Says the company’s director, Dominique Meyer: “No, during my second term there will be no music director” to succeed Franz Welser-Möst. (in German; Google-translated version here)
Where Microaggressions Really Come From
Jonathan Haidt looks at “a most extraordinary paper” by two sociologists who argue that Western societies moved from being “cultures of honor” to “cultures of dignity” in the 18th and 19th centuries – and are now in transition to a new “culture of victimhood” – one with striking similarities of the culture of honor.
Female Students Demand Right To Act In Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Shows – And They May Well Get It
While woman have worked behind the scenes on Hasty Pudding’s burlesque productions since the 1950s, the casts have been all-male since the group’s first show in 1844. When two young women announced that they had signed up to audition and began a social media campaign, Hasty Pudding’s president said the group has been discussing co-ed casts for months.
AI Fear: In The Future We May All Be Unemployed
“The risk workers face today is that we have passed a technological turning point, and as a result, a new kind of creative destruction will unfold. Smart, learning algorithms will power robots, self-service systems, and increasingly capable mobile devices, and this will inevitably drive labor intensive industries like retail, fast food, and hospitality toward employing ever-fewer workers. At the same time the new industries that we hope will create replacement jobs will rely on artificial intelligence and robotics right from their inception.”
Drama Will Be ‘Backbone’ Of BBC’s Services, Says Director-General
Tony Hall: “We know how much drama on the BBC means to our audiences. Drama is something this country excels at – it’s recognised globally. I want British drama to be the backbone of a more distinctive approach to all our services, capturing the public’s imagination with world-class work for a global stage.”
‘Yellowface In Poetry’: That White Guy Using An Asian Pen Name Was ‘Crass And Offensive’, Argues The Angry Opposition
Brian Spears: “The implication [is] that the writer’s lack of whiteness was, in this case, a help rather than a hindrance to getting the work noticed. I am here to say that Hudson and his defenders are full of it. … In poetry, as in pretty much every other walk of life, there is no greater advantage to publication and all that follows from it than being a straight white male.”
Sherman Alexie Explains – Beautifully – Why He Kept The ‘Yi-Fen Chou’ Poem In Best American Poetry 2015
“Listen, I was so angry that I stormed and cursed around the room. I felt like punching the wall. … But I had to keep that pseudonymous poem in the anthology because it would have been dishonest to do otherwise. If I’d pulled the poem then I would have been denying that I gave the poem special attention because of the poet’s Chinese pseudonym. … I would have pulled it because I didn’t want to hear people say, ‘Oh, look at the big Indian writer conned by the white guy.’ I would have dumped the poem because of my vanity.” (The entry is long, but it’s worth reading all of it.)
How Kim Dotcom Planned To Save The Music Business
“So it’s no surprise that his scheme to save the music industry, which Dotcom laid out in detail in a call with Universal Music Group executives days before Megaupload got shut down by authorities in early 2012, wasn’t exactly about playing by the books either. The real surprise is that his take-no-prisoners scheme apparently was well-received by execs of the world’s biggest music label.”
Michael Billington: UK Regional Theatre On A Big Decline
“What worries me is the state of regional theatre, which is becoming… a shadow of what it was 20 or 30 years ago. It’s for reasons to do with finance, quite honestly. [There are] more and more co-productions going on at the regional theatres, more and more non in-house productions, and increasingly bland choices.”
What’s It Like To Be An Opera Singer In 2015?
“The day of the fat singer standing in the middle of the stage is long gone,” says Dublin-born Máire Flavin, who is based in the UK. “You have to look hot, you need to be fit, you are racing around the stage, you are expected to do anything: jump, climb, be upside down . . .”
When Black Artists Speak Out (A History)
“There’s a sense that prominent black voices are always sending dispatches from within the storm. Simone’s performance seems to capture a woman standing on the edge of it. Hill is a performer gently trying to come out of it, while Chappelle is a man shocked to find himself still right in its eye. By contrast, West is the storm itself.”
How Technology Has Disrupted The Voice-Over Business
“The ability to create a home studio has put voice-over work within reach of more than just professional actors, opening up the industry to anyone who thinks they can make money off their vocal cords. And it’s led to the proliferation of websites and apps such as Voices.com, Voicebunny.com and Voice123.com that can find actors work.”
ANDY: A Warhol Approach To Opera And Pop Culture
“What I think is great about ANDY and cabaret is exploring the appropriation of existing products—soup cans, but also popular music, and then marrying that with the virtuosity of opera and these parallel worlds is kinetically interesting.”
How Litefeet Went From Subway Nuisance To Mainstream Dance
“Whereas break-dancing is about getting down on the floor, litefeet is all jumps and fast floaty footwork performed to dance music and chants. Joyful to some commuters, irritating to others, it now gets performers arrested. But the creators have moved on.”
Museums Are Plunging Into Digital Enhancements (But Do They Enhance?)
“Having recently explored the digital prestidigitations of several pioneering art museums, I have arrived at one firm conclusion: I have seen the future and we’re not there yet.”
Strike Causes Cancellation Of Season Openers At Paris Opera
Stéphane Lissner’s first season at the helm of the Opéra is not beginning auspiciously: Opening night of Madama Butterfly on Saturday was called off, as was Monday night’s performance of Rameau’s Platée. (in French; Google Translate version in English here)
‘Archaeology On Steroids’: Huge Ritual Arena Discovered Near Stonehenge
“Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a massive stone monument buried under a thick, grassy bank only two miles from Stonehenge. The hidden arrangement of up to 90 huge standing stones formed part of a C-shaped Neolithic arena that bordered a dry valley and faced directly towards the river Avon.”
Judy Carne, ‘Sock It To Me’ Girl On ‘Laugh-In’, Dead At 76
“A fairly successful television actress when she joined the cast of Laugh-In in 1968, as the Sock It To Me girl Judy Carne became the most popular person on the show for her zany, daffy, mini-skirted comic persona, continually getting doused with a bucket of water, or subjected to some other humiliation, every time she uttered the words ‘Sock it to me!'”
Sergei Polunin Stars In New Documentary
Producer Gabriella Tana: “What started out as a documentary and seeing where it went, has evolved, and changed and grown. It’s become much more about making something together (with Polunin) and more of a collaboration. And when David LaChapelle (who contributed several clips) got involved it became more exciting, and it wasn’t just about documenting a life, but about creating something.” (includes video clip)
How Ballet Turned A Profoundly Autistic Boy Into An Independent, Functional Young Man
At age 3, Philip Martin-Nielson couldn’t communicate in any way, make eye contact or concentrate on a task; doctors said he’d never be able to live on his own. Now, at age 21, he’s a full-time member of the Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo troupe – and a genuinely cheerful, chatty person.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.07.15
Newcomers in Grahamland
Dancebeat Published 2015-09-04
Trumpeting a Strumpet; Slammer to Glamor: Modigiliani & Taubman Faceoff in Auction Wars
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-09-04
In Defense of the Box Office
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2015-09-04
Other Matters: Plain English
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-09-04
Molé and Tequila
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2015-09-06
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Israel’s Favorite Palestinian – He’s Given Up And Emigrated
“In the past decade, he has become the kind of writer whose column, in the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, ‘people hang on their fridge,’ as a colleague put it. In 2007, a sitcom he wrote, titled Arab Labor (a Sabra idiom for second-rate work), had its début, introducing an Arab family to Israeli audiences for the first time. It made him a celebrity not just on the comfortable left,” but even among taxi drivers and soccer hooligans.