Scott Timberg: “From the very beginning – perhaps since before the birth of Homo sapiens, in fact – we have craved the effects that art and music can have on us. Simultaneously, we have both worshipful and deeply suspicious feelings toward people who make art or who dwell in the realm of the aesthetic.”
Israel Recovers Ancient Sarcophagus Hidden By Contractors
“The limestone coffin [is] estimated at 1,800 years old and discovered last week during work on a new neighbourhood in coastal city Ashkelon … The contractors who encountered the find opted to extract it themselves with a tractor, damaging it before hiding it beneath a stack of metal sheets and boards.”
Ancient Native American Rock Art Defaced With Graffiti – By Geology Students
Fortunately (if that’s the word), the taggers included their names and the university they attend. (includes video)
Where Wim Wenders Went Wrong
Richard Brody: “[His] career is marked by a break that occurred between 1975 and 1977, between the films Kings of the Road and The American Friend. … In that shift, Wenders went from being one of the most intrepid and riginal directors of the time to being himself an art-house signifier.”
An Interactive Guide To Ambiguous Grammar (And The St. Louis County Police Department)
Watch how “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” can be gradually converted into the kind of quasi-meaningless statement delivered somewhere or another every day by ass-covering bureaucrats and spokespeople.
China’s Economy Is Crashing. What Might Save It? The Arts?
With some saying the era of “Cheap China” and “Dirty Manufacturing” is over, the central government is focusing on expanding creative culture, adding 4,000 museums, galleries and art centers in the past five years and creating multi-million-dollar tech incubators and “creative clusters.” The government is funding book fairs, film festivals and promotes artistic works by writers and artists of whom it approves.
Twyla Tharp Hits The Road With A New Set Of Dancers (With A Commitment)
“Obviously,” she said, “the dancers are at the heart of the whole matter.” But she also knows that they’re only human — and that 10 weeks on the road has its risks. “Every single one of these people has taken a pledge on a stack of Bibles: I am not going down, I am not going down, I will not go down,” Ms. Tharp said.
Miami’s Perez Museum Chooses A New Director
“Franklin Sirmans has been at LACMA for five years; before that, he was curator of modern and contemporary art at the Menil Collection in Houston and curatorial advisor at the contemporary arts institution MoMA PS1. He was also a lecturer at Princeton University and Maryland Institute College of Art and was U.S. editor of the magazine Flash Art and editor-in-chief of ArtAsiaPacific, an English language magazine.”
Why Google’s New Logo Says All The Wrong Things (Typographically Speaking)
“Google took something we trusted and filed off its dignity. Now, in its place, we have an insipid “G,” an owl-eyed “oo,” a schoolroom “g,” a ho-hum “l,” and a demented, showboating “e.” I don’t want to think about that “e” ever again. But what choice do I have? Google—beneficent overlord, Big Brother, whatever you want to call it—is at the center of our lives. Now it has symbolically diluted our trust, which it originally had for all the right reasons.”
La La La Human Dance Steps Shuts Down
“The last tour was a difficult one financially. Though the debt was reduced substantially due to the generosity of many of our creditors, the cuts that followed and the decision not to guarantee more than the current year of subsidy has made it impossible to continue.”
How An Australian Dance Company Found A Big New Audience
“The Queensland Ballet is probably experiencing one of the most noticeable periods of change in any arts company in the country. It is an ideal case study of how an organisation can embrace inevitable change and take calculated risks.”
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Makes Peace With Bernard Haitink
“The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has apologised to its former Chief Conductor, healing a rift that has existed for the last couple of years. Announcing the return of its Honorary Conductor, the RCO admitted that ‘strains in the relationship between the management of the RCO and [Haitink]’ had led to the conductor’s absence during the past 18 months.”
GLAAD Gives Up Its Annual Report Card Of LGBT Characters On TV
“The [Network Responsibility Index] has reflected tremendous change over the last decade – and has helped to convince networks of the validity and value of LGBT-inclusive programming. So why is GLAAD leaving it in the past?”
The Sound’s The Thing: A Writing Lesson From Ursula K. LeGuin
“The sound of the language is where it all begins. The test of a sentence is, Does it sound right? The basic elements of language are physical: the noise words make, the sounds and silences that make the rhythms marking their relationships. … This is just as true of prose as it is of poetry, though the sound effects of prose are usually subtle and always irregular.”
Which Humanities Majors Make The Most Money? Philosophy Majors
“Although philosophy majors rank 75th on PayScale’s overall list of majors at mid-career earnings, it’s the top humanities bachelors degree in their ranking – from early career all the way to later career.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.03.15
DeFranco & Gibbs: Fast And Flexible
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-09-02
So you want to see a show?
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-09-03
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Spielberg’s Dreamworks Splits From Disney
“A new deal could mean a fresh start for DreamWorks, which has faced struggles from the inception of the Disney relationship. Sources say the DreamWorks team felt something of a strain from the start because its deal was negotiated with Dick Cook, then chairman of the studio, with the understanding that Disney would invest in DreamWorks’ films and invite DreamWorks to participate in some of its projects. But soon after the deal was made, Cook was ousted and Disney CEO Bob Iger set a strategy of fully financing Disney movies.”
Why Dreamworks Is Leaving Disney
“Although several studios are discussing the possibility of bringing DreamWorks into the fold, insiders say that Universal has the best shot at becoming DreamWorks’ new distribution partner when the previous deal runs its course next August.”
Chailly To Quit Leipzig Gewandhausorchester Four Years Early
What prompted the change of plan is not clear, though a statement issued by the orchestra implies it didn’t want him to leave. The city’s mayor Burkhard Jung is quoted as saying he ‘has conceded’ to Chailly’s desire to leave ‘in recognition of the exceptional accomplishments of Riccardo Chailly in furthering the artistic and international reputation of the Gewandhausorchester.’
We Asked Music Critics Who Are The World’s Best Orchestras And Conductors…
Five of the world’s greatest orchestras, as collectively ranked, are German….
Dean Jones, The Go-To Leading Man Of Disney’s Golden Age, Dead At 84
“Precocious and multitalented as a youth, the boyishly handsome Mr. Jones began his career as a teenage radio host and performer in amateur musical revues. He became a stage actor, and he and Jane Fonda made their Broadway debuts together. But it was not until the mid-1960s that he found his niche, as the affable, hapless, clean-cut Everyman in a series of genial family comedies produced by the Walt Disney Company, beginning in 1965 with That Darn Cat!“