“Heading into their fourth and fifth decades, deep into midlife architectural crises, needing face-lifts, they’re now vulnerable and back again in the public eye, eliciting concern and attracting a second look — and sympathy — even from people who never liked them. But will these loved-hated structures be saved, and should they?” Joseph Giovannini considers the question. — New York Times
Meet The Coolest Contemporary Chinese Choreographer You Haven’t Heard Of (Yet)
“Yabin Wang converts movement into liquid that spills across the stage. A celebrity in her home country of China, this choreographer, dancer and actress has helped to pioneer modern dance there by blending Chinese classical and contemporary dance. … This month, she is back stateside for the U.S. premiere of her Moon Opera, Nov. 3 in Pittsburgh.”
Elena Ferrante Says Using Stereotypes In Fiction Is Fine
Within reason, that is. “It’s useless to point out to the storyteller that stereotypes are abundant in real life. The narrator says he’s sorry: look, the thief really was Neapolitan, and there really was laundry hanging in the alley. … In this case stereotypes become functional” — they become a shorthand for the reader, helping the narrative flow smoothly — “the writer obeys rules; the story is a journey with inevitable stopping points – very familiar, yet always enjoyable.”
Ranky Tanky at WOMEX 2018
Ranky Tanky, whose music is grounded in the Gullah songs of the South Carolina Lowcountry, is one of those bands I had heard good things about but never seemed to catch here in NYC. But there they were at WOMEX in the Canary Islands, so I made it a point to check in on them.
Ex-San Antonio Ballet Dancer Found Not Guilty In Rape Trial
“A jury took less than three hours Friday to find a former Ballet San Antonio dancer not guilty in a sexual assault case brought by a ballerina in the company. The defense had argued that the accuser regretted having consensual sex as the two slept in her apartment bed in March 2017. Prosecutors said Hugo Ihosvany Rodriguez, 27, once a rising star with the dance company, never received a hint of approval yet forced himself on her.”
How Do You Reinvent Talk Shows For A Post-TV World?
The genre has had an especially tough time adjusting to an era where the TV channel is just one media pathway among many. Who needs a late-night chat with the stars when stars are available on Instagram and Twitter, 24/7 and without intermediation? What is “late-night” talk on a streaming platform, where, as on a casino floor, neither day nor night exist?
How To Revive A Town? “Curate” It!
Curating a town as one might an art collection — or in latter days, a party or store — is not a lonely pursuit. Wealthy individuals like Mr. Resnick, well-funded nonprofits and even corporations like Walmart have begun buying deserted American main streets, hoping to reinvent them with a fresh aesthetic.
Royal Ballet Soloist Says He Used Skin-Lightening Products For Auditions
Fernando Montano grew up in Colombia and came to the Royal Ballet in 2006. The soloist, “said he used cosmetics during his early years at Britain’s largest ballet company as he was one of only three black dancers.”
In London, A Beloved Independent Cinema Decides Not To Hand Over Control To A Commercial Theatre Group
The Phoenix Cinema has been run by a trust since 1912 (when it was the East Finchley Picturedrome), but the board was ready to sell to Curzon until protests by staff and patrons, including directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach and actor Michael Palin, convinced it that wasn’t going to work.
As A Contemporary Art Collector Sells Off Her Collection To Support Social Justice, What’s Next?
Agnes Gund doesn’t want to be profiled and doesn’t want to be too lavishly praised for being rich and using her money to support a wide swath of the worlds of social justice, not to mention artistic culture. “Her cash reserve has shrunk after a lifetime of giving to AIDS research, abortion rights groups and arts organizations, among many others. The valuable paintings in her home by artists like Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Ellsworth Kelly have mostly been promised to museums.”
When Fiction Takes On Political News (And The News Is Getting Weirder By The Minute)
A tweet just after Brexit passed in 2016 predicted that 2018 would have a ton of novels set against the backdrop of the vote. Well: “We may not quite have seen the ‘slew’ of novels predicted, but there have certainly been a number of significant ones, enough to have generated their own literary category – ‘Brexlit’ – with an academic book on the subject already promised.”
Side-Eye Warner Media’s Decision To Shut Down FilmStruck, But Remember That Streaming Isn’t Ownership
Perhaps it was a larger mistake to think that a streaming service, even one as quirkily great as FilmStruck, could in any way replace going to arthouses or buying little-known classic movies. “For what is ownership, when it comes to the cultural products we love? Is a digital file purchased from iTunes owned? Is a DVD owned? And if we are not the ultimate owners, can we depend at all on private companies, even ones with as rich an artistic legacy as Warner Bros., to preserve their culture and keep it available?”
Can ‘The Nutcracker And The Four Realms’ Bring Ballet To A Mass Audience?
Misty Copeland thinks so. “‘[People] feel comfortable sitting in a movie theater rather than walking through the doors of the Metropolitan Opera House; you feel that ‘Oh, that’s not for me.’ Especially as black people, that’s not a space for us,’ Copeland said. ‘Everyone goes to the movie theater, so this is an amazing way to do that.'”
Social Media May Be Squashing Human Spirituality, Not To Mention Hope
At least, that’s one thing that Silicon Valley expert Jaron Lanier claims – and it’s because of, well, Silicon Valley companies. “This whole architecture is on every level based on sneakiness and manipulation, often using weird behaviorist, hypnotic, unacknowledged techniques to get people more and more engaged or addicted and persuaded, or to get them into compulsive behavior patterns that aren’t necessarily in their own interest.”
Dick Higgins’ Writings Are Back
The book is a 20-years posthumous collection of writings from the Fluxus – and far more than Fluxus – composer, poet, printmaker, and artist.
A Tuba Player’s Journey From One Of Baltimore’s Poorest Neighborhoods To The New Mexico Phil
Richard Antoine White slept under trees and on friends’ couches with an alcoholic mom when he was a kid. But when foster parents took him in, he found out that he was good at music – and his path has provided a Baltimore documentary duo with a great project. White mentors other kids in need of a hand up, but also, and this is a fun one, he is “particularly passionate about baroque music (he has transcribed works of Bach for the tuba).”
In The UK, Ballet Black Finally Gets Ballet Slippers In Their Dancers’ Skin Colors [VIDEO]
One dancer who was used to pancaking her shoe with makeup foundation that matched her skin: “To have a shoe that I can just put on and go? I … I never thought that would happen.”
Toulouse, France, Brings Giant Mythological Street Art Creatures To Life
Immersive street art theatre with a giant minotaur and a giant spider meeting around a city and playing out different acts? Why not, right?
Jazz Trumpeter Roy Hargrove Has Died At 49
Hargrove’s death would be tragic even if he were in his 90s. But his career was one of expanding influence – and audience. “Hargrove advocated for a bigger audience for jazz, even when he was drawing what most in the medium would consider sizable crowds.”