“All this attention comes not from a greater understanding of mortality but from a greater ignorance of it. The promises of religion are replaced by the promise of science, yet medicine fails to vanquish its ultimate foe, instead rendering death more obscure, a matter for procrastination.”
Take That, Borat! And Putin! Kazakhstan Creates Its Own ‘Game Of Thrones’
Spurred by a remark from the Russian president that “the Kazakhs had never had statehood” as well as ongoing chagrin that their nation is best known to much of the world for a fictional, dysfunctional journalist in a mankini, the country’s film industry is producing a lavish 10-part miniseries about the founding, amid the collapse of the Golden Horde, of the Kazakh Khanate in 1465.
All Those Newer Disney Movies With A Strong, Non-Passive Princess Heroine? Turns Out They Have A Problem
“The plot of The Little Mermaid, of course, involves Ariel literally losing her voice – but in the five Disney princess movies that followed, the women speak even less. On average in those films, men have three times as many lines as women.”
Submit Like A Man: How I (Female Playwright) Determined My Male Persona
Mya Kagan: “As a playwright, I am basically a professional character developer, so before I could do anything, I had to get my head around who this person was.”
Knoedler Art Fraud Trial Could Change Responsibilities Of Art-Sellers
“For example, if a jury decides that a doctor must pay millions in damages because he left a surgical instrument inside a patient, other doctors are going to make sure they don’t do the same. Similarly, the jury in the Knoedler trial should signal what is expected from the different parties in art transactions: which red flags should alert galleries to fraud and what investigations should they undertake to safeguard against it?”
How University Museums Are Looking Into The Sciences
“It used to be that university art museums partnered with the French department, and that was considered interdisciplinary. That’s old hat. Now we are looking for new frontiers.”
What Are The Working Conditions You MUST Have To Be Creative?
“Creative individuals suffer, and there are myriad problems to be solved. Unless my observational skills are severely lacking, I don’t know a single individual who would say that living a productive and happy life is easy.”
A Mom Talks About Race In Her Daughters’ Ballet Class
“There are 10 girls in the class. They’re dressed in oversized tutus with sequined trim, baggy pink tights, and pink ballet slippers. Watching my daughters, I take in these small details. But my thoughts are stuck on something else: Eight of the 10 girls, including the teacher, are white. My daughters (ages 3 and 5) are black.”
Everyone – Including You – Is a Conspiracy Theorist About *Something*
“All of us fall prey to the same cognitive biases that are at the root of conspiracy theories. … We seem to be hardwired to suspect that a conspiracy has taken place. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; being mildly paranoid can work in our favor.”
Why It’s So Hard To Tell Whether Artists Are Doing Better Than They Were 15 Years Ago
“It’s tempting to interpret the increase in access that technology has provided to aspiring artists of all kinds as an unqualified boon for society. But to the extent that the opportunity to have a public identity as an artist has translated to expectation of public success as an artist, we may be looking at a system that, in the aggregate, punishes people for pursuing their dreams – a creator’s curse of sorts.”
Spotify Is Finally Ready To Stream Videos
“The Swedish music-streaming service is planning to introduce video content on its Android app starting this week, followed by the iOS app by the end of next week … Spotify had originally announced the plans to begin distributing videos and podcasts in May, with a lineup of traditional and digital content providers that included ESPN, Comedy Central, the BBC, Vice Media and Maker Studios.”
Scientific Analysis Of Great Literature: They Were Written In Fractals!
“Statistical analysis carried out at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences reveal something intriguing. The composition of works from within a particular genre was characterized by the exceptional dynamics of a cascading (avalanche) narrative structure. This type of narrative turns out to be multifractal. That is, fractals of fractals are created.”
The Epic Fail Of Hollywood’s Hottest Algorithm (Along With The Studio Of The Guy Who Touted It)
“Not yet 30 when he founded Relativity Media in 2004, [Ryan Kavanaugh] very quickly became not only a power player in Hollywood but the man who might just save it … having come up with a way to forecast a famously unpredictable business by replacing the vagaries of intuition with the certainties of math.”
Fort Worth Symphony Musicians Reject Contract
“Starting Monday, Fort Worth Symphony members are working under new terms. The contract that musicians turned down, and that management imposed anyway, cuts their wages by eight-and-a-half percent.”
