A scholar of the history of Christianity writes about “New Thought” – developed by a Maine clockmaker whose most famous student was Mary Baker Eddy (who, of course, went off in her own direction) – and how it led to the uniquely American “prosperity gospel” (which dates back to 1925) and Norman Vincent Peale, who led the church attended by the Trump family.
Oscar Season = Piracy Season
“Screeners are usually identifiable by an intermittent on-screen message reminding viewers the film is not to be copied or shared, and they also usually contain watermarks as a security measure against piracy. But every year they do get leaked online, and 2017 has been no exception, despite earlier reports that fewer leaks were happening this time around.”
Preserving Palmyra On The Web, With Centuries-Old Images
With ISIS having retaken the ancient Roman city in Syria and destroyed yet more of its historical sites, the Getty has created an online archive with the oldest-known photos of Palmyra (from 1864) and drawings and etchings made in the mid- and late 1700s.
Verona Fires Its Entire Ballet Company
The hugely popular opera festival at the Arena di Verona is, like almost all Italian opera houses, in deep financial trouble: it nearly went into liquidation last spring, until Rome sent a turnaround specialist to the rescue. Last week, as a cost-cutting measure, the 19 dancers of the festival’s ballet company were laid off – despite the fact that their shows regularly sell out. (in Italian; Google Translate version here)
Crisis In Bordeaux: Ballet’s Director Is Suspended And Dancers Fight Job Cuts
With a sharp, if veiled, rebuke – “the Opéra has been working for several months to define a new balance between reduced resources and ambitious artistic activity … [an effort] which assumes commitment, trust, and close collaboration” – the board president of the Opéra national de Bordeaux has suspended Charles Jude, the house’s director of ballet. The action follows months of dispute over how to allocate dwindling state funding and whether or not to fill vacant positions in the corps de ballet. (in French; Google Translate version here)
The Russian Library That Costs £100 A Visit
“To enjoy the library’s collection and atmosphere, you have to pay a ticket of just under £100 for a four-hour reading session – a markedly different experience to the free access readers can enjoy in Russia’s public libraries.”
Outstanding Clarinetist Gervase de Peyer, 89
He went on to become the outstanding player of his generation, developing a warm, flexible sound that made extensive use of vibrato, particularly in the lower register, and inspired many new compositions.
Journalists Are Beginning To Use Bots To Write The News
When Facebook fired the human editors of its Trending module last year and let an algorithm curate the news, the world soon learned (falsely) that Megyn Kelly had been fired from Fox News. “Will there be controversy when the bot thinks this is important, and humans say this is important, and they’re the exact opposite thing? It’s going to get interesting.”
How Wikipedia Is Enlisting An Army To Fight Fake News
“Wikipedia’s role in beating back the post-truth age doesn’t rest with blacklisting certain sources as perpetually unreliable (as the website did with the Daily Mail) or preventing congressional staffers from meddling with their boss’ bios. An elder statesman of the content ecosystem in Internet years, Wikipedia has been combating misinformation by thoughtfully and purposefully iterating on strict guidelines of verifiability that Wikipedians (active editors in the Wikipedia community) both refine and enforce information transparently in open channels.”
New York City Proposes A New Cultural Plan. Commence Debate…
“The fight continues to be not only about housing and arts and culture, but about what kind of city New York will be. The question I pose is: Can we have both the people and the price of land be part of how this city is defined? How this plan plays out may give us part of the answer.”
Everything Was Supposed To Go Digital. But There’s A Growing Backlash In Favor Of Analog
“While Spotify, Netflix and the Kindle fulfil part of that prediction, these and other digital services didn’t run the analogue, tangible objects out of town. On the contrary, the digital age has created a new market for the things we thought we’d consigned to sheds, attics and secondhand markets.”
Immersive Virtual Reality In The Classroom
“Emerging evidence suggests that one of VR’s biggest strengths is its ability to tap student emotions, notably empathy and the can-do confidence known as self-efficacy.” Teachers are using the technology to put students in the shoes of Syrian refugees and police in Flint, Michigan.
Composer John Wykoff: How Music Can Persuade
“I suggest that composers give up using their music to change people’s minds. (When I say “minds,” I really mean people’s beliefs, opinions, and convictions.) I do not, please notice, suggest that anyone stop trying to change minds altogether, only that they stop using music to do it. Argument, not art, is the best tool for proving opinions. Music is poorly suited for that. But music is very well suited, or least it can be, for helping people to change their habits, especially habits of thinking and perceiving.”
I Directed The Nairobi Premiere Of ‘Grease’ At Age 15
Fast-rising Off-Broadway director Saheem Ali writes about how he saw his first show ever on a trip to London and came home to Nairobi obsessed – and came home to the Kenyan capital and cast, designed, directed, choreographed, and starred in his own “very makeshift, highly illegal, passion-fueled” production of it.
Only Known Film Footage Of Marcel Proust Surfaces
A Canadian professor discovered the clip – 77 seconds from the wedding of two of the author’s friends – in France’s national film archives. (includes video)
Guggenheim Lures Its Old Chief Curator Back With A New Title: Artistic Director
“Brooklyn taketh, but sometimes Brooklyn giveth back.” Last spring, Nancy Spector left the Guggenheim’s Manhattan flagship to become chief curator at the Brooklyn Museum. Now the Guggenheim’s director has created a new position just for her.
What Happens When You Turn The Guggenheim’s Rotunda Over To Michelle Dorrance? This.
“It came as something of a shock, one night in January, when people high on the corkscrew ramp of the Guggenheim Museum’s spiral rotunda started beating on the balustrade with sticks.” (includes video)
Now Open: The World’s Most Expensive Library
Is this in Saudi Arabia or Dubai? No, it’s in Russia – in a new Gothic-style building in St. Petersburg erected and operated by the publishing house Alfaret. A four-hour visit costs 7,000 rubles, just over $120.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.15.17
Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End? In his essay looking back on Lincoln Center on its 50th birthday, Joe Horowitz suggests that the cultural citadel built optimistically to be a launching pad for the American performing arts, might have turned out … read more
AJBlog: diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published 2017-02-16
Is artistic leadership at America’s arts institutions lacking? Is this at the root of declining relevancy? Joe Horowitz has written a stirring essay on the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, and New York Philharmonic on the … read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2017-02-15
Lincoln Center 50 Years On – An Experiment In American Dance? Reading Joseph Horowitz’s essay, “Bing, Bernstein, Balanchine,” and then re-reading the passages that apply to ballet at Lincoln Center, I’m suddenly thrown back to the 1960s and a different view of tradition and innovation. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-02-15
Uh-Oh: Trouble at the Brooklyn Museum?
I’m not sure, but I just received an email announcing that Nancy Spector, who had joined the Brooklyn Museum just last April as Deputy Director and Chief Curator, is moving back to the Guggenheim Museum … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-02-15
All Sides Speak Out In The Disavowed Chinese Anselm Kiefer Show
Keefer: Throughout my career I have been heavily involved in all my major international exhibitions and it is a matter of deep regret and frustration that the organizers of my first show in China have seen fit to exclude me from this process.” Now the curator and newly appointed president of the German committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Beate Reifenscheid, who has always defended the project, is claiming that the galleries involved didn’t want the exhibition to go ahead as they wanted control over Kiefer’s work in the Asian market.