“Objects found in a burial mound at Netheravon, Wiltshire, include a bronze saw, an archer’s wrist guard, a copper chisel and cremated human remains.” (includes video)
‘English Theatre Is Dead,’ Says Playwright Edward Bond
“I think it serves no useful social, creative function. So I work mainly abroad. … What has happened to English theatre, English society, is it has become infantile. It is not dumbing down, it is actually becoming infantile. You turn on the television and it is infantile. You are patronised as if you are a little child.”
Authors Guild Appeals Google Books Ruling To US Supreme Court
“In 2013, US circuit judge Denny Chin dismissed an authors’ lawsuit against Google, saying its scanning of the books, and the ‘snippets’ of text it makes available to users, constituted fair use,” and in 2015, an appeals court agreed. “The American writers’ body is now asking the supreme court to hear its case, with a group of writers, publishers and copyright organisations backing its petition.”
Onward And Upward In The Arts: Ted Cruz’s Choice As His National Security Advisor? An Art Historian, Of Course
“Who is behind this rise from art historian at the Cleveland Museum of Art to being the National Security Advisor to one of the presidential front-runners for the Republican Party? It appears to have begun with Donald Rumsfeld.”
Scientists Have Figured Out Exactly Where Music Works On The Brain
“By mathematically analyzing scans of the auditory cortex and grouping clusters of brain cells with similar activation patterns, the scientists have identified neural pathways that react almost exclusively to the sound of music — any music.”
Long Island Philharmonic Shuts Down, Effective Immediately
“The Island’s longest continuously operated performing arts institution … suspended its subscription concert season more than five years ago due to financial shortfalls. It shut down after a failure to reach an agreement to renegotiate terms of a loan that would allow the Philharmonic to continue paying its freelance musicians and skeleton staff.”
In A Politically Polarizing Time, What Should Be The Role Of Artists?
“We’re all aware by this point that political polarization is a persistent issue to a forehead-slapping degree, but we feel it in the arts, too. I recently taught a playwriting class to teenagers, and found that many of their plays were written from the extreme right and left perspectives.”
Christopher Wheeldon: How I Fell For Madame X
The choreographer explains his inspiration for his new ballet Strapless, about a young New Orleans woman who became a sort of Belle Epoque Paris supermodel – until she was ruined by a scandalous portrait painted by John Singer Sargent.
What Is The Self? It Depends
“We have different conceptions of the self the world over not because selves differ, but because at different times and places people have more or less concern with different aspects of selfhood. They provide different answers to the question ‘What is the self?’ because that apparently singular question in fact contains any number of different ones.”
Neurothrillers! Horror Movies Really Are Scarier Than They Used To Be
“Consciously or unconsciously, contemporary filmmakers not only tap into increased knowledge about the brain offered by neuroscientific experiments, but their films also stimulate the neural senses of emotions without the detour of narrative.”
Neuromancer: Why Today’s Horror Movies Are Scarier
“Today, Hitchcock’s fantasy of direct access to the brain is a reality in neurological operations such as deep-brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Experiments using the same technology aim to cure depression by stimulating more joyful emotional circuits. In turn, Hitchcock’s films are used by neuroscientists to study emotions in the brain.”
Is It Possible To Teach Students Passion For Reading?
“Those students most in need of great books are by and large too strafed by their environments to invest the necessary force of mind.”
You Could Buy Michelangelo’s Villa
“The deeds to Michelangelo’s old Tuscan villa, a three-structure complex complete with Renaissance-age fixtures, functional wood-burning fireplaces, and an olive grove, could be yours for just $8,369,602.” (includes photos and floor plans)
The Play That Samuel French Tried To Stop An Hour Before Curtain? Here’s What Happened Next
The show went on – with some ingenious last-minute adjustments by the show’s creator/performer, Erin Pike. For instance, the performance started with the voicemail message a Samuel French executive left Pike saying that the performance was “illegal” and the agency would “go after [their] presenter.” (includes audio of voicemail message)
Philly’s Fledgling Summer Opera Festival Still Hasn’t Paid Last Year’s Performers
“About the only ones who don’t want to be quoted [for this story] are those suing the company who have been advised by legal counsel to stay quiet.”
Will Streaming Music Kill Songwriting?
“If streaming is the future of music, songwriters may soon be back to where they started. Stephen Foster, America’s first professional songwriter, was also the first to die broke.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.08.16
Squawking in Milwaukee: My Upcoming WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum
For my article on the “Arts in Review” page of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, (online later today, if all goes according to plan), I had the challenging task of reviewing an entire museum in 900 words. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-08
Monday Recommendation: Thad Jones/Mel Lewis
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, All My Yesterdays (Resonance) This is an alert to an event—a recording documenting the birth of an ensemble that electrified listeners and set a new standard for big band jazz. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-08
Dancing a Fairytale, Its Joys and Tribulations
The New York City Ballet premieres Justin Peck’s new ballet and offers works by Thatcher, Binet, Schumacher, and Wheeldon. Justin Peck’s The Most Incredible Thing. Sterling Hyltin and Taylor Stanley dance in front of the… … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-06
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The FCC Is About To Give You (Physical) Control Over Your Cable Box
“Even as computers, wireless phones and other electronic devices have become cheaper, the cost of renting cable boxes has been increasing. That’s because cable companies have made it incredibly hard for customers to buy and use their own machines.”
The Second Act Of Pamela Anderson
“Pamela became a celebrity in a different age. … Her heirs to the throne of tabloid notoriety have no such luxury, nor do they desire it. The celebs created by Instagram and YouTube became famous to be seen; what’s the point of privacy? Now that every would-be Kardashian can send out a constant, direct-to-consumer stream of staged intimacy and selfies, access—the longtime currency of fame—has been upended. Pamela, whose image was ubiquitous before ubiquity could be juiced with retweets, is left in the strange position of having to renegotiate the nature of her own public image.”
The English National Opera’s Chorus Is Voting On A Strike
“‘We do feel the proposals put forward to us, although probably well meant, actually are going to destroy English National Opera once and for all,’ she said. The announcement of the ballot was made in appropriately dramatic fashion with the chorus singing Hail Poetry from The Pirates of Penzance at a press conference in central London.”
Settlement Reached In Fake Rothko Case, But Gallery Still In Court
“The case against Ms. Freedman, whose testimony had long been anticipated, is expected to be dismissed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday, said Luke Nikas, a lawyer for Ms. Freedman. But the case against Knoedler, now entering its third week, would continue.”
How A Discreet Art Shipper Quietly Became A Wealthy Dealer – And Got Sued By His Russian Oligarch Client
Says Yves Bouvier: “If I buy for two and I can sell for eleven, I will sell for eleven.” (That’s not counting the commission.) “I think in [my client’s] head the problem was not that Bouvier made money – it was that he made too much money.”