As the series reboot approaches, cast and crew talk about David Lynch’s unconventional working methods, the odd casting decisions that resulted (the guy who played Bob was the set dresser), and their delighted astonishment when the show became a hit. They also explain why the show took such a bad turn after Laura Palmer’s killer was revealed.
Hirshhorn Museum’s Membership Is Up 2,000% Because Of Yayoi Kusama Show
That’s not a misprint. And it’s the result of what started as crowd control.
Interesting? How Meaningless Is That?
“Calling something interesting is the height of sloppy thinking. Interesting is not descriptive, not objective, and not even meaningful. Interesting is a kind of linguistic connective tissue.”
Long Shots: Losing ‘For Your Consideration’ Nomination Campaigns And The People Who Run Them
Cara Buckley, the Times‘ Carpetbagger: “Chatting with a half-dozen or so Oscar campaigners, the Bagger learned that the reasons long-shot movies and performers are foisted into the awards fray are almost as numerous as the prizes Hollywood doles out to itself each year (though, she dares to say, publicists’ justifying their paychecks surely plays a part).”
Publisher Shuts Down Magazine In Istanbul Over Cartoon Of Moses
“After the office of President Erdoğan condemned the cartoon, the publisher of Gırgır closed the magazine and threatened to file criminal complaints against staffers.”
London Gallery Neo-Nazi Art And Hosts White Supremacist Speakers; Activists Demand That Gallery Be Shut Down
“This weekend, artists and campaigners will protest calling for the closure of LD50, in Dalston, east London, after accusations the gallery gave a platform to anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and ‘alt-right’ figures and promoted ‘hate speech not free speech’.”
Forgotten 165-Year-Old Walt Whitman Novel Is Published
“Previously, the text had only been published anonymously in a six-part series in a New York City newspaper in 1852. But last summer the novel was rediscovered by a graduate student deep within the Library of Congress. This is the second Whitman novel that the literary scholar Zachary Turpin has unearthed.”
The Coachella Of Visual Art – Can You “Festivalize” Visual Art?
“The only thing we know is that this is the first iteration of a recurring show,” Wakefield says of Desert X. “Maybe it’s every three years, maybe there’s one next year, who knows? This is about surprises.”
Am I The Apple? More Talk About The Nature Of Consciousness
Tim Parks: “How is it that we experience the world? How is it possible that the environment we live in, the objects we use and see, touch and taste, hear and smell, are both patently out there and simultaneously, it seems, in our heads? After four long conversations, … Riccardo Manzotti and I are no nearer to establishing what consciousness is or where it resides. Today, then, we have set ourselves a simple task: to review all the ways philosophers have supposed a subject might relate to and become conscious of an object.”
The Universe Is Unimaginably Huge. That Makes Writing About It Difficult
“The wonders of the Universe are under no obligation to make it easy for science-fiction writers to tell stories about them. The Universe is mostly empty space, and the distances between stars in galaxies, and between galaxies in the Universe, are incomprehensibly vast on human scales. Capturing the true scale of the Universe, while somehow tying it to human endeavours and emotions, is a daunting challenge for any science-fiction writer.”
Why Do Academics Get So Tangled Up In Clubby Jargon?
“To be an academic in today’s America is to be plunged into a perennial identity crisis. And like most academic things, it’s a maddeningly elliptical, recursive, and small-bore sort of crisis. Fueling all our self-indulgent angst is a never-fully-acknowledged social contract, the one that, via countless professional canons and conventions, confirms your choice to be a so-called academic, to assume it not only as a profession, but an identity, and to wear on yourself the trappings that come with that identity without stopping to wonder how necessary they really are and whether they are actually killing your ability to be and do something better.”
Taylor Mac’s 24-Hour Pop Extravaganza Wins $100K Theater Prize
“The genre-busting, glitter-dusting performance artist … and his musical director, Matt Ray, have been named winners of the 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, for their 24-hour work, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.”
Leonardo’s ‘Adoration Of The Magi’ Is Restored And Coming Back To Florence
After six years of restoration work, the panel painting, Leonardo’s largest of its type, will be back at the Uffizi at the end of March.
Why Did The New York Times Fire Theatre Critic Charles Isherwood?