The Collaboration Trap?
Collaboration is everywhere these days. If you don’t collaborate on work, you’re old-fashioned. But a backlash is developing as research finds that workers may produce lower quality work. “Why have organisations been so naive about collaboration? One reason is that collaboration is much easier to measure than ‘deep work’.”
Surreal – Is This Dali Virtual Reality The Future Of Art?
“A virtual-reality experience that throws users into the 1935 painting, “Archeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus,” forms part of a new exhibition into the relationship between Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney.”
In Our New Share-Everything World, Introverted Teachers Are Burning Out
“A few studies suggest that introverted teachers—especially those who may have falsely envisioned teaching as a career involving calm lectures, one-on-one interactions, and grading papers quietly with a cup of tea—are at risk of burning out.”
This Year’s Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition Is Cancelled; Event Will Be ‘Rethought’
The 2016 edition, for singers, is being postponed to 2017, as the organizers take “a period necessary to recast the competition … [a year] to rethink, rebuild, and offer a new form” adapted to new media. The annual event in Paris has awarded prizes to pianists and violinist, in alternating years, since 1943; singers were added to the rotation in 2011. (in French; Google Translate version here)
Ian McKellen Says #OscarsSoStraight
“No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance.” Observing that Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn won best actor Oscars for playing gay men, he added, “What about giving me one for playing a straight man?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.25.16
Hunger For Art: Time To Spread It Around?
It’s no secret that the museums in major cities that grew up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. – generally have great collections, not all of which are ever on view. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-01-25
Keep Dancing!
Last year, the dance company founded by choreographer David Parsons and lighting designer Howell Binkley turned thirty, but it seems eternally young and optimistic. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-01-25
Taylor Mac Preps for 24-Hour Singing Marathon
The term “pop music” is a 20th century invention — it originated in England in the 1950s to describe the rock and roll frenzy that was sweeping the nation. One of the many inspired things about … read more
AJBlog: Lies Like Truth Published 2016-01-25
Monday Recommendation: Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine, Peter Erskine Is Dr. Um (Fuzzy Music) Any marriage depends on how the partners blend. Drummer Peter Erskine helped Weather Report and Steps Ahead to achieve two of the most successful of all efforts to fuse jazz with other elements. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-25
Huge Counterculture Archive Comes to Market
So the Ed Sanders Archive, a massive hoard of literary and countercultural materials, is finally for sale. Steve Clay, the publisher of Granary Books, is the dealer. I have no idea what price is being … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-01-25
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Oxford Dictionaries Calls Women ‘Shrill’ And ‘Grating’ And ‘Rabid’ – And Will Now Review Its Examples
“The dictionary publisher, part of Oxford University Press, was taken to task by the Canadian anthropologist Michael Oman-Reagan, after he noticed that the word ‘rabid’, defined by the dictionary as ‘having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something’, used the example phrase ‘rabid feminist’. Oman-Reagan tweeted about it to the publisher, suggesting they change it.”
Why The Director Of ‘Selma’ Hates The Word ‘Diversity’
“‘There’s a belonging problem in Hollywood,’ Ms. DuVernay said, ‘Who dictates who belongs? The very body who dictates that looks all one way.'”
Over Dinner, Artist Sells Photo Of A Potato For £750,000
“We had two glasses of wine and he [the businessman] said, ‘I really like that.’ Two more glasses of wine and he said: ‘I really want that,'” [artist Kevin] Abosch said.”
Has The Met Museum Finally Figured Out How To Think About Collecting Contemporary Art?
In the transition period before taking over as director, Tom Campbell gave himself a crash course in contemporary art. He slogged through galleries and art fairs and biennials, studied the auction market, talked with artists and dealers and curators, and concluded that “something extraordinary” was happening. “There was such a level of energy and activity, partly because of globalism, partly because of media and publicity… I felt there was a sort of neo-Renaissance that the Met should be part of.”
What Is Frank Gehry Really About?
“From the beginning, he rebelled against the austerity of modernism, its pitiless Euclidean demands and its contempt for decoration. Even the chain-link fencing, in this view, was a gesture at classical embellishment, his version of the blind niches and capitals and other flourishes that make classical buildings interesting to look at, though they serve no structural purpose.”