“Art Moscow, Russia’s longest-running contemporary art fair, has been canceled this year because of international tensions and a virtually nonexistent local market, its founder and organizer, Vasily Bychkov, has announced.”
San Antonio’s New Opera Company Debuts In What Was Once “An Opera Town”
“Success. Happiness. Disappointment. Ruination. Renewed hope. Those ingredients help turn opera plots. They also could apply to the history of opera in San Antonio, which has experienced cycles of lavish success punctuated by periods of dwindling audiences, inactivity followed by revived interest.”
If Theatre Is Going To Be Relevant, It Needs Better Technology
“We need technology to be fully focused on how to improve the live experience. Like: Get me to my seat faster, make the actors more excited, give me stuff that makes being in the venue better. I don’t think live events are going anywhere. I’ve doubled down. This is my business and my life, but we’re becoming irrelevant because we have to figure out how to remain relevant in peoples’ lives. And technology is a part of that.”
What Makes Good Acting? (It’s Not Objective)
“If anyone tells you there are objective standards, they’re full of crap. This is a matter of personal taste. There are trends. There are many people who loved Philip Seymour Hoffman’s acting. But if you don’t, you’re not wrong. At worst, you’re eccentric.”
ABT Launches YouTube Channel
“The current videos show interviews with dancers as well as discussions about preperformance rituals, competition in the ballet world and the need for perseverance in a dancer’s career. There are also behind-the-scenes glimpses of company classes and rehearsals.”
Edinburgh Int’l Film Fest Suddenly Needs A New Artistic Director
“The departure of Chris Fujiwara has left the event facing a race against time to find a replacement after the Japanese-American author and critic decided to leave with another year left on his contract.”
Future Ennui: Technology Advances Aren’t Exciting Anymore, They’re Just …
“Change is exciting, but it can also be exhausting. And for the first time in a long time, reactions to the Apple Watch reveal seem to underscore exhaustion as much as excitement. But even these skeptical replies question the watch’s implementation, rather than express lethargy at the prospect of living in the world it might bestow on us.”
So Big Data Will Make Us Better? There’s A Flaw… Us!
“Data analytics in support of human decision making, however, has one flaw — the human. This weak link in the data-driven agility chain becomes apparent as we move to Big Data: as the data grow so too do the results of the analyses, and yet people have a limited attention span and with it, the ability to process information. It doesn’t matter how wonderful the reports your newfangled Big Data tool generate if no one has the time or predilection to read them — or even worse, understand them.”
Canada’s Prestigious Giller Prize Doubles To $140,000
“Founder Jack Rabinovitch announced Tuesday that the Scotiabank Giller Prize is now worth $140,000. The winner will get $100,000 and the other four finalists $10,000. It represents a doubling of the prize and makes it the highest payout for a literary prize in Canada, richer even than Britain’s Man Booker Prize of 50,000 pounds (about $89,000 Canadian).”
Report: Majority Of UK Musicians Work Without Contracts
“Nearly 70% of musicians accept work without a written contract, a survey by industry body the Incorporated Society of Musicians has shown.”
San Francisco Is Pricing Out Teachers, Artists… (And What Does That Mean For City Life?)
“Is a teacher who can’t afford to live in the city any more or less worthy than an artist? We need to adopt a more holistic approach and think beyond class and occupation. We need to work in partnership with colleagues from every sector.”
Stephen Adly Guirgis Wins $200K Steinberg Playwrighting Award
“With their abrasive characters and often profane language, the plays of Stephen Adley Guirgis aren’t crowdpleasers in the conventional sense. The New York playwright specializes in chronicling the rougher side of city life, and has earned critical raves and a Tony Award nomination for his work.”
Stratford Festival To Offer Shakespeare In Movie Theaters And On TV
“As the first installment of a long-term project, in which the festival hopes to document its productions of the entire Shakespeare canon, three of this year’s stagings will be filmed in HD. The films will be screened in cinemas around the world in 2015 and television broadcasts by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will follow, as will on-demand digital releases.”
Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial May Lose Most Of Its Gehry-Ness (Including Gehry Himself)
“The project faces a major crossroad this week over its controversial Frank Gehry design, which uses woven steel tapestries strung on 80-foot columns to depict the modest Kansas roots of the decorated soldier and statesman. The Eisenhower Memorial Commission on Wednesday will review two approaches, including one that removes most of these elements. If that plan is selected, Gehry informed the commission, he will ask for his name to removed.”
“Three Tenors” Impresario Tibor Rudas Dead At 94
The former opera singer and Holocaust survivor “made a name for himself in the United States by bringing Las Vegas-style brio to performances by highbrow artists. He presented the New York Philharmonic in an Atlantic City casino and produced large outdoor concerts for other classical artists at the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Super Dome and other unconventional venues.”
It’s The Little Annoyances That’ll Really Kill You
“The godawful commute. The fight you had with your partner this morning. The kitchen sink that won’t stop leaking. Minor annoyances? Maybe. But these little, everyday hassles can add up and may be as likely to do you in as the bigger, more serious stressors in life, like divorce or job loss, according to new research.”
David Lynch Thinks No One Will Ever Agree On What “Eraserhead” Is About
“No one, to my knowledge, has ever seen the film the way I see it. The interpretation of what it’s all about has never been my interpretation.” (But what’s scary: “I love the world of Eraserhead. I would love to live in that world.”)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.16.14
What Killed Adulthood? Pop Culture or Capitalism?
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-09-16
Somewhere between crude and crass
AJBlog: The Artful Manager | Published 2014-09-16
Matisse Cut-Outs, Records, And Making Art Seem Scarce
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-09-17
The Disappearing Publisher
AJBlog: PostClassic | Published 2014-09-16
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E-Books Get Radically Better At Doing Poetry
“Digital poetry is still dwarfed by print, and some writers and publishers question whether there is much demand for poetry e-books.”
What Role Does Taste Play In Our Appreciation Of Books?
“Good taste precedes the individual. It is an inheritance, an invisible monument, a millennium of exquisite micro-choices all embedded in the fibers of the mind! Surely it will prevail!”
Report: Women’s Employment In TV Has Plateaued
“Female creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors and directors of photography working on prime-time television airing on broadcast networks account for 27% of individuals working behind the scenes.”
National Book Awards Poetry Longlist Announced
Two former U.S. poets laureate, Louise Glueck and Mark Strand, have made the longlist for the National Book Awards.
Meet The Czar Of The World’s Biggest Theatre Empire
“Few producers will criticize Sir Howard [Panter], … given that his company holds the keys to 40 theaters and has plans for more in Asia and Australia.” That company – Ambassador Theatre Group – is about to open its own Broadway house, the Lyric (formerly the Foxwoods Theater).