New York magazine’s Boris Kachka investigates – and while there’s no definitive answer yet, the situation ain’t pretty.
Washington Ballet Tries (A) To Make DC Seem Chic, Or (B) To Promote A Shopping Center
Sarah Kaufman writes about “a new video ad pokes fun at the city’s colorless rep and shows the limbering-up effects of a little retail therapy.”
Lincoln Center Denies Seat To Woman Wearing Anti-Trump Sign
The message at issue: “NO! In the name of humanity we refuse to accept a fascist America.”
Cult Japanese Filmmaker Seijun Suzuki Dead At 93
During the 1960s, his job was to churn out B-movies for the Nikkatsu studio; he livened them up with elaborate, sometimes surreal pop-art scenery and costumes (with performances to match). What’s now his most famous movie initially got him fired from the studio.
Philadelphia Theatre Company Gets A New Chief (And New Hope)
It’s been a tough few years for the flagship of Philly’s nonprofit theaters: PTC nearly collapsed in 2014 and its new-ish home was foreclosed on the following year. Fortunately, the new producing artistic director, Paige Price, has already turned around Theatre Aspen, where she was performing as an actor in 2007 when suddenly found herself the boss. As David Patrick Stearns reports, “her Philadelphia appointment … means giving up spectacular Rocky Mountain scenery but having a near year-round, locally-based audience and a theater with running water.”
Why Salon Should Not Have Deleted A Genuinely Valuable Article About Pedophilia (Milo Or No Milo)
The already-notorious Milo Yiannopoulos lost his book contract and biggest speaking gig this week after video surfaced of him arguing in favor of sex between men and 13-year-old boys. Now Salon has taken down a controversial article in which a man who has an attraction to children explains how he keeps himself from acting on it. Jesse Singal makes a case that Salon‘s decision was wrongheaded.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.22.17
The “Leveraging Effect”: Why Small Grants from the Endangered NEA & NEH Matter
Arts and humanities constituents rose to the challenge of meeting Monday’s deadline to gather more that 100,000 signatures on a petition to the White House calling for the federal government “to support the arts by … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-02-22
Back When Everyone Believed in the NEA and the Creative Life
As the National Endowment for the Arts once again finds itself a punching bag on the chopping block (summon that mixed-metaphor image), it seems like a good time to take a step back and reflect … read more
AJBlog: New Beans Published 2017-02-22
Many Miles To Go To See Art
I don’t know all that many people, aside from curators doing research and wealthy collectors, who hop on a plane a fly overseas mainly to see an art exhibition. But that is what has been … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-02-22
Dance in L.A. Museums Unleashes the Spirits
If you haven’t seen dance at a museum lately, some good news. Gone are the days when dancers were brought in like bulky decor to inhabit dead gallery space. Synchronicity abounds, tickets are still low-cost … read more
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2017-02-22
Juggling Ideas About the Avant Garde
So much art is called “avant garde” these days that my tireless staff of thousands wonders whether it’s just a label. Some think that the entire culture, no matter how far out, has gone mainstream … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2017-02-22
LA Arts Space Says It’s Closing After Harassment By Anti-Gentrification Protesters
“PSSST, which opened on East 3rd Street last year, came under fire from some residents and activists concerned about a new wave of galleries moving into the largely Latino Boyle Heights neighborhood. Boyle Heights has become a battleground over gentrification, although it hasn’t seen anything remotely like the changes that neighborhoods, including Silver Lake and Highland Park, have experienced. Still, many residents have long sensed it’s a neighborhood on the brink of major change.”
The World After The Post-War Golden Age Has Some Readjusting To Do
“For much of the world, the Golden Age brought extraordinary prosperity. But it also brought unrealistic expectations about what governments can do to assure full employment, steady economic growth and rising living standards. These expectations still shape political life today.”
Met Museum Director Makes The Case For The NEA In New York Times Op-Ed
Thomas P. Campbell: “I fear that this current call to abolish the N.E.A. is the beginning of a new assault on artistic activity. Arts and cultural programming challenges, provokes and entertains; it enhances our lives. Eliminating the N.E.A. would in essence eliminate investment by the American government in the curiosity and intelligence of its citizens.”