“Here is the truth: Chastity belts, made of metal and used to ensure female fidelity, never really existed. … Or, as the British Museum puts it: ‘It is probable that the great majority of examples now existing were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as curiosities for the prurient, or as jokes for the tasteless.'”
A Grammy-Nominated Tenor On Raising An Autistic Child While Traveling Nine Months A Year
Lawrence Brownlee: “I talk to my agent to schedule as much time as I can at home without hurting my career. But if you’re in this business, you have to be out and about so people will see you. I do hate leaving my wife and kids. I’ve missed so many milestones, especially my son with his special needs. I’ll come home and I’m amazed at some of the things he can do.”
Bestselling New Adaptation Of ‘Don Quixote’ Called ‘Crime Against Literature’ By (Some) Spanish Academics
“Spanish writer Andres Trapiello spent nearly 14 years adapting Cervantes’s masterpiece for contemporary readers. According to Trapiello, it is impossible to understand Don Quixote without reading the footnotes. The new edition includes a comprehensive set of changes to make it more comprehensible.”
Artist Lets Tiger Loose In Detroit’s Old Packard Plant
“British photographer David Yarrow booked a two-day photo shoot at [the famously ruined venue]. Only problem was, he apparently didn’t tell anyone at the plant that he was bringing a tiger, two wolves and a bobcat with him. … The animals, trainers and photographers were given the boot about an hour later. But not before the tiger got loose and holed itself up on a fourth-story staircase.” (includes video)
Choice Of LACMA Architect Has Critics Wondering About The Place Of Quality Architecture In LA
“Many have challenged the logic of a Swiss building in Los Angeles, asking whether his revered precision will translate given the economics of American construction. Others ask whether his monastic aesthetic will make sense in the image-driven landscape of Los Angeles and, more specifically, whether his architectural language of sublime asceticism will respond to the city’s very diverse urban context. Even more inflammatory critics have suggested that he lacks adequate experience in buildings of this scale. In a sense, all of the criticisms can be boiled down to a single accusation: quality architecture does not belong in Los Angeles.”
Memphis Symphony CEO Steps Down As Orchestra Has Stabilized
“Memphis Symphony Orchestra CEO and President Roland Valliere – a ‘turnaround specialist’ who reversed the symphony’s serious financial crisis by orchestrating a deal that required the musicians to take deep pay cuts – is stepping down from the job Nov. 9.”
How The Buckley-Vidal Debate Changed The Media (And Maybe Paved The Way For Fox News)
“Where a debate between two urbane intellectuals ought to have ushered in a golden age of elevated, rational discussion, it instead – due to the personal enmity to which the combatants gave voice – sparked the worst aspects of modern media, a debased version of political talk, the gladiatorial mudslinging that prevails in broadcasting today.”
The Whistled Language Of Northern Turkey – And What It Can Tell Us About The Brain
“The small town of Kuşköy, which is tucked into an isolated valley on the rainy, mountainous Black Sea coast, … is remarkable not for how it looks but for how it sounds: here, the roar of the water and the daily calls to prayer are often accompanied by loud, lilting whistles – the distinctive tones of the local language.” (includes sound samples)
Luminato Loses Its Artistic Director
The announcement is brisk and matter of fact. But to me it brings on a rich array of unmentioned questions about timing, possible consequences and future changes in Luminato’s survival strategy.
Women Artists Are Demanding Space In Country Music Lineup
“While country music radio has historically been male-dominated, the issue about the lack of women getting air time picked up steam this spring when radio consultant Keith Hill said country stations that want better ratings should play fewer female artists.”
Washington’s National Mall – A Jumble Of Grandeur In Need Of A Refresh
“The pressure to keep on building on the National Mall will not go away. But the recent evolution brings a human scale and an appealing American idealism to spaces where self-conscious and overbearing grandeur have held sway for too long.”
Are Big Arts Events More About The Audience Than The Art?
“A great deal of event art is more about the event and the audience than it is about the art. The throng – the sight of people congregating – is being used to prove relevance, to demonstrate that cultural institutions are hip and popular. But in chasing the buzz and pursuing the people, the art – a poem, exhibition, orchestral work or a play – can get lost. The danger is once the novelty wears off there is little to show for it. The crowds will vacate.”
So The Culture Wars Are Over? Oh Really?
“Whether the internet is simply a new, more broadly accessible forum for old debates about the meaning of America, or whether it is facilitating a new kind of culture war altogether, is not entirely clear. Nor are online spaces any less susceptible to the imperatives of capitalism than any other part of American culture. But if the culture wars are over, no one told their most energetic partisans: on this new frontier, the battle rages on.”
The Vatican’s Crowdsourcing Art Restoration: Is It About The Art Or About The Money?
“The Museum itself is the main generator of income to support the Vatican City State itself. How did art become the funder for a government? How has this altered how the art is treated, if the Vatican is only able to run based on how many visitors they can get to walk through the doors? Ticket sales for 2014 totaled around $87 million, from which the State took half for its operations.”
Stephen Colbert Explains – Very Frankly – Why He Loves Discomfort And How He Turns It Into Joy
As his improv teacher at Second City, Del Close, told him, “You have to learn to love the bomb.”
Archaeology’s Fraught Relationship With Religion
The very beginnings of the discipline are tied up with religion, particularly attempts to validate the Bible. Today, there are students who neither know nor care much about the Bible and aren’t willing to take its importance as a given. How will that change the field?
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.17.15
Monday Recommendation: Music Of Gary McFarland
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-08-17
From Florida with Skill and Devotion
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-08-17
Happy birthday to jazz pianist Bill Evans
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-08-17
Time Capsule: Algren, Burroughs, Mailer, et al . . .
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2015-08-17
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With Ballet Dancers More Diverse Than Ever, The Audience Is Still Very White
“Next to the vivacity of hip-hop or jazz, ballet may seem an odd choice to back as dance that could represent the country well.”
The Tiny, Magical Los Angeles Museum That’s Only Open Four Hours A Month
“On the northern edge of L.A.’s vast Griffith Park, tucked inside a bend of the 1/8th scale railroad track that carries visitors around a bucolic stretch of Southern California chaparral, stands a humble, saggy-roofed barn that contains a multitude of treasures.”
Will The Vatican’s New Restoration Donation App Ruin Everything?
“Patrum sounds lovely and philanthropic, but it is pandering to the culture of restoration that does as much harm as good. Italy is full of artistic marvels. They need careful protection and obviously, that includes restoring where restoring is essential. But it is a delicate balance. The problem with restoration is that it excites people – it becomes a story,”
Listen To John Cage And Morton Feldman In Conversation
“Unlike the more formal records of Feldman or Cage speaking or writing, you’re privy in these conversations to the two men working ideas out rather than presenting finely worked philosophies or arguments. It’s like being given access to their combined creative process at a key moment in both of their musical lives.”
Jeff Bezos Says Amazon Is Nothing Like The Damning NYT Article
“Bezos wrote that he ‘very much’ hoped workers did not recognize the workplace depicted in the article — ‘a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard.'”
The Hot Degree In Silicon Valley? Liberal Arts?
“Throughout the major U.S. tech hubs, whether Silicon Valley or Seattle, Boston or Austin, Tex., software companies are discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger. Engineers may still command the biggest salaries, but at disruptive juggernauts such as Facebook and Uber, the war for talent has moved to nontechnical jobs, particularly sales and marketing.”