Yes, the representation of LGBTQ+ characters on television has gotten much better over the last decade or so. But in musicals, even new ones, argues Dom O’Hanlon, “you can usually spot the token gay character a mile off. Reduced to a supporting role and often aligned with such stereotypical gay professions as dress designers, makeup artists, personal assistants and cabin crew, contemporary writers use gay characters for quick quips and a ‘sashay away’ for light comic relief.”
Why Are So Many Adaptations Of ‘Swan Lake’ So Dark?
Black Swan isn’t even the half of it. John Neumeier’s version features Mad King Ludwig; James Kudelka’s includes gang rape; Michael Keegan-Dolan’s centers on abuse by Irish priests. There’s even another film coming out about a ballerina in the lead role losing her sanity. David Jays talks to dancemakers about the darkness they find at the heart of the story.
The Guggenheim Bilbao, 20 Years On
“Despite a slight dip in attendance after the 2008 financial crisis, the museum has welcomed more than 20 million visitors – two-thirds of them from abroad – since it opened on 19 October 1997. In a city of around 350,000 people, the original feasibility study calculated that 400,000 visitors a year were needed to justify the initial expense (estimated at $228m by the economist Beatriz Plaza) and ongoing subsidy (currently around €9m a year).”
Rasta Thomas Sues American National Ballet For Firing Him
“[Thomas] signed a contract on July 19 making him artistic director of the nascent American National Ballet, based in Charleston. The news sent a buzz of excitement through the dance community. On Aug. 22, he was fired. … This month, Thomas filed a lawsuit in circuit court alleging breach of contract, fraud, violation of South Carolina’s Payment of Wages Act, wrongful appropriation of Thomas’ name and likeness, and interference with a contract.”
Italian Court Clamps Down On Commercial Use Of Michelangelo’s David
“His are the most famous curves in Florence and adorn everything from aprons to fridge magnets, but images of Michelangelo’s David can now only be used with official authorisation, a court in Italy has ruled.”
Authors Beg With England To Pay For School Libraries
That’s right, it’s 2017, so authors like Philip Pullman and Marjorie Blackman have to send frantic letters to their government, begging them to fund school libraries. “The letter highlights how England has lower rates of teenage literacy than other developed nations, according to international rankings. And it claims there is a general decline in the number of books issued to children, adding there has not been a related increase in electronic books.”
London Has A Night Mayor, And New York Is Looking For One. Is LA Next?
Part of the idea would be making nightlife safer through smoothing the permit process for party spaces. “In the months since December’s tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which killed dozens of young music fans, Los Angeles has cracked down on unpermitted warehouse parties, which often play host to music and communities shut out of mainstream venues. But those shows have a huge cultural value, and still continue — just further under the radar in more marginal spaces. Meanwhile, promoters and venue owners say the permitting and building-code process is more time-consuming and expensive than ever.”
Carol Burnett Changed TV, And Maybe The Future, Fifty Years Ago With Her Show
Here’s how it went down in the beginning, according to Carol Burnett herself: “I had this terrific and unheard-of contract that read if I wanted to push that button, the network would have to give me 30 one-hour comedy-variety shows. … I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ And they said, ‘Oh, no, no, no. Carol … all comedy-variety shows are hosted by men — Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Dean Martin … It’s not really for you gals.’” Yeah, wrong.
Mary Adelman, The Typewriter Whisperer Of New York, Has Died At 89
Her shop was like a (crowded, metal-and-ribbon-smelly) office of therapy for writers when the typewriters clogged up. “The shop attended to the typewriters of such well-known writers as Isaac Bashevis Singer, David Mamet, Erich Maria Remarque, Nora Ephron, Gene Shalit and Philip Roth. Joseph Heller had a Smith-Corona with keys that flew off (they were soldered back on). The novelist David Handler was so grateful for Mrs. Adelman’s assistance that he made her a character in a mystery, The Girl Who Ran Off With Daddy.”
