“Really, I’m horrified,” says Arlie Hochschild, who introduced the concept back in 1983 as “the work, for which you’re paid, which centrally involves trying to feel the right feeling for the job … from the flight attendant whose job it is to be nicer than natural to the bill collector whose job it is to be, if necessary, harsher than natural.” Now, she points out, “it’s being used, for example, to refer to the enacting of to-do lists … It’s also being applied to perfectionism: You’ve absolutely got to do the perfect Christmas holiday.” — The Atlantic
A First: Conservatory Appoints Lecturer To Teach Musicians Health And Wellbeing
“Sara Ascenso, a clinical psychologist and trained pianist, will start at the [Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester] in January. Her role will include lecturing and research, and she will also develop the health and wellbeing provision across the college, ensuring it is tailored to musicians’ needs.” — The Guardian
Toulouse-Lautrec Was One Of The Creators Of Modern Celebrity Culture — And One Of Its First Victims
“His strikingly innovative designs turned artistes such as Aristide Bruant, Jane Avril and Yvette Guilbert into household names, heralding the birth of celebrity culture as we know it and making a star of their creator in the process.” (And how did he become a casualty of that culture? Absinthe.)
How Do You Create Site-Specific Dance For The Madhouse That Is Times Square?
The Times Square Alliance and Danspace Project collaborated “to create a program of original works in Times Square this fall that reference the history and experience of the place. An estimated 33,000 people passed through the area each day during the four-hour program — most just happening upon it. What they saw was unique even for Times Square.”
‘Relative Stability’ Gave U.S. Theatres Space To Catch Their Breath, Says TCG 2017 Report
“Theatre Communications Group’s Theatre Facts 2017 observes that, with the recession largely behind them, U.S. theatres in 2017 were in a position of relative stability. … Naturally, not every company in the country was in this position, but that relative stability meant some theatre organizations could carve out time to address debt reduction, engage in strategic planning, and prepare for upcoming changes.”
After 18 Years, Hong Kong Sinfonietta Music Director To Step Down
“Yip Wing-sie, the first Hong Kong woman conductor to lead a professional orchestra, is to step down as music director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2020. … Made up mostly of local musicians, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta is known for its creative and diverse programming, performing major works from the classical repertoire as well as commissioning new pieces.”
Arghhh! Silent Discos Are Still Too Noisy, Complain Neighbors
Silent discos are dance parties where revellers wear headphones instead of listening to music from a speaker system. In some cities, tourism companies have incorporated the trend into their walking tours. “You’ve got people walking about and suddenly they break into dance to music you can’t hear.”
How Climate Change Is Hastening The Loss Of Languages
These changes will force communities to relocate, creating climate change refugees. The resultant dispersal of people will lead to the splintering of linguistic communities and increased contact with other languages. These changes will place additional pressures on languages that are already struggling to survive.
Arnold Schoenberg survived Nazi Germany, Vienna and Hollywood. But Boston?
Opera thrives on iconic figures, whether from mythology or history. But maybe composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) hasn’t been gone long enough – or was never outwardly heroic enough – to fill Tod Machover’s new opera Schoenberg in Hollywood.
Jerry Saltz’s 33 Rules For How To Make It As An Artist
How do you get from there to making real art, great art? There’s no special way; everyone has their own path. Yet, over the years, I’ve found myself giving the same bits of advice. Most of them were simply gleaned from looking at art, then looking some more. Others from listening to artists talk about their work and their struggles. (Everyone’s a narcissist.) I’ve even stolen a couple from my wife.
What’s ‘Receptive Multilingualism’? It’s Something Found All Over The World
Americans are most likely to encounter it among the (guilty-feeling) children of immigrants or near the borders with Mexico or Quebec — it’s when someone can understand a language but not speak it. It occurs in many polyglot cities as well as along linguistic borders; it can also be observed on islands with multiple native ethnic groups. On one island, off the north coast of Australia, whose 500 people speak a total of nine languages, receptive multilingualism is basically mandatory, grounded in deep social conventions.
The DC Museum And Its Exploration Of Gentrification
Last month, at a day-long symposium sponsored by the museum, the rise of Chocolate City was contrasted with the city’s more recent gentrification. In 2011, the percentage of Black residents in Washington fell below 50 percent for the first time in over half a century. Howard Gillette, professor of history emeritus at Rutgers University, observed that in many respects the District of Columbia has become “ground zero for gentrification and social justice issues that are going on nationally.”
Rethinking Plagiarism (Or At Least How We Think About It)
“I recognize that when students plagiarize they often do so not because they have some nefarious agenda but because they feel enormous pressure to succeed or are confused, uncertain, forgetful, exhausted, or pressed for time. But I am optimistic that at least some students walked away from the class feeling empowered as scholars and thinkers, that they began to see citation as a means of bringing different voices to bear on critical conversations from which they’ve been consciously or unconsciously excluded, and that they carried this knowledge to other classes and spaces where the representation of voices is not always equitable or even. Most simply, I wanted them to leave as active participants in an ongoing conversation about plagiarism and citation rather than as passive onlookers.”
