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  • AUDIENCE

Why Young Jean Lee Wrote A Play Called ‘Straight White Men’

THEATRE Posted: December 1, 2015 1:00 am

“It’s the question of, ‘What do we want straight white men to do that they’re not doing? And what happens when they do that?’ It’s a very current question. Because being a straight white man is a relatively new thing, historically. For years, they got to be the default human. And now, suddenly, they’re being slapped with labels, and they hate it.”

Read the story in Los Angeles Times Published: 11.22.15

The (Frankly Bizarre) Dominance Of Enya

MUSIC Posted: November 30, 2015 12:03 pm

“Her success so deeply contradicts accepted industry wisdom that it’s inspired a term — ‘Enya-nomics’ — to describe it. Several years ago, she was invited to Harvard Business School to discuss the subject, but, like most invitations, Enya declined. Her underexposure, after all, is at the heart of both Enya-nomics and her appeal.”

Read the story in BuzzFeed Published: 11.22.15

‘They Don’t Quite Take Place On Planet Earth’: Wallace Shawn On His Plays

THEATRE Posted: November 25, 2015 2:05 am

“I don’t really write about the real world. Or let me put it in a different way. Pretty much everything I’ve written doesn’t take place in any real country. It’s always a made-up country. My plays are more like dreams that are dreamed by someone from planet Earth but they don’t quite take place on planet Earth.”

Read the story in The Guardian Published: 11.22.15

Choreographer And MacArthur Genius Kyle Abraham In Near-Perpetual Motion

DANCE Posted: November 25, 2015 1:45 am

“Does the 38-year-old choreographer thrive on chaos? ‘No,’ he said emphatically. ‘If you catch the light right, you’ll see my hives coming in.'”

Read the story in Wall Street Journal Published: 11.22.15

Tod Machover’s Sprawling Symphony Of Detroit Spills Off The Stage

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted: November 24, 2015 9:37 am

“The result was less a purely musical work than a sprawling, ceremonial communion. As an exercise in sincere civic engagement and community building, the project was unimpeachable.”

Read the story in Detroit Free Press Published: 11.22.15

One Year After Crisis: Detroit Institute Of Arts Still Figuring Out Its Future

VISUAL Posted: November 24, 2015 9:29 am

One year after the city emerged from bankruptcy, the DIA still finds itself at a crossroads.

Read the story in Detroit Free Press Published: 11.22.15

NPR’s Audience Is Getting Smaller And Older, And All Of Public Radio is Worried About It

MEDIA Posted: November 24, 2015 2:36 am

“Listening among Morning Edition‘s audience, for example, has declined 20 percent among people under 55 in the past five years. As audiences drift to newer on-demand audio sources such as podcasts and streaming, the bonds with local stations – and the contributions that come with them – may be fraying.”

Read the story in Washington Post Published: 11.22.15

Joseph Silverstein, 83, Longtime Boston Symphony Concertmaster And Utah Symphony Music Director

PEOPLE Posted: November 24, 2015 12:25 am

Said one longtime friend and colleague, “Above and beyond being just an incredible musician and perhaps the greatest concertmaster ever, he was a very, very humane person. … The music was never about himself, as it is with many conductors and violinists. It was always about the music. In that regard, he was very humble. He always took a backseat to the composer.”

Read the story in Salt Lake Tribune Published: 11.22.15

When Radical Architects Designed Discos

VISUAL Posted: November 23, 2015 11:59 pm

“Vegetable gardens, flying carpets and Scrooge McDuck: in the late ’60s, young Italian architects ripped up the traditional nightclub and designed a new type of boogie wonderland.”

Read the story in The Guardian Published: 11.22.15

Coppersmiths Still Hammering Out Their Art In Turkey

VISUAL Posted: November 23, 2015 12:03 pm

“The patient, rhythmic tapping of hammer on metal permeates this alley of coppersmiths. Shelves are filled with gleaming pots, bowls and pitchers. In a corner of each shop, a single worker, usually an older man, patiently toils away on his latest creation — never quite identical to the ones that preceded it.”

Read the story in NPR Published: 11.22.15

What It’s Like To Adapt A Superhero For The Netflix Screen

MEDIA Posted: November 23, 2015 11:03 am

“Jessica Jones” showrunner Melissa Rosenberg: “It changes quite a bit for cable. It becomes more about continuing story lines than it does about case-of-the-week. Because you’re not a slave to commercials and a week in-between each episode, you have all that real estate you normally spend recapping, going to storytelling. So you find yourself really pushing the edges even further than you might otherwise. Netflix is very much into pushing the edges. We went dark.”

Read the story in Los Angeles Times Published: 11.22.15

The Painful, Hellish Time For (Some) Workers Inside The Sony Hack

MEDIA Posted: November 23, 2015 10:19 am

“Sony’s rank and file had their job descriptions scrambled and their private information cast to the wind. But for many of the contractors working on the peripheries of the organization, the hack seemed to breeze through like tumbleweed.”

