“Q; Have dancers changed over these 42 years in the way they learn and the way they dance? A: The work ethic is different. They’re required to do so much now, in such a short time. We don’t have the luxury of work weeks. … I find them burning out a little more often than it should be happening. But I leave, and I come back, and I’m amazed how good this company is from top to bottom.”
FCC Rules: Airlines Must Allow Musical Instruments On Planes
“This rule requires that carriers must allow a passenger to carry into the cabin and stow a small musical instrument, such a violin or a guitar, in a suitable baggage compartment, such as the overhead bin or under the seats in accordance with FAA safety regulations.”
How The Digital Revolution Is Destroying Our Culture
“The discussion of culture is being steadily absorbed into the discussion of business. There are “metrics” for phenomena that cannot be metrically measured. Numerical values are assigned to things that cannot be captured by numbers. Economic concepts go rampaging through noneconomic realms: Economists are our experts on happiness!”
Classical Music Administrator Resigns From Position, Reminds Organization To Keep Things Radical
“Question the impulse to administer people, to make them compete against one another, to set up panels of judges or bureaucratic processes to make what should be individual artistic decisions. Don’t put arbitrary barriers between artists and audiences. “
A Dancer Trades In Ballet For Acting Because Of Ballet’s ‘Insular World’
“‘As a dancer you’re very coddled, especially when you’re in the company,’ she says. ‘You’re given a schedule every, single day. We are treated as children in a lot of ways.'”
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Is Set To Be The ‘Next Oprah’ With New Book Club
“The club also underscores the scope of Zuckerberg’s wide-reaching ambition for Facebook as an unbundled, omnipresent force online”
Thirty Art-Writing Clichés To Ditch In The New Year
Ben Davis: “It’s a new year, which is a fine excuse as any to ditch old bad habits. Here below, I have assembled a not-at-all exhaustive list of art-writing words that I could do without in 2015. I admit, I’ve been guilty myself of abusing some or all of them – but of course that’s what New Year’s resolutions are for.”
The Jack Bauer Issue: Can Fictional Depictions Of Torture Make People More Willing To Condone It?
Many of us would like very much to think that the answer is no, but researchers seem to be finding otherwise.
Don’t You Dare Put In Your Movie That Sergei Eisenstein Was Gay, Russia Tells Peter Greenaway
“Nikolai Borodachyov, director of Russia’s Gosfilmofond, or State Film Foundation, told newspaper Izvestia that his organization would not take part in the project” – titled The Eisenstein Handshakes – “unless details about Eisenstein’s ‘nontraditional sexual orientation’ were edited out of the screenplay.”
From “1Q84” To Mother-In-Law Troubles: Haruki Murakami To Start An Advice Column
“The website, named ‘Murakami-san no tokoro‘ or ‘Mr. Murakami’s place’ will solicit problems from fans of the surrealist, whose novels are published in dozens of languages around the world.”
Classical Music By The Numbers, 2014 Edition
In 2014, we listed over 25,000 events cementing our position as the No.1 site for classical events. This enables us to see trends in concert halls worldwide. Who are the most performed composers? The busiest orchestras? The most popular operas?”
A Patent System So Broken It Stifles Innovation
It’s “a market so constricted by high transaction costs and legal risks that it excludes the vast majority of small and mid-sized businesses and prevents literally 95 percent of all patented discoveries from ever being put to use to create new products and services, new jobs, and new economic growth.”
Broadway Shatters Attendance, Box Office Records
The total take was a 14 percent uptick over last year boosted by premium pricing, making 2014 the highest grossing calendar year on Broadway. And there was a 13 percent increase in attendance over 2013.
The Shrinking Of The Contemporary Literary Critic
Literary critics have become more subdued, adopting methods with less grand speculation, more empirical study, and more use of statistics or other data. They aim to read, describe, and mine data rather than make “interventions” of world-historical importance. Their methods include “surface reading,” “thin description,” “the new formalism,” “book history,” “distant reading,” “the new sociology.”
Breakout Success Of “Into The Woods” Is A Surprise
For a popular but complicated Stephen Sondheim musical that had nowhere near the widespread appeal of such shows as “Les Misérables” or “The Phantom of the Opera,” the breakout success of the film is something of a surprise. The film is managing the difficult feat of appealing to the younger “Frozen” audience as well as older fans of Broadway musicals.
Why It Matters To Have A Canon Of Great Works
“Starting from the premise that aesthetics were just another social construct rather than a product of universal principles, postmodernist thinkers succeeded in toppling hierarchies and nullifying the literary canon. Indeed, they were so good at unearthing the socioeconomic considerations behind canon formation that even unapologetic highbrows had to wonder if they hadn’t been bamboozled by Arnoldian acolytes and eloquent ideologues.”
Why More Of Us Aren’t Angry About Growing Inequality
The great irony found in three new books books, and of our age, is” that the people who suffer most from inequality are the ones who are least likely to do much about it.”
Next Gen Theatre: Actors Interacting With Animation?
“Like most plays by 1927, this production features just a few actors and live musicians. A multitude of other people, animals and eerie, stylized scenes are part of the show. But they are all animated, projected onto a blank white sheet behind the live performers.”
“Satan” Of Art? Oh Come Now…
“To suggest, as the Times does, that Simchowitz is the author of a form of financial innovation on par with the swashbuckling junk bond market that Michael Milken commanded from LA before his conviction on securities fraud is surely not believable.”
Detroit Institute Of Art Hits Its “Grand Bargain” Number
“DIA board chair Gene Gargaro said Monday that he reported to Gov. Rick Snyder at the end of December that the museum had reached the present-value equivalent of its pledge to raise $100 million over 20 years.”
Head Of CBC Radio Placed On Leave Over Jian Ghomeshi Scandal
Chris Boyd, the director of the national broadcaster’s English-language radio network, and human resources director Todd Spencer were placed on indefinite leave of absence after investigations – including one by the CBC’s own flagship news program – into the way they handled complaints over now-fired radio star Ghomeshi’s conduct.
Andy Warhol Foundation Finishes Spree Of Art Giveaways
“The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts said it has finished one of the biggest art giveaways of all time, sending the remaining contents of what rocker Lou Reed once dubbed ‘Andy’s Chest’ to museums and colleges and universities in 48 states and 10 foreign countries.”
Leon Wieseltier Lands At “The Atlantic”
“Mr. Wieseltier spent 31 years as the The New Republic‘s literary editor until his highly public ouster as a part of the magazine’s reinvention last December.”
Merce Cunningham Trust Makes Cash Grants For First (And Maybe Last) Time
“The Merce Cunningham Trust, established in 1990 to further the choreographer’s legacy, has announced an award of $250,000 to the Baryshnikov Arts Center and of $375,000 to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. … [A trustee] said that this was the first time the trust had awarded cash grants, and that it was unlikely to happen again.”
New Orleans At War With Itself Over All The Music (Hey, It’s Loud!)
A strange combination of old zoning laws and local tradition makes live musical performance in the birthplace of jazz a more complicated matter than you’d expect. As the city continues to recover from Katrina, the conflicting forces of gentrification, preservation, amplification and tourism are leading to some ferocious political battles.