Last week, Mark Shenton wrote in passing “There are plenty of budding actors, writers, directors and even critics (though no jobs for the latter), …” To which journalist Matt Trueman responded, “Mark, saying no jobs for young critics does a disservice to young critics making a living from their writing.” Well, disservice or no, here’s Shenton’s response.
Would Scottish Independence Mean The Death Of The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra? (These Musicians Fear As Much)
“In a letter published today, composers, conductors and a former director of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra express their ‘grave concerns’ over the future of the orchestra in the event of a Yes vote and the establishment of a Scottish Broadcasting Service (SBS).”
‘Longmire’ Canceled Because Its Big Audience Was Just Too Old
“A&E said it pulled the plug on ‘Longmire’ because it appeals primarily to older viewers—the median age of the show’s viewers is 60 versus 48 for the network as a whole.”
New Playwrights Will Never Defeat Romeo & Juliet – But Can They At Least Get A Hearing?
“I get it. Dead people work for cheaper than those of us who breathe air. And they’ve got more name recognition and audience draw. Plus, they won’t show up to rehearsal with script changes or input. There’s no need to spend money ‘developing’ their plays. Their work is finite. Frozen forever in perfection.”
Duke Ellington’s Grandson Sues Over Recording Company Royalties
“In the lawsuit, Paul Ellington says EMI should stop deducting 50 percent commissions to foreign subpublishers that its parent company now owns before splitting the rest with Ellington’s heirs.”
Why Do Jazz Fans Have No Sense Of Humor?
“Jazz already has an unfair reputation for being unapproachable, difficult, and humorless: See Keith Jarrett cursing out festival attendees for snapping photos, or Gary Peacock shooing Elvis Costello offstage in disgust. But if jazz has a humor problem, it’s mostly afflicting fans and critics, not practitioners.”
Judge Declines To Award Indigenous Art Prize Because “Work Wasn’t Good Enough”
“It’s so insulting to the artists there, where you’ve got an old non-Indigenous lady saying these Indigenous art works are not worthy of being awarded any prize.”
Stonehenge – There’s Lots More Of It Underground, Say Scientists
“An astonishing complex of ancient monuments, buildings, and barrows has lain hidden and unsuspected beneath the Stonehenge area for thousands of years. Scientists discovered the site using sophisticated techniques to see underground.”
Bucket Lists: “The YOLO-ization Of Cultural Experience”
Rebecca Mead: “As popularly conceived, however, the bucket list … partakes of a commodification of cultural experience, in which every expedition made, and every artwork encountered, is reduced to an item on a checklist to be got through, rather than being worthy of repeated or extended engagement.”
San Francisco Opera Signs Contract With Orchestra – And No Acrimony!
“With a minimum of strife or public posturing, members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra have ratified a new contract with the company that provides the musicians with annual raises of 3 percent a year for the next four years … [and] changes to the musicians’ health coverage that are expected to save the company $300,000 to $400,000 annually.”
Why Justin Peck Is The New It-Boy Ballet Choreographer
“Peck stands apart for his ability to channel an almost conservative approach to ballet through an athletic idiom that’s easy for newcomers to appreciate.” Says New York City Ballet ballet master in chief Peter Martins, “He’s willing to break the rules but stay within the classical vocabulary.”
All Those People Transcribing Smithsonian Documents For Free – What’s In It For Them?
“‘It’s a different way to interact with our records,’ said the Smithsonian’s project coordinator Meghan Ferriter, ‘and once they get into it, they realize how cool our collection at the Smithsonian really is.'” Turns out she’s not kidding.
The Things You Learn Transcribing For The Smithsonian
WSJ reporter Kelly Crow: “What happened to the painting? The mystery kept churning in my imagination as I transcribed a draft of a letter that American modernist Arthur Dove wrote in May 1933 to his biggest patron, Duncan Phillips.”
How To Get Street Artists To Help Create Your Designer Furniture Line
Ariel Zuckerman and Eran Shimshovitz “hung wooden boards around the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood near their workshop and waited for graffiti artists to do their work.” Which they did – whereupon Zuckerman and Shimshovitz took the boards back to the workshop and fashioned them into furniture.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.11.14
Art of 9/11: Remnants, Models, Memorial Tributes
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-09-11
The Sad State of New Music
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-09-12
Gerald Wilson And Harmony
AJBlog: RiffTides | Published 2014-09-11
Guelph’s jazz fest/colloquium of cosmic improvisation, Deutsch pix
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz | Published 2014-09-11
Things I’m thinking about…
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-09-11
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Will Americans Ever Grow Up?
“It isn’t only that patriarchy in the strict, old-school Don Draper sense has fallen apart. It’s that it may never really have existed in the first place, at least in the way its avatars imagined. Which raises the question: Should we mourn the departed or dance on its grave?”
The War Machine On TV In China Probably Right Now, And Now, And Now
“About 100 anti-Japan films and nearly 70 TV programs were produced in 2013, according to Reuters, which estimates that the genre holds as much as 70 percent of the market.”
The Artist Walks 12 Miles To Make Each Artwork – And Then It Washes Away
“‘It’s a race against the tide, it’s nine hours of furious work,’ says the artist who is best known for making huge geometric snow designs in the Alps with his feet.”
There’s No Such Thing As A Generation, And This Is How They Were Invented
“People do not react to their particular historical conundrums as a monolithic group. This is often where trend pieces get into trouble, when they start attributing one possible reaction to the group as whole.”
How The Belarus Free Theatre Keeps On Battling A Stalinist Regime
In Belarus, the KGB attends Free Theatre shows, sometimes just to scare the performers. Other times, the evenings end in arrests. Criminal cases brought against the company drove four members to permanent exile in London. But they never cease their work. … The company now functions as a two-pronged operation: In England they perform with a rotating ensemble of British and Belarusian actors, and in Belarus they continue to write, develop and rehearse new material.”