“The gestation of the [8th] symphony may have been long and troubled, but Sibelius had, at various times, referred to his manuscript as ‘brilliant,’ ‘a great work in the making,’ a piece that would have been ‘the reckoning of [his] whole existence.’ For so long, he had had but one desire: to finish the piece before drifting off ‘to the final silence.’ Why, then, did Sibelius destroy such a highly anticipated and promising work? This remains one of the most perplexing questions in all of music history.”
The Long Legacy Of James Baldwin
“James Baldwin realized that while he ‘loved’ his country, he ‘could not respect it.’ He wrote that he ‘could not, upon my soul, be reconciled to my country as it was.’ To survive he would have to find an exit.”
Seriously? Anish Kapoor Thinks He Owns The Rights To A Color?
“Painters are outraged that Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor who designed the blood-red Orbit tower for the London Olympics, has exclusive rights to the artistic use of this revolutionary new colour. NanoSystems has confirmed that he alone can paint it Vantablack.”
Losing Yourself In The Cloud – And Getting Yourself Back
“The underlying concern with the Internet is not whether it will fragment our attention spans or mold our minds to the bit-work of modernity. In the end, it will likely do both. The deeper question is what can be done when we realize that we want some control over the exchange between our brains and the Web.” James McWilliams proposes an answer to that question.
Surviving An Honor Killing: The Story Behind The Oscar-Winning Documentary Short
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, director of A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, explains how the subject of her film came to be shot in the face and hand, put in a bag and thrown into a river; how she survived, and what she was coerced into doing afterward.
‘The World’s First Feature-Length Painted Animation’: A Van Gogh Biopic Told With His Own Paintings And Letters
“Loving Vincent … brings together the skills of over 100 painters trained specifically to mimic van Gogh’s own technique and brushstrokes, with each frame composed of actual, hand-painted artworks.”
Google’s Computers Are Now Creating Art. And People Are Buying
“If you feed enough photos of your uncle to a neural net, it can learn to recognize your uncle. That’s how Facebook identifies faces in all those photos you upload. Now, with an art “generator” it calls DeepDream, Google has turned these neural nets inside out. They’re not recognizing images. They’re creating them.”
The DC-Lobbyists-Talk-Books-With-A-Congressman Book Club
“The private event, which is run by the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, is a little-known fundraising vehicle where lobbyists for Wall Street banks, insurance companies and accounting firms gather monthly to discuss literature with a Republican panel member.” You don’t have to have read the book, and yes, of course they’ve done Atlas Shrugged.
Actor George Kennedy, 91
“In a career spanning more than 175 films and television credits, Mr. Kennedy was among the most dependable and versatile performers in Hollywood. Whether malevolent, earnest or serving as comic relief, he held his corner of the screen opposite charismatic movie stars including Cary Grant, Paul Newman, John Wayne and James Stewart.”
International Criminal Court Opens First Trial For Cultural Destruction
“In the first case of its kind, the alleged Malian jihadi leader Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi … is charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague with razing nine mausoleums and the 15th-century Sidi Yahia mosque in Timbuktu in northern Mali.”
We Have A New ‘World’s Most Expensive Artwork’
As with the previous titleholder, this painting was sold privately rather than at an auction.
Scientists Scan Shakespeare’s Grave
“There has been speculation about a possible family vault under the stones – and questions about whether such a ground-penetrating scan would show other items buried with Shakespeare.”
Is The “Golden Age Of TV” About To End?
“In Canada and the United States, there’s a clear push to give more power to viewers over what they pay to see and, while that sounds good in some respects, TV executives recognize that it is delivering the business to a crossroads.”
A Quiet Berlin Museum Makes Big Changes (Not Driven By Art)
“The new leadership has a sharp eye for the collection’s most interesting pieces. But the move is not driven by the needs of the collection; instead it is being used for a different purpose: to create another Berlin spectacle.”
