“For this edition of the Fishko Files, WNYC’s Sara Fishko sat down with a husband-and-wife team of star translators to talk (as quickly as possible) about a very, very long book – War and Peace.” (audio)
In A Multi-Platform World, How Do We Define Radio?
“Do you think Pandora is radio?” I say, “no,” as Pandora’s model is opposite to my definition of radio: the infinite channels are not unique, they are generated by a computer, and the listener can control the experience.
In Defense Of Small Talk: It’s Not A Hollow Waste Of Time, It’s An Important Social Lubricant
“Small talk is not wasted talk. … [It] allows strangers to make crucial first connections across demographic lines. And it’s far from meaningless. People are rebelling against it today in a misguided dismissal of social graces that seem old-fashioned, boring, or wasteful. In fact, we’ve never needed such graces more.”
A New Series Of Islamic-Themed Children’s Books
“An executive editor of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers … is heading a new children’s imprint, Salaam Reads, dedicated to publishing books that feature Muslim characters and stories. The imprint … will release nine or more books a year, ranging from board books and picture books to middle grade and young adult titles.”
The Original Designs For Wagner’s ‘Ring’ Cycle Just Make Regieoper Look Silly
“Conservative though Hoffmann’s set designs are in their realistic evocation of mountain landscapes and a quaint notion of ‘primitive’ architecture, it’s hard not to see the Morgan show … as a rebuke to the antics that have lately turned this landmark of musical theater into an international freak show.”
“A Hypothetical Country” – Edwige Danticat On James Baldwin’s ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’
“A country where John and his brother and friends wouldn’t always be on the outside looking in, and wouldn’t constantly live with the fear of racialized violence – a country where they, too, would feel powerful, and fully a part of the cities that glowed before them. Incidentally, these are the same things that are repeatedly promised to new generations of John Grimeses in every election cycle, only to lead to some degree of disappointment later on.”
Hollywood May Be #SoWhite, But Broadway Seems To Be Making Real Progress
“The Great White Way is no longer quite so white, and the sudden visibility of black actors on Broadway will have important effects on the future of theater.”
The Secrets That Drove The Author Of ‘Carol’
“Only Patricia Highsmith could phrase a novel of life-changing love in the language of Jack the Ripper.”
That Time Bette Davis Became The First Woman To Be Academy President – And Resigned In Disgust
“She had two big initiatives she immediately pushed to enact. First, she wanted to reformat the annual Academy Awards banquet. Since her election, Pearl Harbor had been attacked, thrusting America into World War II and prompting calls for the cancellation of the Oscars, which had theretofore centered around dinner and dancing. She argued that it would be more appropriate to scrap the dinner and dancing and present the awards in a large theater, charging at least $25 a seat and donating the proceeds to war relief efforts.”
Is There A Case For Classical Music Radio In This Time Of Spotify And Pandora And Apple Music?
“My go-to platform is radio. Since I spend so much of my work week choosing music for other people to listen to, I take immense pleasure in consuming playlists that other humans have curated when I’m on my own time. I listen terrestrially if I’m in my car or at home and stream the audio on my phone if I’m walking or bussing.”
People Are Stealing The Stones That Stonehenge Came From And Selling Them On EBay
A quarry which scientists have recently identified as being the source of Stonehenge’s famous rocks is being plundered at a “terrifying rate” by thieves selling them on eBay for £8, tourism bosses say.
When Audience Accessibility Is Part Of The Art
“Theatres are increasingly making their work accessible for deaf and disabled audiences in a more creative, integrated fashion and are placing issues of access right at the heart of their design.”
Mapping How Antiquity Sounded
“What was truly surprising for me was going into a space that was ancient, and to crawl around the ceiling and look at the walls and realize that they were looking at things acoustically. It wasn’t just about the architecture. They had these big jugs that were put up there to sip certain frequencies out of the air … They built diffusion, a way to break up the sound waves by putting striations in the walls. They were actively trying to tune the space.”
The Demographics Of The Academy Of Motion Pictures, By The Numbers
“In 2012, The Times reported that Oscar voters were 94% white and 77% male. Four years later, the academy has made scant progress: Oscar voters are 91% white and 76% male, according to a new Times study. Blacks are about 3% of the academy, up from 2%; Asians and Latinos are each just over 2%, with both groups up slightly.”
