“What is an It Girl? According to the dictionary installed on a MacBook Pro, she is ‘a young woman who achieves celebrity because of her socialite lifestyle’. … But the original It Girl, as the dictionary acknowledges, was one of the most successful and revolutionary film stars of the silent era, Clara Bow. When she earned the title, it meant something completely different.”
Everyone’s Trying To Figure Out How Our Brains Work (It’s Really Really Difficult)
One “danger that the big brain projects will have to navigate is the temptation to consider the brain in isolation. This has been a prevalent tendency ever since the brain became established as the “seat of the mind:” as the popular view has it, all that we are and all that we experience takes place within this wobbly mass of grey tissue. But of course, it doesn’t.”
Why Uber – The Idea, Not The Actual Car Service – Crossed A Cultural Barrier In 2014
‘”Like an Uber for’ is shorthand for describing an item or service delivered wherever you are and whenever you want it, but the phrase also hints at a much larger shift in people’s expectations about their interactions with the world. It turns out one of the most hackneyed phrases in tech this year may also be one of the most profound.”
Gender And Writing, Blah Blah Blah – But Yes, It’s Still Important
“Everyone is shaped by their experience of gender, whatever that experience is; there is no view from nowhere. Men’s experience is no less specific than women’s; it’s just that we fail to see it as such.”
About To Go To Sleep? Put Your E-Reader In A Different Room
“The use of such devices ‘has unintended biological consequences that may adversely impact performance, health and safety,’ according to a research team led by neuroscientist Anne-Marie Chang of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.”
Documents Shed New Light On Louis Armstrong’s Childhood
“There have been countless Armstrong biographies based on exhaustive research. More than 40 years after his death, you might think there would be nothing left to learn about the man. And yet there is.”
The (Useful) Role Of Cliches In Our Lives
“Consider, for example, the common phrases that are typically exchanged in friendly greetings. How are you? How’s it going? How are you keeping? What’s up? In most cases we do not regard these questions, or the typical answers to them, as clichés; instead they are formulas, a stock of frozen expressions whose purpose probably has less to do with encoding information than with the maintenance of smooth relations. They are unoriginal, surely, perhaps overused, but certainly not ineffective.”
“Almost Gleefully Flaunting Its Utter Ignorance Of The Field”: Anne Midgette On Amazon’s “Mozart In The Jungle”
“The factual errors are so great that it would be as though someone set out to dramatize the reality show Deadliest Catch by showing a group of fishermen sitting on a dock in Alaska trying to catch crabs with fishing rods.”
The 20 Most Powerless People In The Art World In 2014
“While other art publications sing the praises of the rich and powerful, we like to look at those who are largely overlooked (or worse, exploited) in order to understand the real state of the art world and its discontents. So, here you have our annual assessment of those below the most powerful.”
How To Write: A Year In Advice From People Who Really Know
Favorite suggestions from David Mitchell, Jane Smiley, Claire Messud, William Gibson, Billy Collins, and other contributors to The Atlantic‘s “By Heart” series.
Window Pains: The Stained-Glass Industry Is Showing Cracks
“Declining church attendance is playing a role, as is the growth of nondenominational congregations … that pine for a more modern aesthetic. … To attract business, some artisans are even steering clear of using the term ‘stained glass’ because it carries connotations of fusty old churches … [and are] targeting projects without religious overtones.”
Casting, And Wrangling, The Kids In NY City Ballet’s “Nutcracker”
It’s a tricky process, says the company’s children’s ballet master: “You want the best kids for the part, but they have to be the right size. So much is based on the look of it, and they have to fit together.
Forget Standing In Line At The Mall: Today’s Kids Talk To Santa By Video Chat
“With children glued to screens at ever-earlier ages – the average age of initial interaction is 11 months, according to one study – a raft of digital services have emerged to put Santa in the palm of their little hands.”
John Waters Has Remade “Pink Flamingos” With, And For, Kids
Says the auteur of the G-rated 74-minute video Kiddie Flamingos, “It’s a conceptual art piece. It’s really only your perverted mind that makes it not innocent.”
60 American Theatre Directors Protest Firing Of Theater J Artistic Director For “Political Reasons”
Saying in an open letter that they were “outraged” by the dismissal, the directors called on the JCC’s governing board to renounce the decision and the nationwide theater community to protest “in all possible ways.”
It’s Official: Renée Fleming Is Headed To Broadway
The soprano superstar will reprise her role as an opera diva in playwright Joe DiPietro’s Living on Love, in which she performed this past summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival.
British Theatre Unions Working On New Agreements For Non-West End Houses
“Industry body UK Theatre is working with unions Equity, BECTU and the Musicians’ Union on a joint initiative to overhaul its existing collective agreements for performers, backstage staff and musicians working outside the West End.”
The Best Director On American Television?
Matt Zoller Seitz nominates Michelle MacLaren. “Her visual chops are undeniable, but the managerial skills she honed while toiling on the logistical side of showbiz are an equally important part of her success. TV is art made under pressure. … MacLaren approaches the job with a stoic unflappability leavened by nonchalant Canadian cheer.”
Forget Santa – We Should Really Believe In La Befana
“There’s nothing wrong with Saint Nick, per se. But it’s all a bit much, and we can do better.” Betsy Woodruff suggests we all celebrate a witch who drinks wine and eats sausage instead of milk and cookies.
Are International Museum Franchises Really A Good Idea?
“The biggest question hovering over satellite museums is the most basic: why would sophisticated cities with their own rich cultural heritage and traditions feel the need to establish institutions that foreigners think they need?” A point-counterpoint forum between art journalist (and ArtsJournal blogger) Lee Rosenbaum and art historian and gallery director Maymanah Farhat.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.22.14
Another Director’s Job Opens Up
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-12-21
My Apollo Magazine Debate on Satellite Museums; Plus: Latest Abu Dhabi Workers’ Rights Report
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2014-12-22
Da Vinci’s Notebooks: Seeing Him in His Drawings
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2014-12-22
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The Portrait King Of Elizabethan England
“‘If he lived today, we’d probably call him a selfie-addict,’ said the historian Elizabeth Goldring, who has uncovered details of Dudley’s extraordinary collection for a new study of the man who probably won the heart, although not the hand, of Elizabeth I.”
North Korea Refuses To Meet With UN Security Council, Partly Because Of Controversy Around ‘The Interview’
“The mere threat of damage to Kim Jong Un’s image has outraged the North Korean government. Such fury is thought to be behind the Sony hacking. North Korea has denied the attack but has suggested it was a ‘righteous deed’ carried out by sympathizers.”
A Photographer Who Made People – Like The Queen, The Beatles, And Samuel Beckett – Her Focus
“She joined the Observer in 1949 and, resisting all offers from other prospective employers, continued to appear in the office every week for more than half a century, working on 35mm film to the end, meekly waiting for assignments, and turning in dazzlingly beautiful images for news stories and features.”
What Do You Remember About Classical Music From 2014?
A Brit-heavy quiz on the year’s comings and goings and general spectaculars.