“I think it’s all one big ball of wax by now. I think that there is very little difference anymore between how I write online and how I write in the pages of magazines or when I speak. … When somebody is hearing, reading, seeing me they have a sense that they’re getting at what I might really be. Even though the pervert that is often out on Instagram might not seem like me, it’s me. And my wife approves of about eighty percent of those pictures.”
Marcel Duchamp’s Mesmerizing Art For Turntables
“In 1935, Marcel Duchamp set up a booth at the Concours Lépine, a French fair for inventors promoting their latest gadgets that still occurs to this day. In between a stand of instant vegetable choppers and another of trash compactors, the Surrealist debuted a series of objects merging his interests in science and art: his Rotoreliefs, decorated discs made to spin on a turntable as optical entertainment.”
Now We Can Hear The First-Ever Computer Music – And The Computer Was Made By Alan Turing
“Researchers in New Zealand say they have restored the first recording of computer-generated music, created in 1951 on a gigantic contraption built by the British computer scientist Alan Turing.”
Busting Five Arts-Related Myths – Some Believed *By* The Audience, Others *About* It
“Myth 1: Everyone wants to take part in arts activities. …”
Remembering The Old Metropolitan Opera House (It Wasn’t All Wonderful)
“The relatively confined space in that crowded part of the city [just south of Times Square] meant that the old Met had a glorious auditorium with excellent acoustics and sightlines that often made it easier to see other audience members than the stage. It had very little space surrounding the stage, meaning that scenery sometimes had to be put out on the street. … Things were so tight that the chorus often rehearsed in Sherry’s, the restaurant in the old opera house.”
The Jewish-American Accent Fascinates Linguists
“But is really a religious or ethnic thing? Can we call it a ‘Jewish accent’ rather than, say, a ‘New York accent’? Scholars say, yes, there is an American Jewish accent, but it’s complicated.”
Flemish Old-Master Canvas Found Dumped In Storeroom
“The piece is a rare preparatory oil study for one of [Jacob] Jordaens’ best known works, Atalanta & Meleager, which hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid.” The painting, now estimated to be worth up to £3 million, had been abandoned in a storeroom at the Swansea Museum in Wales.”
Should Middle-Aged Opera Singers Really Be Playing A Babe Magnet Like Don Giovanni? Of Course, Say Middle-Aged Opera Singers
Christopher Purves: “I think it’s much more interesting for the audience to watch a couple of old duffers trying to negotiate their way round this opera. … [Giovanni] exudes danger, mature sex appeal, total self-confidence, even though he’s no longer young.”
The ‘Godfather Of Gore’, Filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis, Dead At 87
“With his 1963 film Blood Feast, Lewis is widely credited with pioneering the splatter genre, despite it being considered ‘an insult even to the most puerile and salacious of audiences’ in a Variety review. A later critique described it as ‘one of the important releases in film history, ushering in a new acceptance of explicit violence that was obviously just waiting to be exploited’.”
Why Is Tenure Important? It Changes What Professors Tell Us Is True
“When researchers get the message that they better not produce data that might offend the powerful, they end up telling us not what is true, but what we want to hear. Policy separates from reality, and we end up with waste and poor outcomes in education, healthcare, economics, and the justice system. Good policy cannot be built on comfortable fantasies.”
$200K Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award Goes To Sarah Ruhl
“Ruhl, 42, is based in Brooklyn and is the author of plays such as The Clean House, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, Passion Play and The Oldest Boy. She previously won the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant and is a Tony nominee and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.”
Google Should Buy Twitter And Attach It To YouTube: Columnist
“If you combined the fastest and slowest types of social media, the result could be both must-see and never-forgotten.”
Researchers Restore The First-Ever Computer-Generated Music
“A computer scientist and a composer have restored an ancient recording of the first ever computer-generated music. Jack Copeland and Jason Long remastered a recording of three melodies, including “God Save the Queen,” made by the BBC in the labs of computer pioneer Alan Turing in 1951.”
The African American Museum Is Finally Open. Now What?
“The new museum opens with all the usual tensions already in place. Among its major donors are banks that played a brutal role in predatory loan scandals that targeted African American communities as well as companies that manufacture the cigarettes, food and soft drinks that play such a big part in the plague of diabetes and other health issues that afflict the black population. This doesn’t mean that the museum can’t be independent, or that the scholars and curators who created the exhibitions were in any way compromised by pressure. But it does mean that it could take substantial fortitude to, say, mount an exhibition about racism and professional sports when one of museum’s major funders is the NFL. In the age of the modern, mass-market museum, freedom and independence are never a given; they must be reasserted and defended with every new exhibition.”
Thug Sentenced To Nine Years For Destroying Timbuktu Mausoleums
“Ahmad Al Mahdi could have faced up to 30 years in prison, but mitigating circumstances—including his guilty plea, his initial reluctance to destroy the sites and his co-operation with the prosecution—meant this term was reduced.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.26.16
Thinking and speaking
Most of us have been admonished from an early age to ‘think before you speak.’ But it turns out that speaking doesn’t work that way. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-09-26
More inspiration from DePauw
Only one event at the seminal 21CMposium at DePauw University was in standard conference format — a panel discussion. That was deliberate, and was one reason the symposium was so powerful. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-09-26
Boundaries
A recent discussion with my friend Robert Carl has me pondering the ways we think of epochs in art. … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-09-26
African roots, Middle Eastern extensions in Hyde Park Jazz Fest
The two-day fest in the neighborhood soon to host Barack Obama’s presidential library focused on local performers familiar to Chicago’s south side audiences … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-09-26
Mike Zito: Keep Coming Back
After sideman work, then membership in cooperative groups with Cyrille Neville, Devon Allman and others, in 2012 the St. Louis blues guitarist and singer Mike Zito formed his band, The Wheel. Few dedicated jazz listeners … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-09-26
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This Is About To Become The Largest Private Museum In America
“With the new addition, dubbed the Pavilions, Glenstone’s exhibition space will increase fivefold. Eight of the nine discrete but linked buildings will be dedicated to the work of a single artist, including Brice Marden, Charles Ray, Michael Heizer and Cy Twombly. (The ninth pavilion will house special exhibitions.)”
People Who Can Switch Between Street Languages Use Same Cognitive Muscles As Bilinguals
“In the United States, a bidialectal person might be someone who speaks both Standard American English and African-American Vernacular English (called AAVE but also known as ‘Ebonics’), which differ a lot in pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary – so much so that AAVE has controversially been called a distinct language. So do bidialectals enjoy the same cognitive benefits as bilinguals?”
The Next Big Intellectual Revolution Is Coming
All of the past “justice revolutions” have stemmed from improved communications. Oppression thrives on distance, on not actually meeting or seeing the oppressed. The next revolution will not abolish the consequences of place of birth, but the privileges of nationhood will be tempered. While the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment around the world today seems to point in the opposite direction, the sense of injustice will be amplified as communications continue to grow. Ultimately, recognition of wrong will wreak big changes.
Where Are The Women Artists? Not Here (And Maybe They Shouldn’t Be?)
The first major survey of abstract expressionism since 1959, which has just opened at the Royal Academy, has been accused of displaying too much testosterone. Commentary developed on social media from early visitors asking: “Where were the women?” But what exactly were they expecting? The telling word from the critic is “few”. There were not many women in the movement to be included in the first place.
The Country’s Only Scientific Glassblowing Degree Program
“As they blow into glass tubes, they hover over bright orange flames that reach as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough for those stiff tubes to bend like rubbery taffy and twist into candy-cane shapes or snake coils that look machine-made.”