“Our statuary is largely derived from and better suited to authoritarian societies than democratic ones because monuments require assent to a common proposition: This man was great. They are meant to put historical truths into final form, beyond debate, literally etched in stone.”
Opera Superagent Bruce Zemsky Dead At 62
The co-founder of Zemsky Green Artist Management worked with some of the leading opera singers in the world today, among them Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Brandon Jovanovich, and Pretty Yende.
Too Many Accountants In The Arts World Are Making It ‘Frightened’ And ‘Risk-Averse,’ Says Top UK Director
Dominic Dromgoole, who spent a decade as artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe and oversaw that company’s worldwide tour of Hamlet: “Institutionally I think we have a problem that we have possibly over-stacked our governance areas with people from the world of … accountancy. They are entirely honourable and entirely nice people, but I think from the moment they begin working on things they’re always overly calculating risk and overly worried about danger. Their inclination is to say no to any venture that they can’t absolutely 100 per cent future-proof, … so that now you have an element of fear within a lot of organisations that doesn’t need to be there.”
The Jookin’ Swan: A Street-Dance Take On Pavlova’s Legendary Ballet Solo
Gia Kourlas offers a step-by-step analysis (with plenty of GIFs) of Lil uck’s revamp of The Dying Swan: “This eloquent combination of jookin’ – a Memphis-born style that relies heavily on footwork and comes from the Gangsta Walk – and Camille Saint-Saëns’s wistful strings gives the sensation that Buck is levitating.”
We May Not Know How New York’s ‘The Shed’ Will Turn Out Or What’ll Be Shown There, But Seeing Its Enormous Shell Glide On Rails Is Pretty Cool
“The gossamer-looking but gigantic structure [designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro] still weighs in at 8 million pounds but glides on a half-dozen exposed steel ‘bogies,’ or wheels, six-feet in diameter, with tapered bearings so meticulously engineered that the system requires just six 15-horsepower motors – in effect, a Toyota Prius engine moving a behemoth as finely-tuned as a Formula One car.”
Louisville Mayor Orders Review Of City’s Public Art For Racist Works
Mayor Greg Fischer announced today that he’s directing the Louisville Commission on Public Art to review its catalogue of public art to develop a list of pieces that can be interpreted to be honoring bigotry, racism and/or slavery. This is in preparation for a community conversation about their display.
Neon Is Suddenly Having A Moment In Art
Once neon symbolised vulgarity, sleaze, Las Vegas. Now it symbolises art. Artists have made luminous commercial signage so much their own that the new wave of neon in popular culture consciously apes that artiness.
New TV Shows Involving Racial History Spark Hollywood Debate About Who Can (Should) Tell History
HBO and Amazon’s dueling Civil War alt-history dramas have brought an age-old debate about art back to the cultural forefront: Who is “allowed” to tell certain stories, particularly those about marginalized communities? The question is prompting frank conversations among those in the TV industry.
Producers Cast An Asian-American Actress As Ariel In “Little Mermaid”. Some In Middle America Don’t Like That
One journalist from a southern publication, he added, asked him how it felt to be “saddled” with a non-white actor in the role of Ariel. “Saddled?” he responded, “I cast her!”
Negative Music Reviews Have All But Disappeared. Why?
“The dearth of negative music reviews is due to a number of factors. In the digital era, outlets covering music have become decentralized with fewer dominant players and more outlets running reviews. That’s helped create a new power dynamic between pop stars and the press—one where stars are less dependent on critics and critics are more eager to please artists.”
Thousands Of Young People Gather In South Korea To Listen To Music For Peace
The 25,000-person K-pop concert featured politicians and musicians. The kids hope the music drifted the five miles to the DMZ, and beyond: “If enjoying K-pop right near the border with the aggressive North Korea is not freedom, what is? … I hope North Korea, too, understands how much happiness freedom can bring and chooses a path toward peace.”
Taking Photos Isn’t A Way To Distance Yourself But A Way To Focus More Intently On What You’re Photographing
But, science says, it’s only good if you take the photos “for the right reasons.” That’s because “when you’re searching the visual field and trying to decide what to photograph, that volitional process of trying to capture a moment actually draws you into experiences.”
