Traditional techniques of close reading only ever brought us knowledge of a tiny sliver of literary history—less than one percent of the novels written in one country in one century. In short, we have always been “flimsy” readers.
Is Theatre Over? (And Other Questions For 2014)
“What does it say that the biggest ‘theater’ stories at the end of 2013 were about a TV show and a movie? Has the definition of theater changed? Can you call it theater if you’re not breathing the same air as the actors?”
Can Stanford University Turn Palo Alto Into an Arts Hotbed?
“Stanford has been the catalyst of the Silicon Valley revolution, and we want to have the same effect on the arts. The Bay Area has the human and material resources needed to become the Florence of the 21st century.”
A Statue Of Satan for the Oklahoma Capitol?
In response to a Ten Commandments monument placed on the capitol grounds in Oklahoma City in 2012, a Satanic Temple has proposed a design for its own religious statue to go alongside it. (The Pastafarians, always ready with their holiday crèches, seem to be behind the curve here.)
Orlando’s New Arts Center Finally Has Opening Date
The long-awaited Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts will be open before the end of 2014, management promises.
Why It’s So Difficult To Judge Whether Art Is A Good Investment
“The lack of transparency on prices (particularly from art galleries, which account for a good 50% of the market’s transactions, alongside auction houses) makes true comparisons to assets such as public equity, gold, property and wine very difficult.”
A Significant Shift In The Kinds Of Video Games Now Being Made
“The people who make games now, they grew up with games their whole life — probably the first generation that did that. So it’s really natural to consider that you can have a game about anything.”
Can You Pop A Pill To Get Perfect Pitch?
“From bilingualism to sporting prowess, many abilities rely on neural circuits that are laid down by our early experiences. Until the age of 7 or so, the brain goes through several ‘critical periods’ during which it can be radically changed by the environment. During these times, the brain is said to have increased plasticity.”
Is New York’s Last Classical Music Recordings Store Closing?
“Former employees, suppliers and industry watchers say that J&R has closed its classical music section for good, bringing to an end New York’s last brick-and-mortar record store with a dedicated classical section.”
Reading Alters The Brain. Okay. And Then…?
“The important result, according to the study authors – Gregory Berns and his colleagues – is that the participants’ averaged brain connectivity patterns at rest were altered by the experience of reading Pompeii.”
More And More We’re Depending On Data (This Could Be A Problem)
“The more a field is run by a system, the more that system creates incentives for everyone (employees, customers, competitors) to change their behavior in perverse ways—providing more of whatever the system is designed to measure and produce, whether that actually creates any value or not.”
How MTV Changed The Way Movies Look
All kinds of “social ills” have been blamed on MTV – elongating the period we consider “youth” for example, as well as homogenising it – but a charge much less contestable is simply its influence on the way film and TV looks.
Some New Year’s Resolutions For The Theatre: Enough With The Thumbs!
This year let’s make fewer prescriptive lists that perpetuate thumbs up/thumbs down approaches to theater. These lists kill off the idea of abundance and suggest the beauty of theater rests in simple notions of good and bad.
That $7 Renoir She Bought at a Flea Market? It Was Stolen From Our Museum
“A small Pierre-Auguste Renoir landscape painting has set off a dispute between a major American art museum and a woman who said she purchased the painting for just $7 at a flea market in 2009. The Baltimore Museum of Art said the Renoir was stolen from its premises in 1951.”
New Egyptian Pharaoh’s Tomb Found
“The tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh King Sobekhotep I, believed to be first king of the 13th Dynasty (1781BC-1650BC), has been discovered by a team from the University of Pennsylvania at Abydos in Middle Egypt, 500km south of Cairo.”
How Radical Is Mason Bates’s Music for Orchestra and Electronics, Really?
“Everybody gets so hung up on, ‘Oh my God, there’s electricity involved’,” says Bates. “But really, this is just part of the evolution of the orchestra, which I find to be a limitless medium. It’s like the world’s greatest synthesizer.”
Madrid’s Street Performers Must Now Audition
“A new noise reduction law that took effect New Year’s Day prohibits amplifiers and requires buskers to move along every two hours and stay 75 yards away from the next crooner. Musicians also must now pass an audition to be granted a free, one-year renewable permit to perform outdoors. Those who don’t pass muster could face fines for disturbing the peace.”
French Interior Minister OKs Banning Comic for Antisemitism
“Interior Minister Manuel Valls said he had advised local prefects of police that Dieudonné’s shows could be banned if they are deemed to present a threat to public order” – and one mayor has already done so. “But a ban is complicated legally in light of France’s powerful constitutional provisions on the freedom of speech.”
Having Been Banned for Alleged Antisemitism, French Comedian Threatens To Sue
“The French comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, who has become notorious for vitriolic outbursts against Jews and use of the controversial quenelle – allegedly a quasi-Nazi salute – threatened legal action on Monday after officials banned his show.”
This Ballet Is Garbage (No, Really)
“One of the gems of the 2013 Edinburgh festival fringe was a family show that was created, literally, out of rubbish – a ballet set to Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune which was performed by a cast, a litter even, of plastic bags.”
Top AJBlog Post For 01.06.14
In Age Of University Museums, A Thriver
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-07
How many pianos are still being made in Europe?
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-06
Innovation to what end?
Source: Jumper | Published on 2014-01-06
Saul Zaentz
Source: RiffTides | Published on 2014-01-06
2013’s “Word Of The Year” (Just Because)
“After a year dominated by upstarts like “selfie,” “bitcoin” and “twerk,” the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year honor for 2013 has gone to a seemingly old-hat vocabulary item.”
California’s Incubator For Tech Innovators Discovers The Arts
“California’s famous innovation factory, which counts Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Reed Hastings of Netflix, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger of Instagram, and Peter Thiel of PayPal among its alumni, has discovered that arts are the future.”
By The Numbers: 2013 In Classical Music
“The next news to report is rather discouraging, and confirms something widely reported in the press last autumn: female conductors were a rarity last year, and just one of our 100 busiest conductors was a woman.”
Today’s Top AJBlog posts 01.05.14
West Wing Dramas: Cleveland Museum’s Insubstantial Information and Creative Accounting
Source: CultureGrrl | Published on 2014-01-06
Should news organizations foster greater transparency about their arts coverage?
Source: Lies Like Truth | Published on 2014-01-05
First spat of 2014: Maestro opens opens fire on Canadian Opera
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-05
Recommended 2013 jazz-beyond-jazz recordings
Source: Jazz Beyond Jazz | Published on 2014-01-03