“Artists are being asked, even by the art world itself, to make work that’s easy, digestible, good for short attention spans, Instagrammable, marketable. Even the political stuff needs to be something one can “get” through the equivalent of a Hollywood pitch. Where does that leave the majority of our most dedicated artists?”
The Dangerous Mythologies About Utopian Cultures
The idea of a group of people untouched and unblemished by modernity encouraged social scientists to see them as a control group when it came to asking questions about whether humans have an original nature that has been somehow sullied by civilization. Among the most popular questions are ones about the human capacity for violence and war. Are people inherently violent or was the slow march away from hunting and gathering that left us war-mongering and conflict-ridden?”
A £35,000 “Fake” Constable Is Authenticated As A £2 Million Original
“We were able to trace it back through various owners… right back pretty well to the brush of Constable himself. We found it in a sale sold by his son after his death which was a real slam dunker.”
Intergalactic Culture: Here’s How Voyager’s Golden Record Was Made
Etched in copper, plated with gold, and sealed in aluminum cases, the records are expected to remain intelligible for more than a billion years, making them the longest-lasting objects ever crafted by human hands. We don’t know enough about extraterrestrial life, if it even exists, to state with any confidence whether the records will ever be found. They were a gift, proffered without hope of return.
Study: How Our Creativity Changes As We Get Older
“How does the ability to come up with unusual ideas change as we grow older? Does it begin to flag in adolescence? Before then? To investigate these questions, we and our colleagues recently conducted several experiments, which we relate in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
The Kennedy Center Honors Have Been Politicized. It May Be Difficult To Restore Their Place
“The Honors may be governed and selected by a nonprofit institution occupying a national memorial, but they are what passes in this country for knighthoods for the performing arts: the highest-profile awards bestowed for lifetime achievement in popular and high culture. Now that the culture wars have intervened, stoked by a president who has alienated many artists throughout the nation, one wonders whether the political taint will be so easily removed.”
Richard Florida’s Creative Class Problem
After fifteen years of development plans tailored to the creative classes, Florida surveys an urban landscape in ruins. The story of London is the story of Austin, the Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and Sydney. When the rich, the young, and the (mostly) white rediscovered the city, they created rampant property speculation, soaring home prices, and mass displacement. The “creative class” were just the rich all along, or at least the college-educated children of the rich.
Can Arizona Theatre Company’s New Director Make It More Diverse?
As the state’s only member of the elite-tier League of Resident Theatres, with a $7 million budget and audiences in both Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona Theatre Company is better equipped than any other Valley company to be a leader on the issues of equity and representation for women and people of color — which, ironically enough, makes Ivers, who formerly led the Utah Shakespeare Festival, something of a “great white hope” for theater diversity here.
In Venezuela’s Turmoil, Gustavo Dudamel Has Become A Target – And Helped Win A Release For An Imprisoned Violinist
Los Angeles’ “Dudamel was involved in the talks to release Wuilly Arteaga, a Venezuelan violinist who gained a following on social media for playing music in the middle of violent street protests against President Nicolas Maduro. National guard forces arrested Arteaga during a demonstration last month; he was released Tuesday.”
Leslie Jones (Or Maybe Society) Has Come A Long Way Since Last Year’s Twitter Debacle
Jones on making fun of getting hacked by racist, sexist haters after Ghostbusters came out: “That’s what comics do. You’re not a good comic if you don’t face your pain right off. That’s like the No. 1 rule on a comic’s list. You help a lot of people when you do that. You can’t ignore the elephant — you’ve got to make the elephant laugh. Me and the elephant are friends.”
When Sue Grafton Started Her Series With ‘A Is For Alibi,’ Few People Knew She’d Get To The End Of The Alphabet
How did this all get started? Grafton says, “I was reading an Edward Gorey cartoon book called ‘The Gashlycrumb Tinies.’ And that’s little pen-and-ink drawings of Victorian children being done in in various ways. A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil, assaulted by bears. C for Claire, who – you know, and on down the alphabet. I thought, what a keen idea.”
Songs For The Eclipse
Yes, there’s an obvious number one. And then a few more. (Each song lasts longer than the totality in most of the totality zone, but never mind that.)
The NYT’s Holland Cotter: Don’t Destroy Confederate Monuments
The resident art critic says to move them instead. “My reasons are pragmatic. When you find yourself at a crime scene, you don’t destroy evidence. You preserve it for the prosecution. In the case of images like this, the prosecutor is history, and the trial may be a long one, stretching far into the future, with many witnesses called. Rush to judgment and drastic action should be resisted.”
Here’s An Artist Building Colorful Bungalows To Highlight The Housing Crisis In The UK
Richard Woods: “There’s one house in the harbour, floating around – somebody heard through gossip in the town that it was going to be floated to Calais and back again. Some people are genuinely interested in whether “boat people” will move into the houses. But then lots of people in the town completely get the project.”
The King Of Audiobooks Doesn’t Even Have A Near Rival
George Guidall’s entire family was in the medical profession, and that was his parents’ plan for him. “But as a self-described ‘fat and antisocial’ child in New Jersey, he discovered acting when a high school English teacher recruited him to play Teddy Roosevelt in ‘Arsenic and Old Lace.'” More than 1300 audiobooks later …
Hulu And Netflix Are Banking On Nostalgia Making A Comeback
Digital platforms are creating new audiences for old TV shows – as when this 25-year-old from Houston says “I know ‘Game of Thrones’ is all the rage — and I watch it too, sometimes — but it doesn’t have me hooked like ‘Golden Girls.’ … I’m on my third round of watching the series right now.”
Top AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 08.20.17
Dancing on Water, Making Waves Onstage
The Trisha Brown Dance Company performs at the Clark Art Institute and at Jacob’s Pillow. Trisha Brown’s Groove and Countermove. (L to R): Kyle Marshall (head hidden), Patrick McGrath, Oluwadamilare Ayorinde, Kimberly Fulmer, Amanda Kmett’Pendry, … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-08-19
Berkshire Bumble: Director’s Letter Reveals Focus Groups Kept in the Dark About Planned Art Sales
In the sell-job for its New Vision, the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, has made much of the fact that “approximately 400 people have participated in the community consultation process” during the planning phase. But a … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-08-18
Wu Hsin-fei: Renegade Nanguan Music from Taiwan
As I write this, another day of rain in New York is adding to what has been a rather tropical summer. Am I the only one who thinks rainy days evoke nostalgia? I think … read more
AJBlog: OtherWorldlyPublished 2017-08-18
Reminder: The Statue of Liberty’s Burka*
Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox. The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs Although, by a superb comic irony, It was an Arab who modeled for the United States’ icon – … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2017-08-18
The Legendary Dancer Julie Kent Talks About The Transition To Artistic Director Of The Washington Ballet
Kent says that the adjustment from being a dancer in New York to being an artistic director in D.C. is a challenge, but that it’s good for her two young children to see their parents taking on new work. “My service to the art form is now creating opportunities for other people. … My focus is on them.”
The Globe’s New Boss Says She Has Ideas For The Theatre
Michelle Terry isn’t feuding with Emma Rice, won’t direct any plays, wants children to fall for Shakespeare through their kinetic experience at the Globe – and the plays will be “gender-blind, race-blind, disability-blind.”
Jerry Lewis Dies At 91
The high regard in which his comic abilities were held in France — he received the Legion of Honor award in 1983 — became a running joke in the U.S. long after Lewis’ style of broad physical comedy fell out of fashion. His final film, “Max Rose,” screened at France’s Cannes Film Festival in 2013.