“Audiences really do like to be told a definite story in a compelling way. It has to have captivating characters, an exciting challenge for them to solve, and a solution that’s worthy of the time we’ve taken to watch it.”
The 11 Most Shocking Things About New York, According To Robert Caro
“I started to realize, I was doing political reporting, and I came to realize almost by accident that this guy Robert Moses had so much power. He wanted to build this bridge across Long Island Sound, and Newsday had me look into it.”
A Tactile Tour Of Noguchi’s Sets For Martha Graham
“From a distance, the glyph-like pedestals of Night Journey appear like granite, but up close you can feel their hollow wooden bodies. The bony edges of the bed are sinewy and rugged.”
Academy Sues Company Dishing Out Oscars Gift Bags (You Should See What’s In Them)
“See any stories of late about expensive swag that attendees to the upcoming Academy Awards are getting? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences certainly has – and it’s not pleased. The social media hashtag that has prompted a lawsuit this award season is not #OscarsSoWhite. Rather, it’s #OscarGiftBag.”
Putin Listens To Activists, Chews Out His Culture Ministry For The State Of Russia’s Monuments
“At a meeting of his presidential council for culture and art in December, the Russian president … chastised officials about the state of the country’s rich architectural heritage and listened to the impassioned activists who have been fighting to save Russia’s monuments,” some of which have been vandalized or demolished illegally.
Antonin Scalia, Defender Of The Arts
As he wrote in one famous opinion, “Reading Dante is unquestionably more cultured and intellectually edifying than playing Mortal Kombat. But these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones.”
London Arts Unions Alarm: Crisis Talks Over English National Opera
Trade bodies BECTU, Equity and the Musicians’ Union are planning a joint crisis meeting to save English National Opera from becoming a “part-time company”.
LACMA Just Acquired An Important Piece Of Los Angeles Architecture
“For the most part, the important local examples of modern residential architecture that have been preserved as house museums, such as the Eames House in the Pacific Palisades or the Schindler House on Kings Road in West Hollywood, are fixed and unchanging examples of a particular design era. Goldstein’s house is something different, an example of the modern residence in flux.”
Kenneth Turan: Inside The Roiling Firestorm Around Hollywood Diversity
Stirred into almost immediate action by all the hullabaloo, the Oscar folks upended their old established order. “The academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” Boone Isaacs memorably said. But once the academy revealed its strong new rules, it both quieted the uproar and created a backlash of its own.
All The Things It Takes To Get A Broadway Show To Opening Night
“On one recent Tuesday, we spent an hour each with a dozen upcoming Broadway shows as they worked under looming deadlines.” From finding an actor who can embody Steve Jobs to singing and dancing American Psycho, “here’s how the steps and stories, the stitches and salesmanship come together.”
Scientists Suggest Machines Could Learn Human Values By Reading Books
“Another way of saying this is that the stories are surrogate memories for an AI that cannot ‘grow up’ immersed in a society the way people are and must quickly immerse itself in a society by reading about [it].”
The Rise Of The Platonic Rom-Com
“Broad City does more than simply portray – more even than simply celebrate – its central friendship. It is instead taking a cue from a culture in which Tina Fey and Amy Poehler joke (and also totally don’t joke) about their status as ‘life partners.’ … What that amounts to is a culture that is not only recognizing the primacy of friendship, but trying to carve a space for it.”
Russia’s Top Art Prize Canceled After Dissident Artist Is Nominated
Director Mikhail Mindlin has released a statement explaining that Pyotr Pavlensky’s nomination has been rejected as it involved “breaches of the law and caused material damage.” He added that nominating this performance “to a competition which is held by a state organisation and under the aegis and with the support of the culture ministry seems impermissible to us.”
Arizona Gets A New Conductor
Jose Luis Gomez will be the new music director of the Tucson Symphony. He “has been an in-demand guest conductor around the world following his 2010 first-place award at the prestigious International Conductors’ Competition Sir Georg Solti in Germany.”
Andrzej Żuławski, ‘Poland’s Answer To David Cronenberg,’ Dead At 75
“‘The vision of the world portrayed in his films has been described as tragic, shocking and hysterical,’ with ‘explosions of violence, sexuality, and despair’; his methods yielded from actresses including Romy Schneider, Isabelle Adjani and Sophie Marceau some of the best performances of their careers.”
Actor George Gaynes, 98
“With his baritone voice, chiseled good looks and versatility as a character actor and singer, Mr. Gaynes appeared in hundreds of episodes of sitcoms and dramas on television” – most famously, Punky Brewster – “35 Hollywood and made-for-TV films [including Tootsie and the Police Academy franchise], and many plays, musical comedies and operas.”
