“Our intention was almost the opposite of what it has been perceived to be. It was out of our respect for
playwrights that we wanted to be clear about what we were and were not undertaking. Obviously, that attempt at clarity was a dismal and embarrassing failure. Disrespect was not remotely intended.”
When This Author Sent Out Her Manuscript Under A Male Name, She Got More Than Eight Times As Many Responses As She Did With Her Own Name
Catherine Nichols: “Total data: George sent out 50 queries, and had his manuscript requested 17 times. He is eight and a half times better than me at writing the same book.”
Refunds For ‘Go Set A Watchman’? Really?
“From the beginning, we knew that the manuscript was at best ‘recently rediscovered’, not new. It was always presented as a first draft of Mockingbird … And no buyer, even for the smallest and humblest of stores, was unaware of that when they ordered their own supply. The fact is that people wanted to read a new Harper Lee novel no matter what its provenance and no one truly wanted to get in the way of that.”
All Work And No Pay: Yes, Writing Is A Serious Job, Even If It’s One You Can Rarely Make A Decent Living From
Phoebe Maltz Bovy considers the implications of the currently active hashtag #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter.
If The Old Masters Had Had To Write Artist Statements
Jan Vermeer: “The Guitar Player constructs a Calvinist phenomenological epoché in order to systematically criticize Counter-Reformationist assumptions of irreducible and harmonious existence. Through simulation and prediction it also examines the participant’s failure to oppose the dominant cultural projection of ataraxia.”
Fired Artistic Directors Sue Edmonton’s Ballet Company
“Two recently fired directors with Citie Ballet plan to take the organization to court as ongoing infighting at Edmonton’s small professional ballet organization has resulted in dancers leaving and its reputation, according to some, to be tarnished.”
How David Simon Makes Urban Politics Into Compelling Television, In Series After Series
“To me, it’s the core of where the American experience is suffering. It’s self-governance. How do we govern all this? Is this country still a utilitarian experiment? Are we governing in a way that’s best for the most of us? Or do we not even give a fuck anymore? That’s not a flippant question.”
Why Keep Exhibition Of Bill Cosby’s Art Open? Director Explains
“Why do I continue to take the position that the museum’s “Conversations” exhibition, containing works of art owned by Bill and Camille Cosby, must remain open? The answer is that this exhibition is not about the life and career of Bill Cosby. It is about the interplay of artistic creativity in remarkable works of African and African-American art and what visitors can learn from the stories this art tells.”
Former USC MFA Students Petition University To Fire Dean
“The petition received over 760 signatures, including quite a few from prominent artists and arts professionals, including Martha Rosler, Catherine Opie, and former Dean of the USC School of Fine Arts John S. Gordon. Their comments were included in a letter (reproduced below) that accompanied the petition.”
Met Opera Abandons Blackface For Otello For First Time Since 1891
The Metropolitan Opera said on Tuesday that the new production of Verdi’s Otello that will open its season next month will not use blackface makeup on the white tenor singing the title role, breaking with a performance tradition of more than a century.”
G.I. Jane Is Missing In Action: Why Does Pop Culture Never Show Women At War?
“In Afghanistan, women in uniform are widely seen in the airports and across bases heading to work. But watch a war movie and the roughly 300,000 women who have deployed in America’s post-9/11 wars are largely missing in action. These untold stories have consequences both for how America sees its women in uniform and how they see themselves.”
The ISIS Book Club? These Volumes Could Help Trace Antiquities Looted From Iraq And Syria
“The stash of books about ancient coins and Egyptian pyramids seemed to belong more in a 1950s library in Germany than on the back of a truck filled with shoulder-fired missiles. Then again, if you’re an Islamic State fighter with plans to loot and sell antiquities to the West in order to fund your cause, it helps to know which objects to look for.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.04.15
“Music Unwound” – The NEH and the Music Education Crisis
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2015-08-04
Who’s “Unfair”? Guggenheim & Gulf Labor Coalition Exchange Barbs Over Delayed Abu Dhabi Project
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-08-04
Follow that Brook at your Peril!
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-08-04
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The Tourism Problem (It’s Killing Travel, Killing Experience, And Killing Places)
“In an age of unprecedented foreign travel, tourists get quite a bad rap, not least from tourists themselves. Of course, many high-minded people would scoff at the notion that they are tourists, beholden to the same vulgar taste as the travelling masses, even though, as we shall see, that hierarchy is not a very convincing one.”
Free “Happy Birthday!” (The Battle To Release An Iconic Song From Copyright)
A federal lawsuit filed by a group of independent artists is trying to change that, and lawyers in the case, in a filing last week, said they had found evidence in the yellowed pages of a nearly century-old songbook that proves the song’s copyright — first issued in 1935 — is no longer valid.
A First: Theatre Company Asks Taylor Swift For Song Rights Over Social Media And…
Five days before opening, all conventional efforts exhausted, the company resorted to trying to reach Swift on social media and in what may be a first, she granted the rights via Twitter just hours ago. While I suspect there are some contractual details to be worked out beyond “Permission granted,” presumably the tweet from Swift gives Belvoir Street enough comfort that they can proceed.