Katy Waldman (using the Dutch name under which tiny books have become popular in Europe): “A dwarsligger‘s teeniness is inseparable from its tweeness. But dwarsliggers embody twee in another respect: as displays of individualism, idiosyncrasy, quirkiness.” (Nevertheless, she kind of likes them.) — The New Yorker
‘Crazy Money’ Has ‘Corrupted’ Architecture, Says Highly-Paid Starchitect
“In a keynote speech at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam [in late November], [David] Adjaye said that architecture should be the ‘arbiter of ideas’, yet many of today’s projects are driven by ‘elitism that is to do with hyper-commercial liberalism and who controls money’.” — Dezeen
Simon Rattle’s Seven Pieces Of Advice For Every Young Musician
4. Being an amazing musician doesn’t make you an amazing grown-up. (There are important aspects of adulting he didn’t learn in time.)
5. Even world-famous musicians have identity crises. (He once tried going an entire year without listening to any music.)
6. The bonds you make with fellow musicians will be intense. (This would be why he keeps marrying his singers.) — BBC
John Waters Talks About Film, Art, And His Careers In Each
“I’m always trying to question those two businesses, art and film, in a way that’s celebrating the mistakes, and what goes wrong, and insider knowledge. … I would say that still many people who know my films have absolutely no idea that I have an art career. And I kept that very separate on purpose, because … celebrity is the only obscenity left in the art world, and it is the one thing I will always have to fight.” — The Believer
While AIDS Ravaged The Arts World In The 1980s, The New York Times Obituaries Euphemized
“Like most obituaries, these carried the weight of individual lives, many taken too soon. But unlike other obits, they were laced with evasions — omissions effectively erasing a person’s life, effectively erasing AIDS. … Those who lost their lives — many of them pathbreaking artists and individuals who, if still here today, would be running our museums, our publishing houses, our media companies, opera houses, and drama guilds — died before we had enough to remember them by. To trace the stories behind such obituaries is to unearth the very voices that shaped our culture, to recover what’s been lost.” — Slate
Bloomberg Public Art Challenge Awards $1M To Jackson, Miss. For Art About Nutrition
“The funds will support the project ‘Fertile Ground: Inspiring Dialogue About Food Access,’ which aims to inform policy related to nutrition by using art as a medium to communicate the complexities of the issue in the city. Local and national artists, landscape architects, filmmakers, farmers, chefs, nutritionists, and community members will be invited to collaborate on a citywide exhibition featuring installations and performances, as well as other programming.” — Artforum
The World’s First Serial Podcast Opera — But Is It, Really?
Composer Jason Cady’s Buick City 1am “is an intriguing concept, addressing several of the traditional form’s shortcomings in relation to the modern world: it makes no undue demands of one’s attention span (four 25-minute episodes), it is accessible (anywhere, 24/7, via one’s phone), and it is free.” But does it qualify as an opera? Using a quite reasonable definition, Gina Leishman suggests that the answer is no. — Financial Times
Why Does The Industry Keep Marketing Classical Music As A Tranquilizer?
Classical radio stations promote their programming as “calming and refreshing,” an “oasis,” or “an island of sanity.” Playlists on YouTube and audio streaming services have titles like “8 Hours Classical Music for Sleeping”; inexpensive compilation CDs offer “The Most Relaxing Classical Music in the Universe.” Jennifer Gersten, winner of the 2018 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism — identifies at least one reason why the industry keeps falling into this rut, and argues that the habit sells both the music itself and potential listeners very short. — Washington Post
One Of London’s Grand Victorian Performance Halls Reopens After £18.8M Restoration
The Alexandra Palace, designed by the architects of the Royal Albert Hall, opened on a north London hilltop in 1873 — and burned down 16 days later. It was rebuilt in 1875 and was very popular but never made money; it “suffered more false dawns and setbacks in its 145-year history than almost any other playhouse in the country” and served a number of undignified uses over the decades. It’s now back in service as a performance venue for the first time in more than 80 years, refurbished and modernized to seat an audience of up to 1,000. — The Stage
Violinist And Teacher Nina Beilina Dead At 81
A former student of the legendary Soviet violinist David Oistrakh, Beilina was a highly-regarded musician in the USSR when she emigrated in 1976. “Despite the rave reviews Ms. Beilina received for her debut, her career in the United States did not soar. Like other Soviet musicians who emigrated, she had trouble adjusting to a system where the government was not overseeing every aspect of her career.” She did develop a devoted following as a teacher at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she also founded the Bachanalia Festival in 1988. — New York Times
Can We Talk Openly About How Hard It Is To Keep An Independent Dance Company Running?
Ryan P. Casey: “I know I’m not the only company director to have funded gigs with my personal savings, spent thousands of dollars on largely unsuccessful APAP showings, received rejections for grant applications that took hours to complete, or lost money on events I produced. But watching ensembles such as Trey McIntyre Project, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and now Jessica Lang Dance announce their final bows in recent years has made it clear that we’re all waging similar battles, and they’re not going to be won alone.” — Dance Magazine
British Government Blocks Export Of JMW Turner Painting
The painting, which sold at auction for £3.4 million, was the first one created in open air by the British artist. The arts minister: “It has so much significance for artistic and historical reasons that it is right that we do all we can to save this masterpiece for the benefit of the nation.”
