is the place to be – and Gaulier’s tongue-lashings are an exquisite form of torture.”
Miami Beach’s Bass Museum Announces Plans For Reopening Following Expansion
“The museum’s historic Art Deco building has been under construction since 2013, when it first announced the $12 million expansion. … Without expanding the exterior of the building, Isozaki and Gauld’s redesign” – which opens December 1 – “will increase the size of the museum’s exhibition space by 50 percent, adding four new galleries.”
Why Writers And Readers Alike Keep Getting Drawn To Nature
“We love reading about nature for the same reason naturalists love being ankle-deep in marshes: Nature provides enough order to soothe and enough entropy to surprise. It’s also why so many involve a person in the landscape; understanding our place in the world is as important as understanding the world itself.”
TV Pilot Production Down 13 Percent In LA This Year
“Out of 201 pilots, 79 projects (25 dramas and 54 comedies) were filmed in the Los Angeles area — giving the region a 39% share of total pilot production, down from 45% last year. New York was the second most-active location with 28 pilots, followed by Vancouver with 25 pilots, Atlanta with 15 and Toronto with 12.”
So This Is A Thing Now? 1000 Robots Break Record For Synchronized Dancing
“1,040 robots, each just under 44 centimeters in height, started their synchronized dance routine in Qingdao city. Of them, 1,007 finished the challenge, setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous robot dance.”
Albanian National Opera And Ballet Chief Quits Over Tiny Budget
“The total budget of Albania’s Ministry of Culture for 2016 has been set at just over 9 million euros – but only some of this is allocated for the country’s main cultural institutions. The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet gets about 2 million euros but the institution hosts the biggest artistic troupe in the country and also contains within it the national symphonic orchestra and the folk ensemble.”
When Is Cultural Appropriation Just Exploitation (And When Is It Expanding The Culture?)
“Of course, it’s hard for any people who are socially dispossessed not to feel extra possessive when it comes to their cultural icons and their reception by a more socially dominant audience, particularly when there’s ample evidence of those same icons being celebrated (and dismissed) by the majority in an ignorant way. It’s kind of bleak right now.”
Restitution Advocate Ronald Lauder Says His Museum Has A Work WIth Uncertain Provenance
“Mr. Lauder, 72, would not identify the piece or its creator during an interview, saying that negotiations on its return were being finalized. He did say he was surprised that a work with a disputed provenance had made it into the museum, which focuses on art created in Austria and Germany from 1890 to 1940.”
Why Are People Piling On Dede Wilsey? She’s Been A Bay Area Arts Powerhouse
“This is a woman who had donated more than $10 million to the city-owned museums over the years. Even more important, she guided the institution through a $190 million capital campaign that gave San Francisco the de Young Museum’s award-winning building in 2005, and she led numerous smaller fund drives for the Fine Arts Museums as well as for several other cultural and social service organizations in town.”
The Ballet National De Marseille – Dance And Protest In The Wake Of France’s Terror Attacks
Co-artistic directors Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten have two themes to their work at the company: “Le Corps du Ballet” (deliberately not corps de), and “‘Le Corps en Révolte’, the body in revolt, where ‘the ballet is used almost for protest’, says Greco. The aim is to create a space for demonstration, ‘like Taksim Square’.”
Oops! Kids Destroy 5,000-Year-Old Rock Carving They Were Trying To Touch Up
“They thought the etching had become too faded, so they decided to scratch over it to make it easier to see. … The carving on the northern island of Tro is one of the country’s most famous historic sites and an important clue as to when people began skiing.” (This may not end as well as “Beast Jesus” did.)
Stephen Sondheim Says His New Musical Will Be Ready Next Year
“The performance date may be news, but the subject is well known. Written with the playwright David Ives (Venus in Fur), the piece is based on two films by Luis Buñuel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. The first, in Sondheim’s précis, is about a group of people trying to have dinner together, and the second is about people having dinner together who for some reason can’t leave.” (The hope is for the musical to run in New York at the same time as Thomas Adès’s new opera version of The Exterminating Angel.)
Cirque Du Soleil’s Vegas Beatles Show, Ten Years And Eight Million Viewers Later
Later
“When Love opened, in 2006, some critics raised an eyebrow at the prediction by Apple and Cirque that it would run for 10 years. How many Beatles fans, after all, were likely to travel to Las Vegas to see a site-specific acrobatic show?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.02.16
Is Opera The Real 21st Century Art Form?
A 2015 survey by blogger Mai Mae reported that 260 new opera companies started since 2000 in the United States. There are 80 opera companies now working in New York alone. … read more
AJBlog: diacritical/Douglas McLennan Published 2016-08-02
Nominations for Audience Development Innovation
No Good Deed Goes UNPUBLISHED. That’s my motto – and why I ask: Have you seen an example of an arts organization doing something REMARKABLE in the pursuit of audience development – something especially CREATIVE, AMBITIOUS and/or EFFECTIVE?… read more
AJBlog: Audience Wanted Published 2016-08-02
Five Years On
July 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Engaging Matters. On the one hand, it seems like yesterday that this journey began; on the other, it feels like it’s been going on forever. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-08-02
Insiders and Outsiders: Reflections on The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon
Simon uses the analogy of doors, locks, and keys as the driving metaphor for relevance, which she defines as “a key that unlocks meaning.” … read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2016-08-02
Good News From a Buyout, For A Change
I’ve been holding my tongue for a few days, but today I can give you the news of Richard Aste, the European paintings curator at the Brooklyn Museum. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-08-02
A Wintry Tale of Love and Jealousy
“What were you thinking, Will?” And “Eat your heart out, Marius Petipa.” These two silent remarks to the eminent dead periodically rattled around in my head while I was … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-08-02
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David Brooks: How Artists Reframe The World
As usual, there were a ton of artists and musicians at the political conventions this year. And that raises some questions. How much should artists get involved in politics? How can artists best promote social change?