• ArtsJournal Classic
    • ArtsJournal By Category
    • ArtsJournal By Category (Text)
    • ArtsJournal (text by date)
    • ArtsJournal Classic (headlines)
  • Subscribe
    • Free AJ Newsletters
    • Subscribe to AJ’s Premium Newsletters
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Tumblr
    • RSS
  • Advertising
    • Advertising
    • Place a Classified Ad
  • About AJ Classifieds
    • About AJ Classifieds
    • Place a Classified Ad
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Sources
  • Contact

ArtsJournal

  • Home
  • DANCE
  • IDEAS
  • ISSUES
  • MEDIA
  • MUSIC
  • PEOPLE
  • THEATRE
  • VISUAL
  • WORDS
  • AJBlogs
    • AJBlog Central
    • Culture
      • Amanda Ameer
      • Ted Bale
      • Doug Borwick
      • Judith Dobrzynski
      • Lynne Conner
      • Jan Herman
      • Matt Lehrman
      • David Jays
      • Paul Levy
      • Clayton Lord
      • Sarah Lutman
      • Scott McLemee
      • Douglas McLennan
      • Sheila Melvin
      • National Arts Strategies
      • Diane Ragsdale
      • Tim Riley
      • Lee Rosenbaum
      • Michael Rushton
      • Andrew Taylor
      • Terry Teachout
      • Scott Timberg
      • Jim Undercoffler
      • Chloe Veltman
      • Margy Waller
    • Dance
      • Deborah Jowitt
      • Jean Lenihan
      • Apollinaire Scherr
      • Tobi Tobias
    • Media
      • Jeff Weinstein
    • Music
      • Andrew Appel
      • Bruce Brubaker
      • Lawrence Dillon
      • Kyle Gann
      • Joe Horowitz
      • Speight Jenkins
      • Alexander Laing
      • Howard Mandel
      • Doug Ramsey
      • Greg Sandow
      • Michal Shapiro
      • David Patrick Stearns
      • Stanford Thompson
    • Theatre
      • Scott Walters
    • Visual
      • John Perreault
      • Glenn Weiss
  • AUDIENCE

How Our Brains Trick Us Into Seeing Something Real That Isn’t

VISUAL Posted: February 3, 2017 11:31 am

What’s going on in our brains when we see an authentic work versus a copy? Experts, it seems, tend to be right when they follow their initial “vibe,” an instinctual judgment call uncluttered by additional material. From my research into how forgers successfully hoodwinked experts, I know that it is usually the additional material (origin or discovery stories that push the right buttons, doctored or invented provenance) that passes off a forgery, when the object itself, if examined in a vacuum, shouldn’t fool anyone. In Gladwellian terms, this means that the smartest forgers plant clues that provoke “analysis paralysis” and encourage experts to overlook their “thin-slice” response: we might call it encouraging “thick-slicing.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in Salon Published: 01.29.17

How Bad Is It, Really, To Contradict Yourself?

IDEAS Posted: February 1, 2017 8:58 am

“In philosophy, since Socrates (a troll before there ever was an internet), the answer has been ‘very bad.’ If you find you believe two inconsistent propositions you need to do something about it. You owe a theory. But theories themselves tend to be confusing, unsatisfactory or both.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in New York Times Published: 01.29.17

Lawsuits Over, Maurice Sendak’s Rare Book Collection Is Finally In Philly – Here’s What’s In It

WORDS Posted: February 1, 2017 5:14 am

The great author-illustrator specified in his will that all of his ‘rare edition books’ go to the Rosenbach Museum and Library, part of the Free Library of Philadelphia. But the Sendak Foundation didn’t want to part with them (especially the ones worth millions), and two years of messy court battles ensued. At the end of last year, there was finally a settlement, and the Rosenbach’s share of the trove has now arrived. Peter Dobrin looks at what is (and isn’t) in it.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in Philadelphia Inquirer Published: 01.29.17

There’s A Long History Of Protest Songs. But Is Anyone Listening Any More?

