“Not content with having just one pavilion on its Kensington Gardens lawn this summer, [the Serpentine Gallery] has commissioned four more architects … who range in age from 36 to 93 … to design a series of summer houses to go with it.”
How Do We Trace Influence In Music?
“As listeners, what are we attached to? At what point in life have we made up our musical minds? Do we have to eat our musical vegetables to grow strong? Listen to Bach, Blind Willie, Carnatic music?”
Reading Is Back. Yay! But Let’s Not Put Down Complicated Critiques Replaced By New Enthusiasm
That reading is now a social activity again… might seem cause for optimism. Yet D.J. Taylor regrets the passing of critical arbitration in matters of taste, and is at his most curmudgeonly when describing the “enthusiastic online amateur who protests his inability to ‘relate’ to the central character of the novel under discussion and imagines this to be the fault of the book”.
Theatre Converts Its Season To Pay-As-You-Want And Sees 50% Increase In Audience
A spokeswoman for the theatre said the production had made about the same amount of money as would normally be generated by a show such as this, but had double the audience. Bookings for other shows in the season have also “spiked”.
‘Image Overload’ – It’s A Thing, And With Real Consequences
“As we snap, store and communicate with thousands of images on our phones and computers, a number of researchers and theorists are already beginning to point to some of the unintended consequences of this ‘image overload,’ which range from heightened anxiety to memory impairment.”
Boston Classical Orchestra To Close (New Orchestra Rises)
“Small ensembles like BCO face an uphill battle in Boston’s crowded musical ecosystem, especially as institutional funding falls far beneath the levels present in other cities. Still, as Boston loses one ensemble, it will be gaining another.”
Do Critics (Should They) Have Power? (Or Is It Illusion?)
“Criticism is not a matter of technique or form,” AO Scott writes, “so much as it is a matter of personality, of who you imagine is doing the talking.” But equally important is on whose behalf the talking is being done. Blog or trade? Alt-weekly or the paper of record? It matters a great deal.
Salonen, Hannigan, Uchida – Ojai Music Festival Names Directors Through 2021
“The coming directors include Vijay Iyer, the jazz pianist and composer, in 2017, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the composer and conductor, in 2018 … [as well as] Barbara Hannigan, the soprano and conductor whose star has been rising because of her performances of new works, in 2019; Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the searching violinist, in 2020; and, in 2021, Mitsuko Uchida, the pianist and conductor who was last a co-music director of the festival in 1998.”
Jazz Is About To Have A Moment In The Movies
Jazz on film has an erratic history, starting in 1927 with the first sound motion picture, The Jazz Singer.
How Realistic Is It To Think You Can Make A Living As A Mid-Career Artist?
The chances that you’ll make any money making art are so few and far between that it is like, “Why give everyone false hope?” The main thing I try to encourage is that if you want to be an artist, don’t be realistic.
Mario Vargas Llosa Wins Dominican Literary Prize, And Dominicans Are Angry
Why? “In a 2013 article published in the Spanish newspaper El País, Vargas Llosa called the ruling by the Dominican constitutional court that stripped many ethnic Haitians of their Dominican nationality a ‘legal aberration’ inspired by Hitler-era legal sentences that denied Jews German citizenship.”
How The Smithsonian Is Using Crowdsourcing To Transcribe History
“Launched in 2013, the project invites anyone with access to a computer to choose from a buffet of documents supplied by 14 of the Smithsonian’s libraries, archives and museums. Volunteers participate anonymously or create profiles, and each project comes with specific instructions. Participants read scanned pages and type their transcriptions into a field below.”
Knoedler Gallery Art Fraud Case Settled For $8.3 Million
This brought an anticlimactic end to a trial in Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan that has lasted nearly three weeks and included dramatic testimony from a string of art experts, former Knoedler employees, and the De Soles themselves.
The Bitter Fight Over The Benefits Of Bilingualism
It’s been the general scientific consensus for several decades that bilingual people have stronger cognitive abilities, especially in executive function. But lately there have been attempts to replicate some of the classic studies in the field – with entirely different results. And the argument (like so many in academia) is getting ugly.
Peter Gabriel: Here’s The Point Of Music
The philosopher Hegel argued that music is so necessary because it rehearses in the language of the body concepts and truths we are in danger of losing touch with when they reach us only through our rational faculties. Music is, he said, “the sensuous presentation of the crucial ideas”.
‘I Am A Radicalised Goat Hell-Bent On Jihad’ – The FBI’s New Anti-ISIS Video Game
“The game, entitled Slippery Slope, is supposed to educate impressionable kids on ‘the distorted logic of blame that can lead a person into violent extremism’, but it’ also indicative of how clueless governments can be when it comes to reaching out to the kids.” (Another failure of the nanny state.)
The Syrian Archaeologist Who Struggles On Through The Chaos
“As the fifth anniversary of the Syrian civil war approaches, Cheikhmous Ali continues to document the destruction and looting of the country’s heritage from France and Turkey, with the help of a network of volunteers on the ground.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.10.16
Wroth About Rothko: “Order & Joint Stipulation of Dismissal” in De Sole Case vs. Freedman & Knoedler
When a litigant perceives, during the course of a trial, that there’s a good chance he’ll lose his case, there is an impetus to settle. With many expert witnesses having denied authenticating the disputed Rothko … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-10
Alwin Nikolais’ Works Revived
The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company performs at the Joyce Theater through February 14. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-10
Engagement Is a Means, Not an End
So much interesting stuff has been written recently about engagement and related topics, I barely know where to begin. The Irvine Foundation has published a series of mini-essays responding questions about engagement. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-02-09
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The Scientist Who Liberated (Stole?) The World’s Research Papers For The Greater Good
Before September 2011, there was no way for people to freely access paywalled research en masse; researchers like Elbakyan were out in the cold. Sci-Hub is the first website to offer this service and now makes the process as simple as the click of a single button.
Lisa Lucas Will Be National Book Foundation’s New Head
Lucas, 36, was previously the publisher of Guernica, an arts magazine with an international and often political focus. Before that, she had worked at other nonprofit cultural institutions, including the Tribeca Film Festival and the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.
Tulsa Opera Hires Back CEO Seven Months After He Left
Gregory Weber was first hired as the company’s general manager in the fall of 2014; he left the following June for an executive job at Michigan State University’s arts center. Now Oklahoma has lured him back with a newly created position, general director and CEO.
Midgette: How Touring Puts Orchestras On The Map – Even With A Lame-Duck Leader
“Tours … are morale-boosters for an orchestra, building a sense of solidarity … and bringing the group in front of new audiences – something more important than ever, since there are fewer opportunities for an orchestra to be heard in today’s uneven recording landscape. … They’re also hugely expensive – and more popular than ever.”
Cecilia Bartoli And Songwriter Max Martin Win Polar Music Prize
“Martin … first rose to prominence in the mid-nineties writing a string of hits for [Britney] Spears, Backstreet Boys and [Justin] Timberlake. … Bartoli, from Rome, Italy, is best known for her interpretations of the music of Mozart and Rossini, and has seen her solo releases achieve enormous success.” Each receives a cash award of 1 million Swedish kronor (currently $118.000).