[contextly_auto_sidebar id="oNW8dK0FCdGFSKqGQqeHclNNxOzhoCM1"] OKAY, nobody really knows what's coming. But a pretty good stab comes in a new book by veteran arts manager Michael M. Kaiser (Alvin Ailey, Kennedy Center, etc) , who is both hopeful and brutally honest. His opening section on the building of an arts infrastructure (including an audience) in the postwar U.S. is as clear and succinct … [Read more...]
Creativity and “Powers of Two”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="h6kHO9RuWKQjpO1pgA06PU80n7f3lQ1n"] JOSHUA Wolf Shenk's new book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, is the subject of my latest story. Shenk looks at more than 100 partnerships -- some overt, some hidden -- to try to distill the process of creation and derive patterns. He works especially with figures in literature and the arts -- … [Read more...]
Announcing Culture Crash the Book; and Kylie the Appalling
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ftixoeOJRzszHlmMuaxS6xpP6qUMIuEH"] EAGER for more of the uplifting optimism of the CultureCrash blog? Then you'll love my upcoming book, Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class, which Yale University Press has just formally announced. Here is the press's page. The book is about a crisis in the arts and culture, one provoked by digital technology, changing … [Read more...]
Disappearing Into "Invisible Cities"
THERE’s a phrase of John Cage’s I think about once in a while, despite having radically mixed feelings about the man and his work. “Theater exists all around us,” he once wrote, “and it is the purpose of formal theaterto remind us this is so.” This notion came alive for me the other night as I caught one of the last performances of Invisible Cities, the wild-ass, Calvino-inspired opera that … [Read more...]
The Roots of Savion Glover
THE latest subject for my Influences column is dance god Savion Glover, who no less than Gregory Hines said may've been the finest tap dancer in history.Glover came to Broadway as a kid, and broke big with "Noise/Funk" in the mid '90s. He's been an exemplar of removing the Hollywood polish from tap dancing and reconnecting it to a specifically black and African lineage of rhythm.In my story … [Read more...]
Choreographer Meg Wolfe
A DARING and musically radical dance piece is coming to REDCAT next week. I imagine there is so much avant-garde work coming regularly through this little performance spaced nudged into the corner of Walt Disney Concert Hall that many of us tend to take it for granted. But this piece -- trembler.SHIFTER -- sounds truly rad, as the kids say.I had the chance to correspond with the piece's … [Read more...]
Martha Graham vs. Isamu Noguchi
TWO very different artists -- with equally contrasting temperaments -- enjoyed one of the richest collaborations of the 20th century. They were also shaped in some ways by their time in California.Graham with Bertram RossDance pioneer Martha Graham and sculptor/ designer Isamu Noguchi worked together for more than two decades on about two dozen sets; three of them, including Pulitzer-winning … [Read more...]
Twyla Tharp and Sinatra
Legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp is back in the news for her upcoming show on the songs of Frank Sinatra. This strikes me as at least one step up from, say, Billy Joel, whose work she adapted in 2002. (We here at The Misread City really dig Capitol-era Sinatra, despite his audacity at not growing up on the West Coast.)A few years back I spent some time with Tharp as she led a group of USC arts … [Read more...]