“Do we have to do all of those things to be considered an arts journalist? Old-fashoned newspaper journalists have fought a rearguard action for more than a decade, except now they (we!) are surrounded, overwhelmed and increasingly angry about it.”
Bad News For Barnes & Noble’s Nook
Seriously bad news: The Nook division over the holidays saw “a 60.5 percent drop compared with the nine-week holiday period a year earlier. Barnes & Noble executives said their total share of the e-book market had fallen to 20 percent.”
The Demographic That’s Leaving Facebook
“A number of studies have found people feel worse after scrolling Facebook – more envious, lonely, even angry. In one German study, people were particularly unhappy after viewing vacation photos. They were also more envious when browsing Facebook instead of actively using it by posting comments and photos of themselves.”
Disgraced Theatre Impresario Garth Drabinsky Loses Appeal To Get His Canadian Honor Back
Drabinsky had been stripped of his Order of Canada medal. A federal court judge found “no basis” for allowing Drabinsky a judicial review to look into the governor general’s 2012 decision to rescind the medal.
National Book Festival (In Washington DC) Kicked Off National Mall. Why? It’s Too Popular
“The Library of Congress staff tried to figure out some way to address the Park Service’s concerns, but ultimately, no feasible compromise was reached. More than 200,000 people attended last year’s two-day literary event.”
12 Trends In 2014 American Museums
From global expansion to artist collaboration to increased curiosity about Central and South America, the American museum world is opening up.
California Governor Proposes $8000 (Yes Thousand!) Cut In State Arts Funding
Governor Jerry Brown’s budget plan calls for “an overall 8.5% spending increase, including major boosts to education, but envisions a $9,000 cut for the state’s arts-grant agency, the California Arts Council — from a projected $5.058 million in the current fiscal year to $5.049 million in the 2014-15 budget year that begins July 1.”
Is It Right To Destroy An Architectural Icon (Even If Flawed) To House More Art?
Tearing down New York’s Folk Art Museum: “Mine is not necessarily a view that everyone can accept: to many observers, the Folk Art building seems, like all too many museums these days, to be a grand-scale sculpture that fails to showcase the art it was built to house. But if that is MoMA’s opinion, then it should say so, which could help stimulate a worthwhile public discussion on the aesthetic of architecture.”
Justin Davidson: MoMA Expansion Is A Tough Compromise
“The architects who are designing this destructive expansion — Diller Scofidio + Renfro — understand perfectly what they’re doing, and it causes them genuine grief.”
Jerry Saltz: MoMA’s New Expansion Design Is Madness!
“Somewhere inside me, I heard myself saying my good-byes to MoMA. I thought, I have seen the best modern museum of my generation destroyed by madness.”
Amiri Baraka, 79, Poet and Firebrand
“One of the most influential African American writers of his generation, [he] courted controversy as a poet, playwright and provocateur and who was a primary intellectual architect of the Black Arts movement of the 1960s.”
How Egypt’s Most Popular Novelist Came to Support the Military Government
Alaa Al-Aswany (The Yacoubian Building) was a strong opponent of the Mubarak regime and champion of the Arab Spring, and he cheered his homeland’s first democratic elections. A year later, he cheered the military’s overthrow of Presdient Morsi and the elected Muslim Brotherhood government – and most of Egypt’s intelligentsia (and a quite a lot of the public) cheered right along with him. What happened?
Shakespeare’s Globe’s Broadway Run Is Now Officially in the Black
The double-bill of Twelfth Night and Richard III has now earned back its $3.1 million capitalization – by no means a sure thing on Broadway, even for critically-acclaimed Shakespeare productions.
Freed From Prison, Pussy Rioters Begin a New Movement
Since their release, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have begun using their new-found fame, connections and energy for the cause of prison reform. Masha Gessen describes the horrific conditions they faced in their penal colonies and explains why this new work could have far more resonance within Russia than singing about Putin in a Moscow cathedral did.
Nicholas Hytner, Post-National Theatre, Will Start Commercial Production Company
“He is planning to set up a new concern with the National’s executive director Nick Starr when the pair leave in 2015.”
Reading a Novel Rewires Your Brain, Says Study
Today in neuropsychological research performed on undergraduates: fMRIs indicated that students who read a particular novel developed “heightened connectivity in the left temporal cortex” (one of the brain’s language centers) for at least five days after finishing the book.
The Accordion Is Cool Again? Hell Yeah!
They Might Be Giants aren’t outliers anymore. There’s Arcade Fire, Mumford and Sons — heck, there’s now an accordionist in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (And by the way, Hallie Golden reminds us, a hundred years ago the accordion was positively glamorous.)
Goodspeed Theater’s Director to Retire After 45 Years
“Michael Price, who has led Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut since 1968, producing more than 200 shows and sending 19 of them to Broadway” – including Annie, By Jeeves and Shenandoah – “will retire at the end of the year, the theater company’s board of trustees announced on Thursday.”
Meryl Streep Is Right: Walt Disney Was a ‘Gender Bigot’. So What?
Robin Abcarian: “Born in 1901, he was a man of his times … [and] creative genius who had a certain totalitarian streak. Have you ever been to a Disney park? Did you feel ‘free’ there?”
Three Days of Drinking Vodka With Gary Shteyngart
“And then [Gary] raises a glass to the fish: ‘Here’s to herring … It’s really kept Russia going all these years.’ I didn’t know we were going to keep going with the toasts. ‘Endless toasts,’ he says. ‘It’s so annoying, but it has to be done.'”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01-09-14
Vancouver Art Gallery Moves A Step Ahead
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-09
A Wagner heir has died, at 71
Source: Slipped Disc | Published on 2014-01-09
Museum of Modern Art’s Folk-Art Decision: It’s a Knockdown (plus plans for Mega-Mega M…
Source: CultureGrrl | Published on 2014-01-09
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A Canadian Opera Company Shuts Down
“We simply do not have the financial resources to continue. We had hoped a large donation from an individual would arrive in time, but regrettably it did not materialize, and in the absence of any other funding, the board had no choice but to cancel the rest of the season and cease operations.”
Hollywood’s Best Movie Dance In One Video
YouTube user Robert Jones stitched together clips from some of the greatest dance scenes in movie history for a super-cut set to the Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance.”
What Makes A Vibrant City? The “Innovation Economy”
“The quality of the place is irrelevant, as are collisionable hours per acre per year. As long as talented people born in different places are coming together, even the Orkney Islands can be an innovation hub.”
Herbie Hancock Appointed Professor Of Poetry At Harvard
Hancock, who turns 74 in April, says his lectures will cover the practical lessons he has learned about the harmonious connection between “the essential values in jazz and the values of Buddhism”.