“As e-books are stripping down to the bare-bones of what is actually book-like, physical books are growing more sumptuous and fetishistic.”
Pussy Riot Documentary Pulled From Russian Screening Following Threat
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer was to have its first showing in Russia last Sunday at Moscow’s Gogol Center. Then the authorities telephoned on Saturday afternoon.
2013 Top Ten Classical Music Performances In Chicago
Andrew Patner: “The calendar year gives a frame for comparisons and evaluation even in a healthy scene, such as Chicago has now, where narrowing great performances and presentations to 10 is not easy.”
How Extreme Money Is Transforming Our Cities
“In architecture, 2013 was the year great wealth transformed the urban landscape. And nowhere was this more true than in New York City.”
He Keeps The Opera House On The Amazon Running
“In 1973, Raimundo Pereira do Nascimento, known as ‘Nonato,’ walked into the Manaus Opera House with a contract to hang drywall and help with some restoration work. His deal was for three months, but he stayed on – and over the past 40 years he has held almost every job in the house, from box office clerk to usher to backstage technician.”
Do You Know Handel?
Dear old Georg Frideric was quite a fascinating character: prosperous, gluttonous, gifted, truculent, generous, sometimes glowing with happiness – much more than the pious gentleman who composed oratorios like Messiah.
The Best Of 2013 Dance In Chicago
For Chicago dance aficionados it was among the best of times.
Is This Nine-Year-Old The Next Opera Sensation?
Nine-year-old singer Amira Willighagen won Holland’s Got Talent on Saturday evening with a moving performance of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”
Will New York’s New Mayor Lead A Return To Populist Art?
“The abrupt rise of Mr. de Blasio caught much of the city’s cultural establishment off guard and set off anxious speculation about what kind of artistic patron he might be as mayor — a question that took on particular urgency because the city budget is tight.”
Sequels Ruled At The Movies This Year (Sigh)
This was a fantastic year at the box office, but “Hollywood did it largely by serving more of the same. The five leading films at the global box office were all sequels.”
The Next Harry Potter Was Written By (Self-Published) Two French Women
“To fans, this was a story of literary injustice. Fourteen-year-old Achille, a diehard Pollock fan, wrote an open letter to the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, demanding a response from the hidebound dinosaurs of the Parisian book world.”
Herb Geller, 85, Saxophonist And Composer
“Initially, he was prominent among the musicians who created the west coast jazz style, picking up combo gigs and recording dates with the best players in California. Later, after the death of his first wife, he relocated to Europe and established himself as a salaried artist in a subsidised orchestra.”
Where Pulp Fiction Bridges The Ideal And The Real
“Battered between competing allegiances to the idealized homeland and the reality of home, culture was often the life vest. Books, movies, clothing, and ritual — they bridged the chasm between the old world and the new by taking you to the place you could no longer go.”
Lawsuit Against Calder’s Art Dealer Dismissed
“The suit claimed that Perls and his family held on to hundreds of Calder’s works, cheated the artist’s estate out of tens of millions of dollars over the course of three decades and sold fake Calder works.”
Wojciech Kilar, 81, Composer For ‘The Pianist’ And More
When Francis Ford Coppola asked the Polish composer what it took to write music like that in the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Kilar cryptically replied: ‘You need to live in Katowice.'”
What Exactly Do Playwrights Do When They Reside?
“Already I’ve been using the title to open some doors. … Yet, the role itself feels delightfully and frustratingly vague.”
Lost Van Dyck Turns Up On Antiques Roadshow (Yes, Really)
The painting “was bought for £400 by a priest in Nottingham, but experts say the restored 17th century portrait could be worth around £400,000.”
Today’s top AJBlog posts 12/29/13
Very angry tweet: French birds demand share of Messiaen’s royalties
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2013-12-29
China’s violin method: ‘Study and train hard, according to a scientific method’
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2013-12-29
My “Porgy and Bess” Playlist
Source: Unanswered Question | Published on 2013-12-28
In NYC: Catching Up With Peter Schumannand the Bread and Puppet Theater
Source: Straight|Up | Published on 2013-12-27