Horror Movies Have A Too Much Information Problem
Basically, we shouldn’t understand the backstory behind evil forces, or we lose our sense of fear. “When filmmakers, writers and producers give us the tools to comprehend a monster, the monster becomes perceptible, and, in becoming perceptible, it becomes considerably less, well, monstrous.”
Can Legislation Return Film-Scoring Jobs To Los Angeles Musicians?
The numbers are grim – “According to International Recording Musicians Association president Marc Sazer, L.A. musicians – who once routinely scored nearly all American movies – have lost substantial ground to London and other European venues. In 2003, nearly 60 percent of feature films were scored by American Federation of Musicians members; by 2015, that number was down to 30 percent” – so a tax credit may soon be in the offing.
Three Detroit Museums Band Together To Address The Riots That Dramatically Changed The City
Two museums whose patronage is supermajority white in a city that’s 80 percent African American combine with a museum that has more appeal to the city’s Black residents in a bid to get Millennials interested in what did happen – and what can happen again. One curator said, “This occurred, and pay attention, because it can happen again.”
When The Music Director Writes Things On Scores, The Orchestra’s Music Librarian Must Translate For Everyone Else
At least with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who prefers editions called urtexts (with the composers’ original phrases, dynamics, and notes), says librarian Robert Grossman. “Although the Philadelphia owns more than 5,000 scores and their instrumental parts in the public domain and has another 5,000 scores for pieces written since 1926 whose parts must be rented, this means Grossman is starting with a clean slate when working with the urtext editions.”
Why The Statues Celebrating The Confederacy Need To Come Down
Statues have symbolic power. “The statues in public squares, the names on street signs, the generals honored with military bases — these are the ways in which we, as a society, tell each other what we value, and build the common heritage around which we construct a nation.”
The Berkshire Museum Defends Its Planned But Controversial Art Sale
Facing massive blowback, including from Norman Rockwell’s sons, “Berkshire Museum officials held their ground, citing decades of financial losses that, in recent years, amounted to million-dollar annual budget shortfalls on a yearly budget of $2.4 million. The institution had struggled with deficits for 30 years, they said, and needed to fundamentally reinvent itself — or face closure within eight years.”
Some Musicians In Santa Monica Are Not Pleased With A Right-Wing Radio Host Guest Conductor
Dennis Prager will conduct Haydn’s Symphony No. 51 this week at a Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra fundraiser. “Prager’s day job, however, has members of the orchestra up in arms — and laying down their instruments. He is a conservative talk show host who often targets multiculturalism, Muslims and LGBTQ people.”
Netflix Poaches Grey’s Anatomy & Scandal’s Shonda Rhimes From ABC
Why is this news? Because Rhimes is one of the biggest TV talents around – and also, Netflix locking her down to develop shows for the streaming service “is the latest twist in a battle between Disney and Netflix for entertainment-industry supremacy.”
Top AJBlog Posts From The Weekend Of 08.13.17
Frank Sinatra Sings Brahms
The Importance of the Familiar You know how it feels when you unexpectedly hear a familiar piece of music—any kind of music? You get that jolt and you say, oh I love that song/piece. Or … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-08-13
And Finally, From Ystad
The Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival ran six days and was packed with so much music that there was no chance of hearing it all. Here are brief impressions of a few more … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-08-13
The Carsten Dahl Experience, Deborah Brown & Lundgren Twice
At the Ystads Konstmuseum, the Carsten Dahl Experience was, indeed, an experience. After launching his career as a drummer, Dahl taught himself piano in the early 1980s and quickly developed formidable technique … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-08-11
Save the Forsaken 40! Protest March Tomorrow by Opponents of Berkshire Museum’s Art Sales
Opponents of the Berkshire Museum’s planned sale of 40 artworks from its collection plan to stage a protest march tomorrow (Saturday), 9 a.m.-noon, on the sidewalk in front of the Berkshire Museum, South Street, Pittsfield, MA. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-08-11
The Tanzania Albinism Collective Say Music Has Saved Their Lives
The group toured Britain after experiencing a songwriting workshop and immediately recording an album. “The album swings wildly – from moments of beauty to blasts of anger, from big group numbers with people grabbing whatever is to hand for percussion (one features a rainwater barrel being hit by a sledgehammer) to dance songs where someone has clearly found the keyboard’s demo button and simply sung over the top. There is often a stark contrast between the song titles – Stop the Murders, Stigma Everywhere – and the fun of the music.”