MUSIC Posted: January 31, 2017 1:02 pm

Voices are being heard, of course. Songwriters would be hard-pressed to resist the actions and rhetoric of the Trump presidency. But what rabble is being roused? Are the modern protest singers preaching to choirs? A nation is divided, and many of the protest songs are not of the unifying “this land is your land” kind.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in The Globe and Mail (Canada) Published: 01.29.17

You’re Hearing Things: How People Perceive Voices In Random Noise

IDEAS Posted: January 31, 2017 11:02 am

You may not know the term, but you’re familiar with “visual pareidolia” – it’s when you see an animal in a Rorschach blot or the Virgin Mary in a slice of toast. It happens with sounds, too – as when some parents heard in a Fisher-Price doll’s giggles and coos the sentence “Islam is the light.” Philip Jaekl explains how it happens.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in Nautilus Published: 01.29.17

The Great American Play? And The Audience Survey Says…

THEATRE Posted: January 30, 2017 3:02 pm

“The experiment brings to mind Komar and Melamid’s “Most Wanted” project in the 1990s, in which that Russian duo created paintings based on polls of what people from various countries like to see in art. Here, the cast, with help from the musician Liljie, go through vignettes that illustrate some of the survey’s results.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in The New York Times Published: 01.29.17

Clarinettist On Tour With Yo-Yo Ma Has No Idea If He Will Be Allowed Back Into The United States

MUSIC Posted: January 30, 2017 7:45 am

Kinan Azmeh, a Syrian clarinettist who has lived in the US legally for 16 years and acquired a green card three years ago, flew to China three weeks ago to tour with Yo-Yo Ma. “I have my apartment. You know, 16 years is not a short time, you accumulate lots of stuff. … But what is not replaceable is all the friends who are incredibly supportive.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in Billboard (AP) Published: 01.29.17

Apps Have Made Contacting A Congress Member Easy, But Congress Is Not Ready

ISSUES Posted: January 30, 2017 4:45 am

Members of Congress can only hire 18 staffers total, ever. But communication keeps on growing. “In many cases, it’s not that Congress can’t hear you. It’s that the flood of voices so overwhelms the bureaucratic machine that any one citizen becomes hard to hear.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in Wired Published: 01.29.17

What Are Artists And Institutions Supposed To Do With Trump’s Executive Order Travel Bans?

ISSUES Posted: January 30, 2017 4:30 am

The ban on travelers from seven countries affects just about every cultural institution and academic institution, especially in New York. A concert promoter who specializes in contemporary Persian music: “‘Tonight I have a concert in L.A.,’ she said, with an American-born Iranian artist, Fared Shafinury, whose band has some immigrant members. ‘I’m just so afraid that this is going to be my last concert.'”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in The New York Times Published: 01.29.17

What Does A Conductor At Carnegie Hall See From The Podium?

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted: January 30, 2017 4:00 am

NYT in 360 has the answer, or rather the view, as Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in The New York Times Published: 01.29.17

Some Upsets, And A Lot Of Political Speeches, At The SAG Awards

MEDIA Posted: January 29, 2017 10:00 pm

The response to Friday’s immigration and refugee orders came fast at the awards show in LA: They “kicked off with Ashton Kutcher welcoming viewers and ‘everyone in airports that belong in my America. You are a part of the fabric of who we are. And we love you and we welcome you.'”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in The New York Times Published: 01.29.17

Top AJBlogs Posts For The Weekend 01.29.17

AJBlogs Posted: January 29, 2017 1:45 pm

Glittering Athletes
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-01-28

eighth blackbird
AJBlog: Infinite CurvesPublished 2017-01-27
My new play
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-01-27

Replay: Agnes Moorehead reads Proust on The Hollywood Palace
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-01-27

Almanac: Jacques Maritain on love at first sight
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-01-27
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read the story in AJBlogs Published: 01.29.17

Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

  • The man who wasn’t Gershwin
    My latest essay for Commentary, in which I discuss the complicated career and unhappy life of Oscar Levant, is now on line. Here’s an excerpt. *  *  * Oscar Levant vanished into the ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-20
  • Snapshot: Hugh Hefner is interviewed by William F. Buckley, Jr.
    Hugh Hefner is interviewed by William F. Buckley, Jr. on Firing Line. This episode was taped on September 12, 1966, for later syndicated telecast: (This is the latest in ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-20
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on hypocrisy and the reformer
    “He represented, indeed, to a superlative degree, the great moral fallacy of our time—that collective virtue may be pursued without reference to personal behaviour.” Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-20
  • Creative Placemaking
    Recently I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a friend and colleague. The Community Engagement Network hosted a conversation with Lyz Crane addressing the topic of creative placemaking and ... [read more]
    AJBlog: Engaging MattersPublished 2019-02-19
  • Recent Listening: Dave Young And Friends
    Dave Young, Lotus Blossom (Modica Music) Young, the bassist praised by Oscar Peterson for his “harmonic simpatico and unerring sense of time” when he was a member of Peterson’s trio, ... [read more]
    AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2019-02-19
  • Beckett’s ‘Rockaby’ Set by William Osborne
    For singing actress and tape of voice, four trombones and piano; text of Samuel Beckett.  (25 minutes)  Premiere: Staatstheater Kassel, April 25, 1986         In Rockaby we hear the whispered thoughts of ... [read more]
    AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2019-02-19
  • Lookback: rediscovering Joe Mooney
    From 2009: Of all the countless newspaper and magazine pieces that I’ve written over the years, one of the most immediately consequential was “Too Cool to Cash In, Favorite ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-19
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on politicians
    “Commentators on the political scene tend in retrospect to regard the figures who emerge into prominence as totally derisory. Understandably so. It is extremely difficult, as I know from personal ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-19
  • “Telegraph” Gaffe: Louvre Affirms Its Hope to Display the Elusive Leonardo “Salvator Mundi”
    Contrary to what the Telegraph pretends, the Musée du Louvre did ask for the loan of the “Salvator Mundi” and wishes to present it in its October exhibition. So wrote ... [read more]
    AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2019-02-18
  • Portrait of a good bad guy
    I wrote a Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column in 2015 about Edward G. Robinson’s art collection. It’s no longer widely remembered, but Robinson, the greatest of all big-screen gangsters, ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-18
  • Just because: Malcolm Muggeridge interviews Salvador Dalí
    Salvador Dalí is interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridge on Panorama. This program was originally telecast by the BBC on May 4, 1955: (This is the latest in a series of ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-18
  • Almanac: Malcolm Muggeridge on fake news
    “I also learnt at an early age the great truth that the twentieth century is an age of almost inconceivable credulity, in which critical faculties are stifled by a ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-18
  • Buddy DeFranco’s Birthday
    What is your favorite key? Assuming that it’s not Z-minor, you will find it in the introduction. Vibraharpist (vibraphonist, if you prefer) Terry Gibbs explains in his introduction. Gibbs’s companions ... [read more]
    AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2019-02-17
  • This Week In Audience: Technology Is Becoming The Basic Infrastructure For Building Audience
    This Week’s Insights: Could Fortnite be the next social network?… How artificial intelligence is finding new audiences… The limits of social media influencers… Is the Oscars movie academy compromising itself ... [read more]
    AJBlog: AJ Arts AudiencePublished 2019-02-17
  • Propwatch: the celery in Berberian Sound Studio
    Some props have extended stage careers. Swords debut shiny and new in Romeo and Juliet and keep clattering away until they’re finally battered to bits in Coriolanus. Tankards roll sturdily ... [read more]
    AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2019-02-15
  • Strindberg—sort of
    In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I review Classic Stage Company’s off-Broadway repertory productions of two plays by August Strindberg. Here’s an excerpt. *  *  * In “Tootsie,” Michael Dorsey, ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-15
  • Replay: Scott Bradley’s Tom and Jerry music
    The John Wilson Orchestra plays a medley of cues composed by Scott Bradley for MGM’s Tom and Jerry cartoons, performed live at the 2013 BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert ... [read more]
    AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-02-15
  • Diversity story. Or non-diversity.
    A story one of my students told me, a few years ago. I might not remember every detail. But as I recall, a family member was visiting this student. Someone ... [read more]
    AJBlog: SandowPublished 2019-02-14
  • Kahlo: It’s Fridalandia in Brooklyn
    I enjoyed seeing the Brooklyn Museum’s Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, but as regular readers of this blog know, it’s always all about the art for me. And while ... [read more]
    AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2019-02-11
.

This site published under a Creative Commons License | Share | ArtsJournal
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.