Angry Prado Explains Why It’s Yanking Two No-Longer-Bosches From Big Bosch 500 Show
“The [Bosch Project’s] (at the very least) unprofessional manner of proceeding when offering its conclusions … not only contravenes the contractual conditions of the loan but also suggests that the Museo del Prado accepts and authorizes the proposed attributions.”
Performance Artist Who Nailed Scrotum To Red Square Dropped From Russia’s Top Art Prize
Pyotr Pavlensky wasn’t nominated for that particular piece, his most notorious. He was in the running for the Innovation Prize for last November’s Threat: Lubyanka’s Burning Door, in which he did exactly that to the headquarters of the FSB (the successor to the KGB). (The Innovation Prize is government-sponsored.)
The Weird Plagiarism Lawsuit Between Two Giants Of Young Adult Fantasy
“At issue, to the puzzlement of many observers, isn’t word-for-word plagiarism, but what looks like [Sherrilyn] Kenyon’s attempt to claim ownership of some of the most archetypal themes in popular culture… And egging Kenyon on is a legion of implacable Cassandra Clare detractors who have had it in for the YA phenom since her apprenticeship years in the notoriously toxic subculture of Harry Potter fandom.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.17.16
Aesthetic attention
Arts organizations are in the business of aesthetic experience. I hope this isn’t a radical statement, but an obvious point. Whether the organization is fostering work by artists, connecting that work to audiences, or preserving … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-02-17
Black History Week (2) — Black Classical Musicians in Philadelphia
Here’s an indispensable book — Black Classical Musicians in Philadelphia: Oral Histories Covering Four Generations, by Elaine Mack. It brings to life what once was a thriving community of classical musicians in the Philadelphia black … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-02-17
The Met’s New Logo
It’s a disaster, as I predicted here last June in “The Met’s Coming Rebranding: A Puzzlement.” In fact, it’s worst than I had heard. Justin Davidson posted this image on New York magazine’s Vulture site… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-02-17
Buried Child Surfaces in New Revival
Sam Shepard recently referred to Buried Child as “the same clunky play” it always was, rewrites notwithstanding. That’s Shepard being candid. That’s Shepard being Shepard. Never mind that awkward dramaturgy and a little too much… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-02-17
Vigée Le Brun: Flattery Got Her Everywhere, Including the Met (with video)
At about the halfway point in the 80-work Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum (to May 15), I ran into the museum’s new president, Daniel Weiss, who asked me the dreaded … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-17
Portland Bound
Shortly, I am going to head south, turn right, drive west through the Columbia River Gorge – shown above – and spend the next few days in one of my favorite former hometowns at the Portland Jazz Festival … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-17
Fire and Ice Mate – Can That End Well?
The Kathryn Posin Dance Company performs at 92Y. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-17
Nelson Algren’s Walk Through Appalachia
I have always loved the way A Walk on the Wild Side begins. Show me a more perceptive opening of an American novel with its historical tracing of an Appalachian clan … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-02-17
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Is The Metropolitan Museum’s New Logo A Train Wreck?
“In its logo, the Met is now THE MET, the two short words printed in scarlet letters, stacked and squashed together. The whole ensemble looks like a red double-decker bus that has stopped short, shoving the passengers into each other’s backs. Worse, the entire top half of the new logo consists of the word the.”
Big Dip In Grammy Awards Viewership, Continuing A Decline
“Of the 24.95 million viewers who watched, 9.7 million were aged 18-49 – advertisers’ most sought-after audience age-group – said broadcaster CBS. But the overall audience dipped from last year’s 25.3 million viewers, which was the smallest TV audience since 2009’s 19.1 million.”
New York City Revamps Its Landmarks Preservation Policy (Let The Debate Begin)
“Designating Stonewall a landmark last year was a no-brainer and a declaration of civic pride. But it also showed how, absent additional regulations, the city’s landmark law had become a catchall.”
‘He’s The Frilled Lizard Of Politics’ – Why Donald Trump Is A Conundrum For Comedians
“Mr. Trump is now a serious candidate – often a self-serious, angry one – with a serious chance. But stylistically, he works in the mode and rhythms of a stand-up. He riffs. He goads. He works blue. … Satire exposes candidates’ contradictions and absurdities. But Mr. Trump blows past those, while his supporters cheer.”
These Aren’t Really Bosches? Then Send Them Back, We Cancel Our Loan, Says Prado
“The Prado museum in Madrid has rescinded the loan of two works to a major retrospective of Hieronymus Bosch [in the painter’s hometown] after researchers downgraded the attribution of the paintings to Bosch’s workshop or followers rather than to the 16th-century Dutch master himself.”