“Perhaps the most radical suggestion we can make about ourselves is not that we are not different. Or even that we are. But that we are both.”
Have We Become Too Sensitive In Public Debate To Have Real Conversations About Ideas?
“After political correctness burst onto the academic scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it went into a long remission. Now it has returned. Some of its expressions have a familiar tint, like the protesting of even mildly controversial speakers on college campuses.”
Why Novelists Turn To The Vividness Of Music
“Perhaps, fearful of losing the attention of their readers, novelists are borrowing the captivating force of music, feeding off its sensuousness in an effort to regain a lost immediacy. The lengthy musical passages in recent novels, including a few loving and climactic concert scenes, seem to strive for music’s Orphic power.”
A Struggle Over The Very Nature Of Science (Seriously)
“There’s a battle going on at the edge of the universe, but it’s getting fought right here on Earth. With roots stretching back as far as the ancient Greeks, in the eyes of champions on either side, this fight is a contest over nothing less than the future of science. It’s a conflict over the biggest cosmic questions humans can ask and the methods we use – or can use – to get answers for those questions.” It’s a conflict over … string theory.
Van Gogh And The Decision That Changed Art History
The decision, believe it or not, was the young Vincent’s insistence on trying to become a preacher, even after flunking out of divinity school.
India’s Only Opera Tenor Wants To Bring The Art Form Home
Anando Mukerjee: “If it is done, if it is packaged right, if it is not diluted, if the artistic integrity of the music is not diluted, and it is given an Indian narrative and an Indian context, then there is no reason to suppose why it can’t work. … You can certainly have something like Carmen which is a great opera set in Spain, being set in India, Rajasthan. So you’re not masalafying it, you’re not chutnifying it, you’re not making it into a kind of fusion experiment. You’re simply contextualizing it to the Indian setting.”
Zaha Hadid Settles Defamation Lawsuit Against NY Review Of Books
“After a five-month legal battle, [the] London-based architect … has withdrawn a lawsuit regarding defamatory comments made about her attitude to migrant workers and her Qatar World Cup stadium project … and has donated the settlement money to an undisclosed charity that ‘protects and champions labour rights’.”
Kinda Creepy? New Machines That Control Your Hand As It Draws
“Teacher, for example, is a machine that coaches you to draw by forcing your hand to perform certain motions. The thinking goes, repeat the task enough times and eventually your hand will remember how to do it on its own.”
Battle For The Soul Of Children’s Cartoons (It Ain’t Pretty)
“Branded toys routinely make more money than the films and cartoons on which they are based—sometimes a lot more—so it’s logical in a way that yes, children’s television shows and movies are basically long, elaborate toy commercials.”
The Meaning Of Art – Is Writing A Job Or…
“There is something dreary about wanting writing to be a real job. The sense of inner purpose, so often unmentionable in a society enamored of professionalization, distinguishes a writer from a hack.”
Greece And Spain’s Economies Are Basket Cases, Yet Their Opera Companies Are Flourishing. Here’s Why
“Those countries have been stuck in a six-year depression, with unemployment rates of around 25 per cent. Yet their principal opera companies have somehow come through the valley of austerity with no debt, full and lively artistic programs, and higher standing in their communities. They have done far better, in fact, than some companies in wealthier European states.”
Are We Exiting The Era Of Big Stage Musicals?
“I think we are in a slight time of shift, in that the sung through musical perhaps is now receding, and the book musical is starting to come back. It’s delicate…you have to have a theme which engages as much as you need glorious music.”
We’re Losing Our Working Class Actors. And Here’s What We’re Really Losing
“The important thing is: what do we do about that? Because otherwise we lose all these interesting characters like Richard Burton and Richard Harris, and playwrights like John Osborne who were writing working-class stories. What happens to that? Does that just go? Or do we go back to the 30s when you had incredibly posh people trying to do cockney accents?”
King Tut’s Beard Disaster: Conservation Chief Demoted To The Royal Stables
“Last week, her duties included the conservation of one of the world’s most important collection of artefacts, including Tutankhamun’s fabled death mask and jewellery, as well as hundreds of ancient mummies, tombs and statues. From now on her role will be limited to overseeing the contents of Egypt’s royal stables.”
Doomed Orchestra Has Actually Saved Itself With Crowdfunding
The Danish National Chamber Orchestra was disbanded at New Year’s, after “this 75-year-old ensemble’s state funding was cancelled at ludicrously short notice … Through a Kickstarter campaign to raise 3m Danish kroner (£300,000), the orchestra received more than a third of that money from supporters, and have now had pledges for the rest of the balance from the Danish business community.”
How To Enjoy Modern Music: A 14-Point Guide For The Perplexed By An Artist
Curt Barnes’s suggestions include “Remember when you hated what you now love”, “Music is not necessarily for your entertainment”, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”, and “Don’t trust the program notes” (even if the composer wrote them).
Helen Macdonald’s “H Is For Hawk” Wins Costa Book Prize (And £30,000)
“[The memoir] tells of how the Cambridge historian, illustrator and naturalist was so overcome by grief after the death of her father that she went almost mad and decided to train the most untameable of raptors, the goshawk.”
Male-Female Inequality Is Still A “Dangerous Subject” In The Arts, Says London’s Top Arts Exec
Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre: “I think cultural spaces are the places to talk about dangerous subjects, and gender equality is still a dangerous subject, and it’s just as relevant in the arts as anywhere else.”
Why Scientology Appeals to Aspiring Actors
Lawrence Wright, author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, and Alex Gibney, director of the book’s film adaptation, explain. (video)
This Opera Company Just Got A Regular Gig At Versailles
“Opera Atelier is already the busiest touring opera company in North America, but its 30th season will enhance that reputation even further. Already a regular guest at the Opera Royal at the Palace of Versailles in France, the Toronto company will now make it official, appearing at Versailles every other season.”
How “Hedwig” Transformed My Life
“In Hedwig’s story, I found a message of resilience and self-expression. Keep going, the film screamed at me. Let your freak flag fly, no matter how much shit people throw at you. This experience was shared by millions of queer and trans kids around the world, for whom the movie and stage show became a kind of modern Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.27.15
Who bears the burden of auction house fees, buyers or sellers?
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2015-01-27
Glenn Lowry as AAMD’s Improbable Expert on “Public Trust”
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-01-27
Nick Travis
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-01-27
Bronson or Louisa? The Alcotts Question
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2015-01-27
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Smithsonian Considers Opening A London Outpost
“The institution announced today that it is considering opening an exhibition space in east London’s planned cultural quarter in Olympic Park. The 40,000-sq.-foot gallery would feature rotating and permanent exhibitions drawn from across the Smithsonian’s collection of 138 million objects, which range from Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz to the space shuttle Discovery.”
The Comcast/Time Warner Mega-Merger Once Seemed Inevitable. Now It Isn’t
“The landscape has changed dramatically since the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal was announced last February.”