Read the story in Slate Published: 11.22.15

Philadelphia Orchestra, Still Struggling, Drops Plans For Artistic Collaborations And More

MUSIC Posted: November 23, 2015 9:08 am

“The slip in attendance is worrisome. Philanthropy tends to spring most naturally from active listeners, and the downtick produced a drop in revenue. ‘We had a shortfall of $3 million in our ticket sales and in our recurring contributions,’ orchestra spokeswoman Katherine Blodgett said.”

Read the story in Philadelphia Inquirer Published: 11.22.15

Top British Theatre Awards Go To Nicole Kidman, James McAvoy

THEATRE Posted: November 23, 2015 7:03 am

“The award for top play was picked up by Stephen Adly Guirgis’ ‘The Motherf**ker with the Hat,’ which was directed by Indhu Rubasingham. The New York-set comedy centers on a drug dealer, recently released from prison and trying to go straight, and his volatile girlfriend. The production formed part of the Rufus Norris’ first season as artistic director at the National Theater.”

Read the story in Variety Published: 11.22.15

Saudi Arabia Sentences Artist To Death

ISSUES Posted: November 23, 2015 6:04 am

“While he is not widely known in Saudi Arabia or abroad, Mr. Fayadh has been an active member of Saudi Arabia’s small contemporary art scene, and his colleagues describe him as a passionate curator who has sought to link Saudi artists to the rest of the world.”

Read the story in The New York Times Published: 11.22.15

Top Posts From AJBlogs For 11.22.15

AJBlogs Posted: November 22, 2015 10:00 pm

Recent Listening In Brief
Jazz is not dying. I know that because the postman, the Fed Ex driver and the UPS man keep dropping off proof that it’s alive. I can’t keep up with all of the albums they… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2015-11-22

Adieu, Sylvie, et Merci
Sylvie Guillem dances into retirement. Sylvie Guillem in Akram Khan’s TeknêPhoto: Bill Cooper  Force of Nature. That’s the title of a documentary about the career of the formidable French dancer, Sylvie Guillem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMaNQBED8Q). You… … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2015-11-21

Carnage and Kentridge: Metropolitan Opera’s “Lulu,” Then and Now

Enriched by more than four decades of avid museum- and performance-going, I’m both blessed and cursed with having seen so many definitive exhibitions and performances that I’m hard to impress. I was knocked out and… … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2015-11-20
Words and music

It’s a truism that great poetry doesn’t always make for great lyrics.  Most composers who have set a lot of poetry can attest to the fact that some of the things that make a poem… … read more
AJBlog: Infinite CurvesPublished 2015-11-20
Time to help

I’m often asked to support things out in the classical music world — causes, performances, projects, groups, crowdfunding campaigns. And I almost always don’t do it, because when these requests get numerous, they could… … read more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2015-11-20
Small Museum Makes Waves

For Sotheby’s, the continuing sales of Alfred Taubman’s estate have got to be a disappointment. The auctioneer may not even make back its $500 million-plus guarantee, based on sales of his Impressionist, Modern, contemporary and… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2015-11-20
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Read the story in AJBlogs Published: 11.22.15

Elena Ferrante’s Mothers Elicit A Massive, And Heartfelt, Sigh Of Recognition

WORDS Posted: November 22, 2015 9:08 pm

“Ferrante is to women what Judy Blume was to pubescent girls in the 1970s: both a shock and a relief, writing what most don’t even admit to thinking. This is especially true regarding Ferrante’s depiction of motherhood, one filled with frustration, difficult choices, and the constant threat of the loss of identity.”

Read the story in The Rumpus Published: 11.22.15

Saturday Night Live Shows That Music Is The Only Way To Soothe The Savage Family Arguments At Thanksgiving

MUSIC Posted: November 22, 2015 2:06 pm

“With debate continuing to rage over the acceptance of Syrian refugees, the gender wage gap, police brutality, and the U.S. response to ISIS, there may be only one person who can bring generations of family members together: Adele.”

Read the story in Entertainment Weekly Published: 11.22.15

How Dance Shaped America (And Vice Versa)

DANCE Posted: November 22, 2015 9:02 am

“[Paul] Taylor’s use of everyday steps like skipping and hopping in his choreography is not so very different — though the venues surely are — from James Brown being inspired by the audiences dancing in the aisles at his electrifying concerts. Brown incorporated their moves into his act and took them on tour, serving as ‘the Johnny Appleseed of dance,’ in one biographer’s words.”

Read the story in The Daily Beast Published: 11.22.15

If Jesse Eisenberg Reviewed A Movie (Ouch!)

MEDIA Posted: November 19, 2015 11:36 am

“In sum, these are the main problems with “Paintings of Cole”: it was inconveniently shown on the Upper West Side, written by a guy I envy, screened by a cute intern whose name was too confusing to remember, based on an idea that I poorly executed in grad school, and praised by the Times, which rejected me.”

Read the story in The New Yorker Published: 11.22.15

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