Suggestions For An Architecture Tour Of Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Times architecture critic takes his mother-in-law, and then all of us, on a tour of nine stops through the city: “I sort of tied myself in knots trying to produce the list. I had to balance architectural significance against geography: the buildings had to make up at least a semi-coherent loop, rather than forcing us to hopscotch all over the map. I also wanted the choices to suggest some kind of narrative progression, some sense of how architecture (and Los Angeles) changed over those decades.”
Sometimes, Movies Are Better Than The Books They’re Based On
Children’s books in particular seem ripe for the cinematic wonder-inducing treatment. But Wonder isn’t one of those books. “Here is where I encourage anyone whose child has not yet read the book, or seen the movie (and let’s remember that with children’s literature, an entirely new audience ages into a book every year): Try to get hold of a copy that is not the brand-new ‘movie tie-in edition.’ As the cover trumpets, this new edition ‘includes full-color movie photos and exclusive content!’ No, no, a thousand times no.”
Parts Of Canada Have A Program Where People Check Out Museum Passes From The Library
And, well, the funding is coming to a close. (The libraries say they think they can get other corporate sponsors.) Surprise number two: The funding is going away … because Canadians said they valued music education over any other arts access.
Today’s AJBlog Highlights 11.24.17
The Literary Roots of Lou Reed Back in the spring, when I pitched the Los Angeles Review of Books on a regular column on musicians and their literary interests, my editor immediately came up with the title All the Poets. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-11-24
Piano Sonata as Video Game: Anomalies in My Reception of Beethoven’s Music A transcript of my spoken remarks at Boston University this week, as part of a symposium on piano sonatas by Beethoven. “I’d like to talk about what I would call anomalies in my own reception … read more
AJBlog: PianoMorphosis Published 2017-11-23
So you want to see a show? Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-11-23
Soft power and the arts (3/3) Soft power is the ability for a country to have international influence through means other than the threat of military action or aggressive economic policy (i.e. hard power). How do the arts and cultural … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2017-11-21
How Dance Addresses A Culture Of Suffering
“In countries where people suffer and have a rough life, they dance as a necessity instead of as an option. When you have this kind of history, this very hard background, you don’t practice art for the same reasons. It’s not a luxury; you need it, to heal yourself. I know people in Algeria who say: ‘I had to dance, or I would die.’”
Apple Could Spend $4.2 Billion On Original Streaming Content By 2022
“Apple won’t catch up to either by 2022 in terms of spend, projecting that Amazon will eclipse Netflix, $8.3 billion to $6.8 billion. Earlier this year, Apple signaled its intent to invest as much as $1 billion into original programming. That’s still well short of Netflix, which announced previously an $8 billion budget toward original and licensed content in 2018, and Amazon, which is expected to spend more than the $4.5 billion that went into premium video entertainment this year.”
A boom In Inventing New Musical Instruments
“You would be forgiven for thinking instrument-making reached its endpoint long ago. The orchestra has largely been fixed since the Belgian Adolphe Sax patented his eponymous instrument in the 1840s. And these days, a standard laptop can make so many sounds, why would we need anything new? But there are hundreds, even thousands, of instrument inventors beavering away.”
More Studies Say Using Laptops In Class Leads To Less Learning
“A growing body of evidence shows that over all, college students learn less when they use computers or tablets during lectures. They also tend to earn worse grades. The research is unequivocal: Laptops distract from learning, both for users and for those around them. It’s not much of a leap to expect that electronics also undermine learning in high school classrooms or that they hurt productivity in meetings in all kinds of workplaces.”
Will The $450 Million Leonardo Recallibrate The Art Market?
“Given the Christie’s result, there is a temptation to wonder if the art market will be recalibrated in the way that it was in 1987, when Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” sold for $39.9 million. That price also blew minds, being almost four times the previous high for any artwork at auction at the time.”