“Imagine life before money. Say, you made bread but you needed meat. But what if the town butcher didn’t want your bread? You’d have to find someone who did, trading until you eventually got some meat. You can see how this gets incredibly complicated and inefficient, which is why humans invented money: to make it easier to exchange goods. Right? This historical world of barter sounds quite inconvenient. It also may be completely made up.”
Has The Debate About Oscar Racism Gotten Out Of Hand? Here Are Some Numbers
“Racism in the entertainment industry is a complex, multifaceted beast, with much blame to go around, from discriminatory hiring patterns on the part of the industry to the casual commercial indifference of audiences to films about the black experience. But, having noticed a lot of changes in the way the academy has gone about its job over the last fifteen years, I think on balance that the criticism of it has gotten into the realm of the irresponsible.”
‘No Feeling Is Stable’ – Colm Tóibín On James Baldwin’s ‘Giovanni’s Room’
“No feeling is stable in this novel, which attempts by a set of opposing images to find a place where something finally can be said that is true, even if it is too late. Perhaps, oddly enough, this effort at a healing dialectic is all the more necessary, and urgent in its tone, because it will make no difference.”
Museum Audiences Have Less Time. So How Will Museums Adapt?
“If the lack of leisure is the fundamental problem the museum sector faces, it should address the issue directly, broadly and fearlessly. Indeed, the entire cultural community needs to accept that it makes no sense to obsess about a dwindling audience or the lack of public resources without addressing the underlying issue of leisure, and why, as a society, we have failed to make time for pleasure, learning and self-improvement.”
Did Eero Saarinen Base His TWA Terminal On A Chair?
“One piece in particular included in the TWA lounges – the Pedestal or Tulip chair – designed by Saarinen just before the TWA Flight Center, foretold its hovering form and mix of organic and modern design.”
Geneva’s Orchestra Abruptly Fired Its CEO – And May Have Lost Its Music Director As A Result
Early last month, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande “parted ways” with general director Henk Swinnen. Now conductor Jonathan Nott, who’s due to take over as the OSR’s music director this fall, won’t return a signed contract. Here’s what’s going on over there. (in French; Google Translate version here)
The Last Opera
“While his contemporaries steered toward modernism, Floyd took a more conservative tack musically, merging older European tradition with newer American folk music forms and regional vernacular. For years, Floyd’s approach kept some scholars from embracing his work. He wasn’t mentioned in Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker’s ‘A History of Opera’ when it was published in 2012. ‘It’s telling that for years Philip Glass has been held up as important and Floyd hasn’t.'”
The Author Of ‘The Revenant’ Is Also A Lead Official At The World Trade Organization
And, as such, he cannot – by law – talk about his book. “‘It’s been frustrating,’ said Stephen Morrison, the publisher of Picador. ‘Any other author would be out on press junkets, but he’s not able to do any promotion at all.'”
You Might Soon See A Lot More Of Robert Rauschenberg’s Art
The Rauschenberg Foundation “has decided to adopt a new policy of making images of Rauschenberg work much more widely available free. In doing so, it is urging other artists’ estates and foundations to take a hard look at protections it believes — in the name of safeguarding works from piracy or misuse — have become too restrictive, especially in the digital era.”
What Kind Of Art Are We Sending To The Moon On The MoonArk?
“Everything, however, remains visual; nothing exists in data form. To accomplish this, the team had professional engravers laser-etch the various visuals in platinum on sapphire discs, resulting in delicate-looking objects that are works of art in their own right.”
The Ballerina Who Keeps On Dancing In Damascus Despite Syria’s Civil War
“Making her way from her small apartment in the city where she grew up, passing bombed out buildings, crowded cafes and ubiquitous security checkpoints, Nagham ventures daily to the studio where she first honed her internationally recognized skills as a ballerina.”
The Met Museum Admissions Lawsuit Has Been Settled
“To dispel any remaining confusion, signs at the museum’s admission desks will also include two new sentences: ‘The amount you pay is up to you’ and ‘Please be as generous as you can.'”
Books Provide The Best Oscars Fodder, The Numbers Say
“When a book has been terrifically popular, when people love the story and the characters, there’s almost a public demand that it be turned into a movie. The studio can be confident that the film will make money, and it may even turn out to be a really remarkable film.”
All An American Musical Audience Wants Is A Good ‘I Want’ Song
“Time has proven that the pre-inciting incident I Want Song is the most successful with audiences. It gives the characters the power to make choices and influence the plot. When the characters are making choices, they are more sympathetic.”
Al-Jazeera America Bows Out With A Valedictory Look Back
“AJAM online’s legacy, some of it captured on these pages, is a journalism of value and of values not tied to any ideology or political entity but morally committed when confronted by racism and bigotry, violence against the innocent, injustice and inequality, sexism and homophobia. We tried in our brief tenure to uphold the fine tradition of an American journalism that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”
In Honor Of These Oscars, Let’s Look At All The Times The Academy Picked The Wrong Best Picture
“Let’s take a walk through the past four decades of Best Picture winners of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It’s an almost unbroken chain of incorrect decisions!”
Study: A Clean Desk Might Impede Creativity
“Clean up your desk too much and you might find you’ve accidentally cleaned out your mind.”
Why Michael Flatley Is Excited About Retiring From The Dance
“This type of dance is particularly brutal. I was the first person to do it for an extended period of time. … I have a lot of friends who are professional athletes, and we like to get together and have a couple of beers and exchange horror stories. I always win.”
Opera’s Gender Problem
“According to Operabase, an online opera database, in the years 2009 to 2014 there are only 3 women amongst the 60 most performed living opera composers in the world. Saariaho comes in highest at number 33. In all opera composers performed in that period, living or dead, women fare far worse with not a single female composer in the top 30. And in the most performed 50 operas worldwide in that same period, there is not a single work by a woman.”
Indie Music World Is Rife With Sexual Harrassment
“Despite its outward appearance as being more female-friendly, despite there being less puppeteering than in pop music, despite the seeming prevalence of “male feminists” in the scene, women in the indie music scene say that sexual harassment is rampant and just as much a reality for them.”
Record Profits As Concert Business Booms
“Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest concert promoter whose holdings include Ticketmaster, on Thursday reported revenue of $7.6 billion in 2015, up 11 percent from the previous calendar year on a constant currency basis.”
Advertisers’ Awkward Oscars Dilemma
“Advertisers, who are paying record prices for air time, find themselves in an awkward position. They want to attach themselves to the glamour of Hollywood without having their brands tarnished by the controversy over the all-white slate of acting nominees.”
What Google Learned Trying To Build The Perfect Team
“Five years ago, Google — one of the most public proselytizers of how studying workers can transform productivity — became focused on building the perfect team.”
Can Saigon’s Unique Historic Architecture Be Saved?
“When Ho Chi Minh City’s property market perked up after a slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis, dozens of prewar buildings – spanning the colonial to modernist eras – were razed to make room for new ones. As the city’s modest skyline grows, residents are watching with a mixture of awe and trepidation.”
‘Transformational’ Gift To Philadelphia Museum Of Art
“The gift of more than 50 artworks, as well as endowment funds, announced by the museum Thursday includes contemporary works by Cy Twombly, Philip Guston, Agnes Martin, Eva Hesse, and Paul Thek” as well as a major Edward Hopper painting and works by both Eakinses.