“Soaring prices and quick resales, especially of work by emerging artists, have fueled a perception that a new breed of collectors, fond of flipping art as they would a stock, have overtaken the market. … But separate statistical analyses conducted for The New York Times by two companies that specialize in evaluating art market data indicate that the hand wringing may be premature.”
Art Flippers Aren’t Inflating The Market? Don’t Be So Sure
“Emerging artists” may be a small slice of the auction market, but the private market for art is much bigger, and “flippers have every incentive to operate stealthily, outside of the auction system.”
To Be Or Not To Be: Playwrights On Suicide And Its Complications
Charles McNulty: “Suicide is an intensely private act that provokes an immense public reaction. It bequeaths to those left behind fundamental questions about the value of existence, the fragility of our social bonds and the hidden life of even those closest to us. For all of these reasons, suicide has been a central concern of drama from its beginnings in 5th century B.C. Athens. What can we learn from the way playwrights have dealt with the complex subject of self-slaughter?”
German Authors Join In Publishers’ Battle With Amazon
“Taking a page from their colleagues across the Atlantic, more than 1,000 writers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland have united to vent their frustration over the tactics Amazon is using against the Bonnier Group and the authors who are published under its name.”
Why Some People Really Grieve Over Celebrity Deaths
“They’ve been a part of our lives. We see them on TV, they’re in our living rooms, we feel we know them, and we incorporate them almost as though they’re part of our families, though most of us recognize that they’re not. [But] there are some people whose reactions to celebrity deaths are so obsessional and extreme that it can literally make them sick.”
Fluttering Passion: Vladimir Nabokov, Lifelong Lepidopterist
“The pleasures and rewards of literary inspiration are nothing beside the rapture of discovering a new organ under the microscope or an undescribed species on a mountainside in Iran or Peru. It is not improbable that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all.”
TV Networks, Having Defeated Aereo, Seek Injunction To Squash It Forever
“If Aereo’s legal battle were a round of Mortal Kombat, someone would be shouting ‘finish him!’ right now.” The June Supreme Court decision forced it to suspend operations, but it still hopes to obtain a legal ruling that would classify it with cable companies. “But the broadcasters are determined to shut that effort down before it even gets started.”
At The World Hip Hop Dance Championships
“Hip-hop dance is not going global – it’s been global for years … The global reach was evident not only in the winners of the major world dance crew competitions” – groups fro Japan, Canada and the Philippines – “but also by the fact that a dominant team, New Zealand’s the Royal Family, was so popular that it had a special performance Saturday night.” (includes video)
Court Approves Corcoran Gallery Merger
D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Okun: “This court finds it painful to issue an order that effectively dissolves the Corcoran as an independent entity. But this court would find it even more painful to deny the relief requested and allow the Corcoran to face its likely demise – the likely dissolution of the college, the closing of the gallery, and the dispersal of the gallery’s entire collection.”
Beyond The Merger: Five Additional Points From The Corcoran Ruling
“Hidden within the ruling are several other important findings” – among them that the D.C. attorney general isn’t finished with the Corcoran just yet.
Don Pardo, Iconic Television Announcer, Dead At 96
His four-decade stint introducing NBC’s Saturday Night Live was just the highest-profile gig in a 70-year career that included (before most of you reading this were born) the original versions of The Price Is Right and Jeopardy!. (includes Weird Al video)
Was I That Bad? How Actors Cope With Really Bad Reviews
John Hurt, Una Stubbs, Meera Syal, Douglas Hodge, and Peter Egan recount tales of critical maulings and how they dealt with them.
“Carrie”-the-Musical Will Not Die
“The much-maligned musical will now drag its blood-soaked self to Los Angeles in a new production that promoters are billing as an ‘immersive’ experience” – ew! – “featuring a theater transformed into Ewen High School, the setting for much of the story.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.18.14
Corcoran Case: Over. “Painful.” But Necessary, Alas?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-08-19
Dora’s amazing tax credit adventure
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-08-18
Revived American Folk Art Museum: The Ingenuity of “Self-Taught Genius”
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-08-18
Museum-Goers Say The Darndest Things
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-08-18
The M word
AJBlog: Performance Monkey | Published 2014-08-18
Comedy and Tragedy Dance a Duet
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-08-18
Monday Recommendation: Mehmet Ali Sanlikol
AJBlog: RiffTides | Published 2014-08-18
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Lockout Averted: Metropolitan Opera Has Tentative Agreements With Musicians’ And Singers’ Unions
Following a midnight deadline and overnight talks, a Federal mediator announced that Met management has settled on contract terms with Local 802 of the AFM (instrumentalists) and AGMA (choristers, some soloists and stage managers).