Looking For Creativity In Movies? Short Films Are Where It’s At
“Some of the most creative and engaging stories today are being told through short films, even as the genre remains marginalized in the cultural mainstream.”
Chris Rock’s Oscar-Hosting Gig Is ‘The Moment That [His] Entire Career Has Pointed Toward’
Andrew O’Hehir: “At this point, if Rock doesn’t open the show with a slam-bang musical number, featuring Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Bill Cosby in KKK robes, half of Twitter will announce that he sucks. (And if he does, the other half will profess undying outrage.) But he’s the right man for the job; I honestly can’t think of anyone who is better positioned to tackle the #OscarsSoWhite moment with humor and anger and just a little cerebral detachment.”
How Charlotte Rampling Handled Her Last Pre-Oscars Interview (Very Rampling-ly)
“Under the vigilant eye of her publicist Lauren Schwartz, who never left her side, Ms. Rampling replied stoically to a question about the slim chance, in the wake of her lapse, that she would make off with an Oscar. She had held out the hope, it seemed, that the highly charged matter would never come up. A stony silence followed the question.”
Teens Have Not Stopped Reading, And David Denby’s New Yorker Jeremiad Is ‘You Kids Get Off My Lawn’ Journalism
“Ah, it appears that, fleeing human connection, lost to their reductive gender-specific pastimes of sports and, um, friends, teen hyphen agers (The teen hyphen ager! In the pizza parlor! With the smart phone!) have murdered reading. But soft – no one is dead yet, not even you, geriatric Cassandra. Nor are the teen hyphen agers brain-dead.”
Atlanta Ballet Chooses New Artistic Director
“Gennadi Nedvigin, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, traveled halfway around the world and spent half a lifetime preparing for his next major debut – in a role he might not have taken, if it hadn’t been for a remarkable experience with dancers of Atlanta Ballet.”
Picasso’s Daughter Loses In Court Battle Over Bust Of Marie-Thérèse
“The court on Wednesday ordered Maya Widmaier-Picasso, who is 80 and a Paris resident, to pay 25,000 euros, about $28,000, in court costs to the Qatari [royal] family’s representative.” The Al-Thanis are in an ownership dispute with dealer Larry Gagosian over the sculpture, which was evidently sold twice.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.25.16
Who Said That? Artistic Inspirations
I happened to be in Florida recently, where I visited the Norton Museum of Art, where there’s a lot going on. Just now I want to mention one delightful little touch. Along the staircases between … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-02-25
Black History Month (3) — “And They Lynched Him on a Tree”
An oratorio about lynching! About one of the great horrors of American history. Premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1940. And now, as far as I can see, largely forgotten, though there’s a … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-02-25
Javon Jackson On Coltrane At PDX
With the 2016 Portland Jazz Festival built around the legacy of John Coltrane (1926-1967), Javon Jackson’s appearances were reminders of his tenor saxophone hero’s lasting impact on the music. In a Winningstad Theatre concert, Jackson … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-25
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West End Theatre Box Office Grew Slightly In 2015
“In total, there were 14.7 million attendees to West End theatres, roughly the same as in the slightly longer period counted in 2014.”
‘The Shining’ Is Becoming An Opera
First of all, composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell are basing their work on Stephen King’s novel rather than Stanley Kubrick’s film, so there will be no “Here’s Johnny!” moment (a Kubrick invention). (We’d rather know what they’re doing with “red rum.”)
We Are Hopelessly Hooked On Our Smartphones
Jacob Weisberg: “Our transformation into device people has happened with unprecedented suddenness. The first touchscreen-operated iPhones went on sale in June 2007, followed by the first Android-powered phones the following year. Smartphones went from 10 percent to 40 percent market penetration faster than any other consumer technology in history.”
Mindlessly Engaged? What Happens To Culture When We’re Addicted To Our Devices
“What does it mean to shift overnight from a society in which people walk down the street looking around to one in which people walk down the street looking at machines? We wouldn’t be always clutching smartphones if we didn’t believe they made us safer, more productive, less bored, and were useful in all of the ways that a computer in your pocket can be useful.”