“There is probably no other writer like Modiano who invites his readers on a tour. Give me your hand, he says, and I’ll take you to the streets of Paris. He returns to places he knew many years ago, and demonstrates that very little has changed. He gives us a clear, concise, amazingly accurate map with which we can walk around the city.”
The Dancer Who Conquered Autism Through Ballet
“I was diagnosed with autism when I was three, and I was always obsessed with dance. Anything movement-related I loved. My mother tried to put me in sports when I was younger even though I said I wanted to dance; she wanted to see if I could do anything else besides dance, maybe so I wouldn’t get bullied. But when I was six, she finally let me do my first ballet class. I stuck with it ever since.”
Nigerian Federal Court Blocks Release Of Ex-President’s Memoir
A high court judge in Abuja ordered that Olusegun Obasanjo’s three-volume My Watch be withheld from the market due to a rather strange libel suit brought against Obasanjo by a Nigerian who figures in a very different memoir: Piper Kerman’s Orange Is the New Black.
Young Woman Wins Major Conducting Competition In London
“First prize in the 2014 Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition was awarded … to the competition’s first female winner, Elim Chan. The 28-year-old was born in Hong Kong to British parents and currently studies at the University of Michigan.”
How To Move Contemporary Art Beyond The 0.1 Percent To The “Creative Class”
Sure, the market for new visual art is booming among the super-rich. Marion Maneker argues that art can become vitally important to the wider public – well, educated urbanites – the way high-quality food has, and in more or less the same way.
Want The Next Generation To Be Creative? They Need To Know Code
“The ability to code enables young people to become creators rather than consumers. Students with this creative capacity and technical literacy will hold the power in the future. They are the next generation of entrepreneurs, and, as some teenagers and younger students have shown us, they are already the entrepreneurs of today.”
Rethinking Van Gogh At The Museum That Bears His Name
“Curators at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam think that it is time for this artist’s profile to get an update: to focus more on van Gogh the serious artist, not van Gogh the myth. To that end, they have redesigned and rehung the museum’s permanent collection to present a more nuanced view.”
“I Have Always Welcomed Children To My Concerts”: Violinist Responds To Charge She Berated Child From Stage
Kyung Wha Chung made headlines internationally when, during her big London comeback recital, she said to the parents of a coughing child, “Maybe bring her back when she’s older.” She explains herself in a guest column for The Guardian.
Janet Suzman Defends Statement That Theatre Is “A White Invention”
The South African-born actress – a longtime campaigner against racism who had a famous anti-apartheid activist for an aunt – drew some outrage on Monday by saying that theatre is a “European invention and white people go to it. It’s in their DNA.” She clarified her remarks with a call for more work from black and Asian playwrights – and then said “theatre is a pretty white way of spending an evening – and expensive.”
They’ve Already Been Workshopping This Opera, But They’ve Only Now Announced The Composer
“The composer usually is first to come aboard, even in the most unconventional operas. However, the appointment of Opera Philadelphia’s now-in-process ANDY: A Popera composer Dan Visconti was only announced this week – for a piece that has already had public workshop performances by the Philadelphia cabaret group the Bearded Ladies.”
Danish National Chamber Orchestra Will Shut Down After All (The Chili Peppers Didn’t Work)
“Culture Minister Marianne Jelved said on Tuesday that she has signed a new public-service agreement with broadcaster DR that will see the 42-person orchestra shut down as planned. Jelved said that although a majority of parliament was against the closing of the orchestra, politicians were unable to come up with a realistic alternative for funding it.”
If Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work, What Does? WOOP Does
For decades, from Norman Vincent Peale to Oprah Winfrey, we’ve been told that the power of positive thinking is real. Now some researchers are arguing that, at best, it’s no sure thing and could even hold us back. So what’s a goal-oriented person to do? WOOP. (Yes, it’s an acronym.)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.09.14
The weirdest day of my recent life
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2014-12-09
Boston’s Arts Czar – Real Or Window Dressing?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-12-09
Will Nashville’s Gentrification Destroy Its Music Scene?
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-12-09
Preparing for Lawsuit? Why Might Neil MacGregor Be Doubling Down on His Elgin Marbles Bet?
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2014-12-09
Recent Viewing: Films About Hersch, Brown And McFarland
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2014-12-09
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Bolshoi Ballet Star Alla Sizova Dead At 75
“[Her] outsize talent was apparent even before she joined the Kirov (now the Mariinsky) in 1958. … Her extraordinarily high jump and astounding technical prowess as the Queen of the Dryads in a school performance of Don Quixote won raves from the Leningrad critics and a nickname, Flying Sizova.”
Aaron Sorkin Under Fire For “The Newsroom” Episode About Campus Rape
“Mr. Sorkin, in an astonishing case of prescience, created a plot that hewed closely to the recent article in Rolling Stone magazine about an accusation of gang rape at the University of Virginia.” The backlash to the script is coming close to the backlash against Rolling Stone , too.