“For the first time, MIT neuroscientists have identified a neural population in the human auditory cortex that responds selectively to sounds that people typically categorize as music, but not to speech or other environmental sounds.”
Dance Magazine’s Readers Choose The Best Of 2015
“This year we gave our readers the power to weigh in on the most memorable dance moments of the year. You nominated performances you loved, voted on the top five and selected a diverse group of artists and productions that span the country. Here’s what you chose as your favorites.”
When Actors Run Away To Join Circus Theatre
“People have muscle memory from years of play and putting their butt over their head. … The play and the sense of adventure and creating a character hits on a deep childhood thing—everyone has an aspiration to be a famous performer. Doing something like circus speaks to that.”
A 21st Century Version Of A Blockbuster 18th Century Shakespeare Museum
“The three-room Shakespeare Gallery, opened by the publisher John Boydell in 1789 on the fashionable Pall Mall in London, closed in 1805. In its day, it was a sensation, attracting emotional crowds who came to gawk at enormous canvases depicting scenes from Shakespeare’s tragedies, comedies and history plays, commissioned from Britain’s leading painters and hung cheek by jowl on the pale blue walls. ‘It was the Georgian equivalent of binge-watching Shakespeare,’ said Janine Barchas, an English professor who led the project.”
Is A Tyler Perry Musical About The Crucifixion Of Christ – On Live TV – Really A Good Idea?
“No one [at Fox] stopped to think that maybe a musical about the death of Jesus broadcast live from New Orleans, which culminates with a 20ft illuminated crucifix being paraded through the streets, would be a good idea. … There are so many ways this could go wrong and/or verge into unmitigated camp that it’s absolutely unbelievable.”
Study: Why Images Of Jesus Show His Face Turned
“A newly published study that analyzed 484 paintings found Jesus is more likely to be portrayed with his head tilted so as to show more of his left cheek. The Buddha, on the other hand, is more frequently depicted looking straight ahead.”
Judges Rule Pandora Must Pay Higher Royalties For Streaming Music
“The Copyright Royalty Board on Wednesday ruled that online radio companies will have to pay 17 cents per 100 plays of songs through 2020. That’s a notable increase over the current rate of 14 cents per 100 streams. The new rates take effect Jan. 1.”
Music Streaming Royalty Fee Won’t Imperil Pandora
Pandora is no longer a newcomer that needs help—it’s a music industry giant that should pay a fair price to artists.
Why Are We So Interested in Marginalia In The Age Of E-Books?
“Considering marginalia have been found in texts for as long as there have been books, scrolls, or writings on papyrus, it seems odd to say that now is the moment. But indeed it may be. There is an obvious reason for this, and a less obvious one.”
They’ve Picked A Site For London’s Long-Awaited New Concert Hall
“A new concert hall for London would cost £278m and should be built near St Paul’s Cathedral on the site of the Museum of London, a six-month feasibility study has concluded. … [The venue] would be home to the London Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Sir Simon Rattle.”
For Fourth Straight Year, College Enrollment Drops
The steepest drop by sector was at four-year for-profit institutions (13.7 percent) and two-year public colleges (2.4 percent).
Study: Theatres Use Of Digital Technology Is Declining
“The survey of 207 theatres suggests that less than half (45%) see digital as important to the creation of work, a figure that has plummeted from 57% in 2013. Only a third of theatres surveyed (33%) felt digital distribution of their work mattered, down from nearly half (48%) in 2013.”
Mezzo-Soprano Stella Doufexis Dead At 47
“[She] was an acclaimed recitalist as well as oratorio-singer and opera-performer (in which her roles embraced Cherubino, Dorabella, Octavian, Niklaus as well as modern works like her husband, Christian Jost’s Hamlet). She was also a regular recording artist, appearing on, among other projects, Graham Johnson’s Schumann series for Hyperion … and [that label’s] Fauré song series.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.16.15
About that University of Kentucky mural
At the University of Kentucky a 1930’s WPA-funded mural by Ann Rice O’Hanlon has been temporarily covered while the university administration, faculty and students deliberate on the presentation of the work and its depiction of African-Americans. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2015-12-16
The Sun Shines (not so) Bright on My Old Kentucky Home
When I was a kid in Lexington, KY, the town was known for two things: being the centre of the Bluegrass thoroughbred horse-breeding industry, and the University of Kentucky. When I was born in 1941 it was a small college town with a population of 45,000. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2015-12-16
Bach at the Armory with gongs, noise-canceling headphones and deck chairs
Igor Levit and Marina Abramovic Every concert should be like this. Bach’s Goldberg Variations was heard in a piece created by the famous performance artist Marina Abramovic that was a marriage made in – well, the drill hall of the Park Avenue Armory in New York. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2015-12-15
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The Ugly Truth – That Is To Say, The Truth In Ugliness
“I can’t remember the last time I heard one person call another person ugly. Art: sure. But when it comes to other human beings, we seem to have invested almost totally in metaphoric deployments of the word: ‘ugly’ now describes degrading items like the steadily worsening rhetoric of Donald Trump; or, simply, sinful behavior, as in: ‘God don’t like ugly.’ … No longer does the outward merely track the inward: by an almost forgotten transitive process, the two have become one. … This creates an unnerving blind spot: What happens when evil is made beautiful?”
Being Charlie Kaufman
“The writer behind Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and, now, Anomalisa – a stop-motion animated dark comedy about a depressed customer-service expert who falls in love on a business trip, which Kaufman co-directed – discusses where his ideas come from, the TV shows he can’t get made, and the finer points of puppet sex.”
A “Seismic Shift” In The Way NY’s Museum Of Modern Art Collects And Displays
“Galleries could be more flexible and open, like those in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s new building. Perhaps departmental names designating the galleries could be eliminated altogether.”
Win This Essay Contest And Get Your Own Movie Theater
“Tired of commuting 150 miles each way, the owner of a movie theater in Maine is holding an essay contest to give away his restored, nearly 100-year-old cinema. … The contest requires a typed 250-word essay describing why the entrant would make the best new owner. No name, address or other identifying details are attached to entries to ensure impartiality; that information is on a separate form.”