Nielsen’s figures include few of the people who watch a show in the days after it airs, and none at all who watch on a phone, a tablet, or Netflix. “If almost nothing is a hit anymore, why shouldn’t a hit be whatever we say it is? But that ‘we’ is exactly the problem.”
Real Literature Is About Losers, Says Umberto Eco
“Dostoevsky was writing about losers. The main character of The Iliad, Hector, is a loser. … Madame Bovary is a loser. Julien Sorel is a loser. I am doing only the same job. Losers are more fascinating. Winners are stupid … because usually they win by chance.”
How (& Why) Did ‘Law & Order’ Producer Dick Wolf Take His TV Empire To Chicago?
“‘Chicago embodies unapologetic, old-fashioned values of right and wrong and how you should act,’ he says. Or, in the language of NBC’s ads, it’s a ‘city of heroes’ defined by ‘the people who protect, serve and heal.’ Tales of the urban heartland are tailor-made for the broad audience of network television, a medium that itself can seem old-fashioned in the new world of niche dramas on cable and streaming TV.”
Is Theatre Too Much In Love With Itself?
“The nervousness that theatre-about-theatre raises in critics and audiences is similar to the prejudice among literary critics towards novels that have novelists as their protagonists: a fear of professional special pleading and jokes that mean more to producers than consumers.”
Betye Saar’s Work Couldn’t Be More Relevant, So Where Are The Shows?
“‘I guess it’s always a problem to get recognized in your hometown,’ she reflects. ‘But they can’t wait and wait because then I’ll die and it’ll cost big bucks,’ she adds with a laugh. ‘Then they will pay for their hesitation.'”
Where All The World Heritage Sites Are (By The Numbers)
“In 1978, when Unesco published its first list of protected places, there were just 12 World Heritage Sites. Now there are 1,031, including Fray Bentos meatpacking plant in Uruguay, as of July this year.”
Opera Company To Take Up Residence In Stately Countryside Estate
“The design of the 700-seat theatre is based on one of the most celebrated opera houses in the world, La Scala in Milan, which opened in the 18 century. It will feature four tiers of balconies above the stalls, according to plans seen by the Times.”
In Grenoble: Free Fiction Dispensers
“The free stories are available at the touch of a button, printing out on rolls of paper like a till receipt. Readers are able to choose one minute, three minutes or five minutes of fiction.”
One Of Seattle’s Major Public Radio Stations Buys The Other
The University of Washington station, at 94.9 FM, is well-known for its National Public Radio news programs, while the Pacific Lutheran University station, at 88.5, broadcasts both news and jazz.
Strong Week Of Auctions, But Concerns For Health Of The Market
“Sotheby’s stock price reflects the general slowdown in the global economy. The stock has been hurt by their earnings from their main auction business, which are weak.”
When Dancers Stop Dancing… They’re Still Dancers
“The biggest challenge that prevents us from seeing the value of a dancer beyond his or her performance career is the tendency to derive a person’s worth from the product that person produces – in our case, the dance.”
Study: Music Lessons Change Students’ Behavior
“According to recently published research, third- and fourth-graders in Canada who initially scored low in sympathy and helpfulness developed those qualities at above-average rates if they took group music lessons for a full school year.”
Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’ Resurrects Nearly Obsolete Technology
“The film will be released in a special roadshow version – with overture, intermission and additional footage – on 100 screens in 70-millimeter projection.”
Three Reasons Why You Are Always Mishearing Song Lyrics
“Everyone else seems to think Taylor Swift sings ‘got a long list of ex-lovers’ in her single ‘Blank Space,’ and yet you are pretty sure she is actually saying something about lonely Starbucks lovers. This, as it turns out, is a great example of something linguists call a mondegreen …” (animation)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.12.15
Words that worry me
Audience engagement. Such a buzzphrase in the arts these days. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-11-12
A Small Detail, A Big Idea & Why You Should Care
Let’s marvel at a small detail that reveals a big idea. … read more
AJBlog: Audience Wanted Published 2015-11-12
Opera in Paris
On a ten-day visit to the City of Light I had the opportunity to attend two operas and one superb music rehearsal of three very different works. … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2015-11-12
Not a Dance? Are You Sure?
I plan to iron out the creases and frame the flyer for The Kitchen’s fall season. It’s an art work by Ralph Lemon that also appears in Lemon’s installation and performance there, Scaffold Room. … Oh, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s also as bewitchingly, sometimes infuriatingly enigmatic as Lemon’s staged creation …read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-11-12
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British Museum Invites The World Inside (Virtually)
“From today, fans of the British Museum will be able to avoid the crowds to snoop through more than 4,500 objects online, peering inside glass cabinets to inspect their finest artefacts. It will be the largest indoor Street View project in the world, allowing virtual entrance into the entire London institution as well as specially-curated digital collections.”
Philosopher-As-Interpreter – A Fraught Path
“We might need these difficult thoughts unpacked by interpreters and, since these are usually less gifted than the original authors, they might differ on the correct reading. But then, if a clear interpretation of the ideas can be provided, why didn’t the original authors do it themselves? Such a failure of communication is a defect rather than a virtue. Skilled writers shouldn’t need interpreters to patch up holes in their texts.”
Group Trying To Revive New York City Opera Makes A Bold Choice For Its First Production: ‘Tosca’
“The group, NYCO Renaissance, announced Wednesday that it would mount Puccini’s Tosca – the first production City Opera ever did, back in 1944 – Jan. 20-24 at the Rose Theater. … The group originally hoped to mount a lavish production by Franco Zeffirelli but now plans to use a historical, more economical one based on the designs Adolf Hohenstein created for the opera’s premiere in 1900 in Rome.” (But yes, the group’s future plans do include new and less-performed works.)
‘The Stradivari Of Sticks,’ Baton Maker Richard Horowitz, Dead At 91
“[He] was a renowned musician in his own right, a retired principal timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. But in the rarefied artistic circles that were his orbit for more than half a century, he was also known as a maker of conductors’ batons, a fine trade plied by only a handful of people around the globe. … His art married the skills of a physician, a palm reader, a carpenter and a Savile Row tailor.”