“He comes from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where his track record includes the surprise success of the Internet Cat Video Festival, which brought 10,000 people together in a field in 2012 and then 11,000 paying customers at the 2013 Minnesota State Fair.”
Guatemala’s Mayans Aren’t at All Sure About the Nation’s Proposed Maya Museum
Concerns include “the exclusion of indigenous voices from the museum, the proposed museum site, and whether the institution would further weaken the public national museum that already exists.”
Where Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Came From, And What the Rest of the World Misunderstands About It
Former prime minister Jigmi Thinley explains how the country’s fourth king came up with the concept, and how it’s defined and measured.
What Happened At The Boston Symphony When JFK Was Assassinated?
“At 2 o’clock on Friday, November 22, 1963, the Boston Symphony Orchestra began a matinee program of Handel and Sydeman. A suite by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was to follow, but instead there was a pause.”
Where Do TV Shows Get Their (Often Mediocre) Art?
“TV art is headed in the right direction, but it’s been flattened. The failure of these fabricated art objects to be neither valid nor completely ridiculous means that most of the comedy comes from outside the art.”
Why Do Biographies Of Writers Make Them Out To Be So…Good?
“What I find odd is that biographers apparently feel a need to depict their subjects as especially admirable human beings, something that in the end makes their lives less rather than more interesting and harder rather than easier to relate to their writing.”
Letting Loose the Clogs of War
A theatre company in northern England works clogging and Morris dancing into most of its productions – from Shakespeare’s history plays (the houses of York and Lancaster did battle with their wooden shoes) to a new script about the First World War.
Crowdfunding Is Great. But Can It Replace Artists’ Day Jobs?
“In our excitement over the creative projects made possible by crowdfunding, we shouldn’t forget that a flourishing creative middle class requires good jobs for arts workers and healthy arts institutions.”
When London Theatre Stopped Being Posh
Tony Robinson recalls when the ’60s counterculture, ’70s identity politics and the closing of the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship office led to the birth of alternative theatre.
Felix Salmon: We Should Be Happy About How The Sharing Of News Is Evolving
“We’re at an excitingly early stage in working out how to best produce and provide news in a social world. There are lots of business models that might work; there are also editorial models that look like they work until they don’t. But if you look at the news business as a whole, rather than at individual companies, it’s almost impossible not to be incredibly optimistic.”
AA Gill Wins “Hatchet Job Of The Year” For Morrissey Book Review
“This is a book that cries out like one of his maudlin ditties to be edited. But were an editor to start, there would be no stopping. It is a heavy tome, utterly devoid of insight, warmth, wisdom or likeability,” writes Gill.
Behind The TV Dance Shows
“In the last decade, dance on TV has become popular, sometimes wildly so. Dancing With the Stars launched in 2004 and is one of Nielsen’s highest-rated primetime programs. So You Think You Can Dance (2005) has had rating ups and downs but its contestants are generally exceptional and it has a strong fan base.”
Alan Ayckbourn: Here’s How Theatre Can Compete With Film
“I think theatre has realised somewhat belatedly that it can no longer provide adequate competition for kids watching videos or computer games. It has to get the liveness back, and that is the only think it trades on.”
Hollywood Should Probably Die (But It Won’t, And Here’s Why)
“Hollywood is the closest thing the business world has to a Roman Empire: a largely self-sustaining, self-contained industry, reigning supreme over most premium content in most media channels. And like Rome, the entertainment business has plenty of enemies who’d love to watch it burn. They probably won’t get their wish.”
TV Networks Find Consumers Just Aren’t In To The “Second Screen” Experience
“It seems that people who use their smartphones while watching their favorite shows are only doing so to distract themselves during commercials — not good for advertisers — though they do often look up websites related to the show.”
Why Hollywood Is More Like The Chinese Empire Than The Roman Empire
And why YouTube and Hulu are more like the Mongols and Manchus than like the Vandals and Visigoths.
Shirley Temple Black, the Child Star Who Wasn’t a Cautionary Tale
Surely the anti-Lindsay Lohan, STB, who has died at age 85, was a creature of Hollywood who survived being the most famous preschooler on the planet to become a well-adjusted, successful, meltdown-free adult. “If she emerged unscarred, it’s not for the film industry’s lack of trying.” How did she do it?
Neuroscientists Figure Out Optical Illusion That Stumped Galileo
“Neuroscientists may have figured out what’s behind a visual trick that puzzled Galileo Galilei and stumped many others for centuries. The answer to this trompe l’oeil also could explain why Mom and Dad always warned that it’s bad to read in dim light.”
So What’s Pina Bausch’s 1980 Actually About?
Lyn Gardner has what’s probably the best answer.
Beyond the Monument Men: How U.S. Museums Protected Their Own Art From the Nazis
It seems unnecessary in hindsight, but in 1942 and ’43, after Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Britain, air attacks on the U.S. mainland seemed like a real danger. Here are the (considerable) steps some art institutions took to protect their holdings.
The Viral Hit Video About a Man Being Treated Like a Female Assault Victim
Director Eléonore Pourriat uploaded her five-year-old short film Oppressed Majority (Majorité Opprimée) to YouTube last week. It’s been viewed 2.3 million times so far.
Frank Almond Speaks About His Stolen-and-Returned Strad
“After asking why everyone in their house was so glum, [his young daughter] said: ‘The violin? Why are we still talking about the violin? That was five days ago.'”
Conductor Daniele Gatti Cancels Two Months of Engagements
Currently the chief conductor of the Zurich Opera House and the Orchestre National de France, and frequently considered a frontrunner for a major post in the U.S., Gatti is suffering from inflamed shoulder tendons.
Noah’s Ark Was a Big Round Basket
That’s what a newly-translated 3,700-year-old cuneiform tablet says. (There are even instructions for building one.)
When Academics Study Comedy
Our correspondent visits the Playing for Laughs symposium at De Montfort University in Leicester (with reference to “the Chuckle Brothers of philosophy, Plato and Hobbes”).