Arnold Schoenberg survived Nazi Germany, Vienna and Hollywood. But Boston?
Opera thrives on iconic figures, whether from mythology or history. But maybe composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) hasn’t been gone long enough – or was never outwardly heroic enough – to fill Tod Machover’s new opera Schoenberg in Hollywood.
How South Dakota Shows What Orchestras Are For
The American orchestra that most shows the culture of the community can only be the South Dakota Symphony. The SDSO subscription audience is by far the most diversified in age I have ever encountered at a professional symphonic concert (and I have been around). And yet the programing is bold.
Čači Vorba Delivers a Mystery Song
Čači Vorba was one of the more cohesive and likable bands at this years Crossroads Festival, which takes place immediately preceding the huge Colours of Ostrava festival in Czech Republic. Violinist, singer and songwriter Maria Natanson definitely struts her stuff, and has a great grasp of Roma music.
“I have cap and bells”
After a prospective student played Maurice Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso,” I asked the not-so-simple question: “What’s the melody?”
Recent Listening: Two Superb Pianists
Sam Leak, Dan Tepfer, Adrift (Jellymould)
Pianists from opposite sides of the Atlantic met in a New York studio to collaborate in an engrossing performance of Sam Leak compositions as a suite called “Adrift.”
Alex Ross: The LA Phil’s Mission To Expand An Orchestra
The L.A. Phil’s offbeat ventures are well and good, you sometimes hear people in the classical world mutter, but how’s its Beethoven? Isn’t the programming better than the playing? That put-down is unconvincing: an organization that can bring “Sustain” into the world is more valuable than one that executes yet another hyper-polished Beethoven Seventh. Still, the L.A. Phil has sometimes come up short in mainstream repertory, lagging behind the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, or the best European groups.
Paul Lightfoot To Step Down From Netherlands Dance Theatre
‘When I accepted this high position in 2011’, Lightfoot explains, ‘I decided to do this for ten years. That seemed to me enough for the company – the group is built on change and adventure. So there will be nine. Longer becomes unhealthy for me. Choreographing and managing are two full-time jobs that can counteract each other. ‘
Remote Islanders Killed An Intruding Missionary Who Wanted To “Convert” Them
John Allen Chau’s very presence on the island posed a danger to the Sentinelese, since they may not have developed immunity to the common microbes he carried with him. He also threatened their way of life: In recent years, given the growing consensus that modern visitors tend to erode the cultures of isolated tribes, the Indian navy has enforced a “no contact” policy with the Sentinelese and other tribes in the area, patrolling the waters to prevent infiltration by anthropologists and adventure-seekers alike.
If All The Critics Are Gone, What Happens To Explaining New Dance?
For the most part, dance criticism as we have traditionally defined it is vanishing, probably forever. And no amount of verbiage on how pointe shoes are made or what a dancer eats for breakfast is going to help audience members — not to mention future historians — understand what is happening onstage in today’s dance. “This means that dance is becoming another item in the experiential supermarket, a thoughtless art without a memory,” Mainwaring writes. “As emerging choreographers come onto the scene — and there’s some very substantive work being made today — it remains unclear as to who will have either the expertise or the outlet needed to discuss the importance of these developing artistic voices.”
Twenty Years Ago The World Made An Agreement On Nazi-Looted Art. How’s It Working?
Twenty years on, that timetable has proved much too optimistic. Nazi-looted art is still regularly restituted: high-profile cases in the past year include an Oskar Kokoschka portrait returned to the heirs of the German-Jewish dealer Alfred Flechtheim by Sweden’s Moderna Museet (and sold for a record $20.4m on 12 November at Sotheby’s in New York). Many families are still seeking pictures stolen from their forefathers in what has been called the greatest art heist of all time.
War Of The Worlds Did More Than Scare People At The Time – It Gave Us A Haunting Distrust Of Communications Technology
The supposed “panic” was exaggerated by Orson Welles after the fact, and indeed it’s hard to know if people actually did panic at the time. But “in the anxious world of 1930s listening, a radio that knew your mind was a radio that could change it. The broadcast ended soon after. It had changed minds indeed.”
A Graphic Novel Accused Of Being ‘Steeped In Islamophobia’ Is Pulled After Protests
The book, A Suicide Bomber Sits in the Library, was written by Newbery Award-winning author Jack Gantos and illustrated by artist Dave McKean, originally for a group of 2016 stories that Amnesty International put out “celebrating the power of books to transform lives.” But the publisher pulled the release after the Asian Author Alliance wrote a letter saying, among other things, “the simple fact is that today, the biggest terrorist threat in the US is white supremacy.”