The King And I Is Whistling A Happy Tune As It Rakes In The Money For A Theatrical ‘Event’ At The Cinema
Nothing’s more amazing than a musical, we guess: More than 135,000 people watched the cinematic broadcast of the West End musical (which transferred from Broadway), and it took in nearly 2 million pounds – and it’s getting yet more screenings.
Changing The Way Children Are Depicted In Anime Isn’t Easy, But It Is Necessary
Sometimes it takes real-life models to get more realistic animation, and this animator just happened to have two of his own on hand.
New York City Reviews Its Statues, And Fills A Big Gap With One Of Shirley Chisholm In Prospect Park
The statue will be installed in 2020, and it’s the first in a planned series that came about after “the city’s reviews of its statues — an effort to toss out ‘symbols of hate’ — and the creation of She Built NYC, an initiative to create more statues of women.”
Accused By Multiple Women, Neil deGrasse Tyson Is Now Being Investigated By Fox And Cosmos
Three women have accused the scientist and host of the TV show Cosmos of misconduct ranging from groping to rape.
Is The Iconic West Coast ‘Sunset Magazine’ About To Sunset?
This is bad (and, of course, it’s because the magazine was bought by a private equity firm): “Five top editors, including the editor in chief, have quit in recent weeks. Some freelance writers haven’t been paid for months. Sunset’s holiday issue, which typically lands in mailboxes in late November, has been delayed until nearly Christmas, in part because of a lack of advertising.”
Harry Leslie Smith, Who Survived The Great Depression And WWII And Became A Social Media Star, Has Died At 95
Smith’s following on Twitter and Facebook, in podcasts and in his column for The Guardian, reached well into the hundreds of thousands. “‘Enjoy yourself,’ he often said. ‘It’s later than you think.'”
The Film Star Who Says She’s Not An Actor
The star of Alfonso Cuarón’s new and widely praised Roma had no idea who he was or how the film industry worked when she auditioned in order to please her sister.
So You Want To Take Spotty To The Movies
This canine-welcoming cinema and coffeeshop (with dog-friendly treats) in Wales is for you.
As ‘The Nutcracker’ Plays Everywhere, One Dancer Says It’s Time To Eliminate Bias, And Yellowface, In The Ballet World
Dancers who are Asian and Asian American have had it with stereotypes in ballet, including (perhaps especially in) The Nutcracker. But they’re doing more than bringing their concerns to companies – they’re creating resources: “Final Bow For Yellowface is an online platform dedicated to educating companies and schools on how to veer away from offensive Asian stereotypes (yellowface).”
Using Spy Cameras To Film A Documentary About Refugees
The need for spy cameras probably isn’t what you think. Eldorado director Markus Imhoof: “These people are ashamed that they are living there. … They are all hoping that they will succeed and if they would show where they live, it’s a big shame for them.”
The Russian Art Market Is Having A Bit Of An Awkward Moment
Or rather the art market in London that depends on Russian money: “New realities have restrained oligarchical excess. Over the past five years, the West has imposed a barrage of sanctions on Russia, including asset freezes and travel bans, tied to its incursions into Ukraine, interference in elections, and the attempted assassination of a former spy in Britain.” – The New York Times
Who Can Make Money Online?
True, right now the fight is between men who say they can’t get laid and the sex worker industry, but it’s really about controlling “the network of largely unseen companies that make the commercial web function—web-hosting companies, domain registrars, security providers, and payment processors.” -Wired
Study: How You Watch A Movie Depends On What Kind Of Thinker You Are
Aalto University researchers showed volunteers the film My Sister’s Keeper on a screen while the research subjects were lying down in an MRI scanner. The study compared the volunteers’ brain activity, and concluded that holistic thinkers saw the film more similarly with each other than analytical thinkers. In addition, holistic thinkers processed the film’s moral issues and factual connections within the film more similarly with each other than the analytical thinkers.
Researchers: This Is The Most Influential Movie Of All Time
“The success of a film is usually measured through its box-office revenue, or the opinion of professional critics,” the researchers write in the journal Applied Network Science. “Such measures, however, may be influenced by external factors, such as advertisement or trends, and are not able to capture the impact of a movie over time.”
Unknown John Donne Manuscript Found In A Box In The Corner
“Dating back 400 years, the [handwritten] bound collection was kept for at least the last two centuries at Melford Hall in Suffolk. Sotheby’s expert Dr Gabriel Heaton was on a ‘standard checking visit’ to the property when he found it in a box with other papers.”
Documenta Lost Even More Millions On Athens Than We Thought
“A final audit has revealed that the deficit caused by overspending in the 2017 edition of Documenta, the contemporary art exhibition that takes place in the German city of Kassel every five years, is more than €2m wider than originally calculated.” The total deficit on the event, €7.6 million, is attributed on overspending on Documenta’s extension to Athens.