“I know there is currently a shortage of skilled welders, but which is more likely: that the machines will someday replace all the welders or that the machines will someday replace all the philosophers?”
Why Is The Idea Of Living Like A Hermit So Compelling To So Many?
Who hasn’t longed to say goodbye to the incessant, yammering company that crowds our daily lives?
Cassandra Wilson’s Concert Fiasco – An Eyewitness Report
“When she finally came on stage, she looked unsteady on her feet, her face half hidden by her right arm. She delivered a somewhat perfunctory version of ‘Don’t Explain,’ before berating some members of the audience for using their cellphones. And she didn’t explain.”
Major French Classical Download And Streaming Site Goes Into Bankruptcy
“No back-up plan has been submitted and no investor has expressed concrete interest during the observation period, which made the receivership inevitable.” But since that period ended in September, the company says, there has been “substantial interest in taking over Qobuz in its current form.”
Playwrights’ Rights And White Tears: On Race-Specific Casting
“Last week, Clarion University in Pennsylvania was forced to cancel its planned production of Lloyd Suh’s Jesus in India. The reason: casting. Three of the characters were written as Indians, and the predominantly white school had cast two white actors and one mixed-race actor in the roles. Earlier the same week, Katori Hall objected passionately in The Root to a Kent State University production in Ohio of her two-hander The Mountaintop, in which the role of Martin Luther King Jr. was played by a white actor.” Diep Tran looks at why the issue isn’t as simple as let-the-best-actor-get-the-role.
Beyond The Corn Palace: The Forgotten Midwestern Mania For Building Landmarks Out Of Grain
“In 1890, Forest City, Iowa, built a palace – not of stone, or wood, or brick, but of flax. … The inventive structure was not the only one of its kind. In the late 1880s, the Midwest was seized by a craze for building palaces out of grains – hay, bluegrass, alfalfa, and corn, corn, corn.”
Today’s Kids Live On Screens. So How Are The Arts Going To Reach Them?
“There are still just 24 hours in a day, so if the tweens and teens are in front of a screen for 9 of those hours, and in school for say 6 of those hours, and sleep for seven of those hours (and they need at least that much sleep), and eat, exercise (maybe) or whatever else for the remaining two hours, then IF we want to get to them (and we can’t get to all of them in the schools, and not likely in their sleep), then we have to figure out how to get onto those screens they are in front of every day – television, YouTube, Instagram, video games, Vine, movies, social networks etc. etc. etc. because there is no other choice.”
Science Explores The Essential Human Evolution That Separates Us From Our Closest Ancestors
“The researchers analyzed MRI scans of 218 humans and 206 chimpanzees, with an eye on brain size and organization—the latter of which they assessed by noting for each brain the location of 16 landmark anatomical structures that humans and chimps share. Because the researchers knew the respective biological relationships of both the chimps and the humans in the study, they were able to estimate the heritability—in other words, how much of a role genetics had to play—for both traits.”
The Catch-22 Of Producing New Plays
Although there are hundreds of struggling playwrights yearning for a production, there are also independent producers and small not-for-profits hearing the words, “You can’t produce my play first, because then the larger theatres won’t want to produce it.” The real problem: it’s true.
The 2015 Word Of The Year Isn’t Even A Word
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries: “Traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st Century communication. It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps – it’s flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully.”
How ‘Flesh And Bone’ Is Like An Actual Ballet
“A typical classical ballet is based on fantasy or fairy tales, … Flesh and Bone is a contemporary twist on these familiar tropes. The princess escapes the tower of her imprisonment and flees straight into another evil lord’s hands, and must struggle to free herself from him while battling the dragon of her past as well and severing its final chains. Along the way, she encounters several would-be knights … and dodges the rival fading queen/ballerina who wants to see her destroyed.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.16.15
Unveiling Hammershoi, A Worthy Exhibition
While I was away–I traveled to Jordan from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12, more about which another time–a lot happened in the art world, including the New York fall auction season. But before I go there, I want to share my review of an excellent exhibition at Scandinavia House in NYC. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-11-16
Sotheby’s Buyout Bombshell: Turning Towards the “Less-Tenured”
Maybe the Sotheby’s buyout bombshell (first reported Friday by Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina) shouldn’t have come as a shock: This purge was foreshadowed by CEO Tad Smith’s cryptic cryptic comments in last Monday’s quarterly conference call with stock analysts: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-11-16
Opera at Old Eli
Doris Yarick Cross for more than thirty years has directed Yale Opera, a division of the Yale School of Music. She and her husband, Richard Cross, serve as the voice teachers for the program, a mammoth task. … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2015-11-16
Clarinets At Grace Cathedral
Over the years, Grace Cathedral on San Francisco’s Nob Hill has hosted countless concerts of importance. Among them, both in 1965, were Duke Ellington’s magnificent Second Sacred Concert and pianist Vince Guaraldi’s Grace Cathedral Concert with his trio and an 86-voice choir. Rifftides reader and veteran audio expert Jim Brown attended last week’s more secular concert at Grace Cathedral. Presented by the SFJazz organization, it featured four clarinetists … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-11-15
Monday Recommendation: Tom Harrell
The fascination of jazz musicians with French impressionist composers goes back at least as far as Bix Beiderbecke. Among contemporary jazz musicians, Tom Harrell is Beiderbecke’s counterpart not only … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-11-16
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Carnegie Hall Review Clears Clive Gillinson Of Charges
Carnegie said that in light of the legal review, members of the executive committee of its board were “satisfied that Mr. Gillinson complied with his professional responsibilities” and that Mr. Gillinson “continues to have their full support.”
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Appoints Xian Zhang As New Music Director
“In 2002, she joined the New York Philharmonic as an assistant conductor, eventually becoming and associate conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair. She’s also served as the music director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, which included a televised debut at the BBC Proms.”
Amazon Names Its Top Books Of The Year (Just In Time For Holiday Book Shopping!)
“Amazon’s editorial director of books and Kindle Sarah Nelson described Groff’s language as ‘electric’ and praised her ‘ingenious plotting … fascinating and unlike anything I’ve read in years. … Our editor adored it.’ Reviewers were not as convinced.”
Are ‘Treescapers’ The Buildings Of The Future?
“Treescrapers have emerged as a popular typology in speculative architecture, a building scheme that pledges environmental gains and density—but exists mostly on paper. The porosity of these designs upends conventional standards for construction. They look futuristic, maybe so much so that they don’t look like the future of architecture.”
Saeed Jaffrey, Who Acted In Everything From ‘Gandhi’ To ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ To ‘Coronation Street,’ Dies At 85
“When Jaffrey arrived in Britain, non-white actors were still a rarity and the theatre world was at a loss as to how to deal with them. Slowly his quality became recognised, even though the stage parts he was offered often depended on his ethnicity rather than his considerable professional abilities. Colour-blind casting was still in its infancy, and it is not surprising that much of Jaffrey’s early British work was in the BBC World Service, where his splendid speaking voice and his pure Urdu were invaluable.”
Can Digital Technology Make The Herculaneum Scrolls Legible After Two Thousand Years?
The problem is that they were rendered into tightly wound, fragile little chunks of carbon by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE, which destroyed Herculaneum and its neighbor, Pompeii. But a combination of advanced imaging software and advanced particle physics might just be able to make the scrolls legible.