“Now we know that there is something anatomically different about them.” Their ability to keep time gives them an intuitive understanding of the rhythmic patterns they perceive all around them.
The Problems With Cellphones In Theaters Aren’t Just In The Audience – They’re Everywhere
“Performing artists across genres say the situation can be just as bad offstage, where cellphones are increasingly intruding on rehearsals, auditions and backstage culture. ‘I’ve had to scream at dancers in rehearsal,’ said choreographer Anthony Rue II … ‘The moment they have a second to breathe, they run to their phone. It takes them four or five minutes to mentally get back.'”
Former Guggenheim Head Thomas Krens Proposes Big For-Profit Museum In Berkshires
“Thomas Krens, the man with the original concept for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art 30 years ago, has proposed building a new 160,000-square-foot art gallery on North Adams’ Harriman-West Airport grounds. … It would be named the Global Contemporary Collection and Museum and contain a collection of about 400 works of art.”
Special Kind Of Crazy – How Classical Music Is Portrayed In Popular Movies
“The tendency to associate classical music with murderous insanity is a curious neurosis of the American pop-cultural psyche. There is little evidence of such a predilection among real-life serial killers, who seem to prefer Black Sabbath, AC/DC, REO Speedwagon, and, of course, the Beatles. So where does the trope come from?”
Dear Music Streamers: Your Service Sucks For Classical Music
An easy fix would be to get an actual human expert to curate this stuff. Maybe even someone who enjoys classical music and actually knows what they’re talking about!
History Has No Place: Pico Iyer On Japan’s Unsentimental Attitude Toward Its Modernist Architecture
“The answer is simple: The Japanese are different from you and me. They don’t confuse books with their covers. … The motto guiding Japan’s way of being might be: New is the new old. For proof, you need only look at three recent high-profile and much-debated demolition jobs in Tokyo.”
Columbia House, The Eight-Records-For-A-Penny Mail-Order Club, Goes Bankrupt (Wait, Columbia House Still Exists?)
“Since peaking in 1996 at about $1.4 billion, revenue has declined almost every year since.” Now the company has $2 million in assets, $63 million in liabilities, and no employees.
Reverse Graffiti? Making A Public Artwork By (Selectively) Washing Off Grime
“Poland’s Solina dam, completed in 1969 and the tallest dam in Poland, has been collecting dirt and grime on its walls for decades. But when it came time for the 269-foot dam to get a good powerwash, the energy company Polska Grupa Energetyczna had an idea.”
Finally, A Non-Embarrassing Classical-Music Scene In A Blockbuster Movie! Sighs Alex Ross
“The tendency to associate classical music with murderous insanity is a curious neurosis of the American pop-cultural psyche. … Given all that history, I was happily shocked by an extended opera scene in the new Tom Cruise thriller, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.”
When People Have The ‘Porcupine Problem’ (As Schopenhauer Called It)
“Imagine a group of porcupines trying to survive a cold winter. They huddle together for warmth, only to then poke one another with their quills and withdraw. Schopenhauer wrote that human relationships are like this: Much as cold drives the animal porcupines together, ‘the need of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature.'”
Ukraine Bans Russian Books For Spreading ‘Hate Ideology’
The blacklist of 38 titles, including works by Russian nationalists Alexander Dugin, Eduard Limonov and Sergei Glazyev, was released by the Ukrainian State Television and Radio Committee, which accused Russia of “information warfare.”
Oligarch Must Pay Sculptor For Illegal Knockoffs He Had Made, Says Court, But He Gets To Keep The Copies
“Last week a federal judge ordered Russian-born, Florida-based billionaire Igor Olenicoff to pay sculptor John Raimondi $640,000 for having unauthorized copies of his work made in China and installed at his development sites. However, US District Judge Andrew Guilford denied the artist’s request that the fakes be scrapped.” (They get labels instead.)
Philosophers Jürgen Habermas And Charles Taylor To Share $1.5 Million Prize
The John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, “inaugurated in 2003 and awarded by the Library of Congress, is intended to recognize work in disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes. Mr. Habermas, 86, is widely recognized as one of the most important German thinkers of the past half century, a defender of the Enlightenment tradition … Mr. Taylor, 83, is the author of several influential books questioning individualism and examining the enduring religious underpinnings of morality in the modern world.”
“Micro-Aggressions” – Are Our College Campuses Shutting Down Intellectual Debate?
This new climate is slowly being institutionalized, and is affecting what can be said in the classroom, even as a basis for discussion. During the 2014–15 school year, for instance, the deans and department chairs at the 10 University of California system schools were presented by administrators at faculty leader-training sessions with examples of microaggressions. The list of offensive statements included: “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”
The Strike Is On At UK’s National Gallery
“About 200 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union began the ongoing industrial action on Tuesday. … The industrial action follows privatisation plans which the gallery said would enable it to introduce a new roster to ‘operate more flexibly and deliver an enhanced service’.”
Bring In ‘Da Noise: We Don’t Need Theatres To Be Like Hushed Churches, Says Guardian Critic
Lyn Gardner: “Maybe – and I am just saying maybe – as people communicate differently and engage differently with the world around them, theatre may have to adapt, and not just fall back on conventions.” Exhibit A: the Edinburgh Fringe.
‘Center Stage’ Meets ‘Breaking Bad’: A Look Inside Starz’s New Ballet Series, ‘Flesh And Bone’
“If you think it’s strange that an Emmy-winning veteran of Breaking Bad has moved on to a show about ballet, then clearly you haven’t seen what can happen to feet crammed inside toe shoes all day.” (video)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.11.15
“Softening” The Museum Brand
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-08-11
Lookback: incivility and the internet
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-08-11
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NPR Has An Amazing Opportunity To Remake Radio. Will It Take It?
People, for instance, who believe NPR is well positioned to grab the reins and figure out a way to package the entire podcast universe in a way like Spotify has for music or Amazon for streaming TV. Those people shouldn’t hold their breaths.
The Orchestra Light Show That Ate Cincinnati
Tens of thousands flock to the Cincinnati Symphony’s now-annual light show extravaganza lighting up the outside of the Music Hall. Last year 42,000 tickets to the free event were claimed in a matter of minutes. This year, the orchestra charged for tickets and cut down the number, making for a different experience…
Who’s Ruling Hip-Hop Dance These Days? Koreans, Kiwis, And Filipinos
At the hip-hop dancing world championships, U.S. crews weren’t completely shut out, but their moves have been, as the tournament’s spokesman put it, “exported and perfected elsewhere.”