James McQuaid offers some strategies for shaking off the faulty assumptions arts organizations tend to make, and suggests some organizations we could learn from.
A Longtime Usher Explains How Everything Has Changed At The Music Hall
“I remember when you couldn’t get an orchestra seat Friday afternoon without a subscription. To hear the orchestra Friday afternoon was an honor. They came to the concerts as if they were going somewhere. They dressed up, and acted the same way.”
Now There’s Even A Prize For Roman Catholic Lit ($25,000, No Less)
The George W. Hunt Prize, sponsored by the Jesuit magazine America and Yale’s St. Thomas More Chapel, stipulates that nominees “should be familiar with the Roman Catholic tradition … [and] be a person of sound moral character and reputation and must not have published works that are manifestly atheistic or morally offensive.” (Good luck to the jurors on hashing that out.)
World-Religions-Barbie Exhibition Cancelled By Buenos Aires Gallery
“Emiliano Paolini and Marianela Perelli’s Barbie: The Plastic Religion would have featured 33 Barbies” – and a few Kens – “as sacred figures from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Argentine folk religion.” (Conspicuously missing: Islam.)
Why Are All The Great TV Shows On Sunday Night?
“It seems counterintuitive to pit all of TV’s best series against one another, as anyone who’s tried to program a DVR on Sundays can attest. But there is in fact a method to the networks’ madness, and five reasons why Sunday night’s quality TV overload exists – and won’t be going away anytime soon.”
Tobias Picker’s Big Plans For Opera San Antonio
Says the composer, now artistic director of the reborn company: “I would like to do a range of repertoire from Monteverdi to the present day. … American repertoire is extremely important. We’re living in a golden age of American opera. There’s a tremendous amount of opera being written today. … [I’d like] to get to the point where we can commission a new opera [every year].”
The Nazi Statue That Has Uruguay All Verklempt
“Weighing 700 pounds and with a wingspan of nearly 9 feet, the statue is a rare surviving example of the ultimate Third Reich symbol of an eagle perched atop a swastika.” A Montevideo businessman salvaged it from the wreck of a battleship and wants to sell it; the government of Germany would rather it sink back into the River Plate (but would settle for having it smelted); the Uruguayan government is stuck in the middle.
It’s Totally Unfair That Americans Are Included In The Booker Prize, Says Australian Author Who’s Already Won It Twice (And Lives In New York)
Peter Carey: “I find it unimaginable that the Pulitzer or the National Book award people in the United States would ever open their prizes to Brits and Australians. They wouldn’t. … The old Booker had a particular cultural flavour. … There was and there is a real Commonwealth culture. It’s different. America doesn’t really feel to be a part of that.”
John Cleese Quits Movies, Says He’s “Looking Forward” to Death
“I have only got five or six years left and I will be gone – I won’t have to worry about ISIS or Ebola. I am looking forward to it. … Most of the best people are dead – I will be in excellent company having a wonderful time.”
Meet “The Bob Dylan of Russia”
Boris Grebenshikov earned that sobriquet not only because of Dylan’s influence on his text-heavy, socially conscious songs, but also because “his audience includes, in the words of one professor, ‘pretty much any educated Russian between the ages of 30 and 50’.”
State Gov’t Says It’s Okay To Stage “Carmen” Despite The Smoking
Last week the West Australian Opera revealed that it had removed the Bizet opera from its repertory because a sponsorship deal with a state-funded health organization forbids staging performances which “glamourise” smoking. After several days of worldwide scorn, Western Australia’s deputy premier has stepped in to snuff out the controversy.
What Makes Some Ebola Jokes Okay And Others Beyond The Pale?
“As some comedians are fond of pointing out, basically anything can be joked about if you do it the right way. Ebola would seem to be a particularly tough subject – it is, after all, killing a lot of people at this very moment, so anyone attempting to joke about it has to scale a rather imposing initial wall of tastelessness. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.13.14
Monetize This: Tales from Two Convenings
AJBlog: We The Audience
Was that a laugh? 38¢ please!
AJBlog: The Artful Manager
Jean Tirole, theory and application
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth
Mystery Solved: The Man Who Bought The Rothschild Prayerbook
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts
Cool Breeze from the West
AJBlog: Dancebeat
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The Four Kinds Of Complaints To Critics
“What I always find is a mix of pluses and minuses. Like pretty much everything in life, performances represent a bell curve: the few thrilling ones we’ll never forget, the few real stinkers, and the vast majority that are varying mixes of the good and the less successful.”
Archaeologists Uncover A Vast (And Lovely) Mosaic In Northern Greece
“The grave may be that of a relative or general of Alexander’s, archaeologists have speculated. Some suggest it may even belong to his mother, Olympias, or his wife, Roxana.”
“Aleppo Is Syria’s Dresden”: Destruction Of Nation’s Heritage Isn’t Collateral Damage, It’s Deliberate Strategy
“Before leaving, the regime soldiers scrawled the same chilling graffiti on the mosque’s water dispenser that was starting to appear all over the country. ‘Al-Assad aw nahriqhu.’ ‘Assad, or we will burn it.'”