You Know What ‘The Witch’ Really Gets Right? Early American Colonists’ Desperate Hysteria
“People who ‘travailed a vast ocean’ to find a new life turned starving and paranoid, surrounded by their dead, uncertain of their identities or their missions. To put it bluntly: People living through those first settlement years often lost their goddamn minds.”
‘An iPhone Isn’t A Safe, It’s An Extension Of The Mind’ – The Apple Vs. FBI Battle Is Missing The Point
“The issue at the heart of this debate, then, is not merely whether the state, in attempting to prevent terrorism, might overstep traditional protections of privacy or accidentally make our credit card information more accessible to Russian hackers. … How much of ourselves should we give over to the state?”
Oscar Ratings Sank This Year. How To Fix This Bloated Show?
“A show that’s pushing four hours should be cut down to about two-and-a-half. Cutting the fat and speeding through those technical awards in the middle is how you do it, so that you make it back to the awards that are given to famous people without feeling like you’ve weathered your own harrowing Revenant to get there.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.29.16
Filming Dance/Dancing Film
This year the Dance on Camera Festival celebrated its 35th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of Dance Films Association, as well as honoring the 20-year association of those two organizations with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. As usual, it was astonishing how many screenings, panels, master classes, workshops, and exhibits were … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-29
Ripple Effect of My “Edlis Effect”: Crain’s Chicago Business, Lawyer Michael Dorf
My views on the Edlis Effect at the Art Institute of Chicago struck a chord with Crain’s Chicago Business‘ Lisa Bertagnoli, who interviewed me about James Rondeau‘s appointment as the museum’s director for … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-29
Talking About (& Plugging) Take Five, The Book
The other day at the Portland Jazz Festival someone asked me how my biography of Paul Desmond came about. I gave him the short version, but it occurs to me that folks interested in Desmond might want to hear a fuller account. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-29
Marching Through Springsteen Chapter Titles: Definitive Pianists, Composers to Follow
Bruce Springsteen’s memoirs announced, sample chapters include: Blood on the Turnpike, Human Town, Lucky Touch, Hear Those Tires SQUEAL, Chuck Berry Stole All My Riffs (So I Stole Some Song Titles), Prince Almost Stole My Mojo, … read more
AJBlog: blog riley Published 2016-02-29
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Music Might Cut Costs For Dementia Care
“Manchester Camerata orchestra’s Music in Mind (MIM) projects, which involved 7,200 people in care homes and community projects across Greater Manchester last year, have had such dramatic effects on participants that academics at Manchester and Lancaster universities are backing a research student to create the world’s first in-the-moment, multi-sensory assessment tool to quantify that effect.”
Is Music Reviewing Dead?
“With every new album available at our fingertips completely for free at the instant of its release for our own personal judgment, you’ve got to wonder: Do we still need the album review?”
This Artist Won The Rights To The World’s Darkest Pigment
“Anish Kapoor now owns the exclusive rights to the world’s darkest material — a claim that, naturally, is pissing off other artists. The pigment is the very sexy Vantablack, known as the blackest black out there — much blacker than a panther swimming in a tarpit.”
And Now On To Theatre Awards Season With The Olivier Nominations
“Stars have been no strangers to London stages in the last season, as evidenced by a lineup of Olivier-nominated actors this year that includes Branagh, Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicole Kidman and, fresh off his Academy Award win last night, Mark Rylance.”
Google Doodle Pays Tribute To A Dancer And Choreographer
“Rukmini Devi, born on February 29, 1904, in a Brahmin family in Madurai, was considered to be the most important revivalist in the Indian classical dance form. Despite strong protest, she not only supported this art form, but also took it to a higher level, which was considered a low and vulgar art in the early 1920s.”
Add Another Name To The Short List Of Great U.S. Ballet Choreographers
“As he sees it, you can never really know a ballet unless you’ve performed it. He is terrifically serious. Though he looks and moves like a teen-ager—he does uptalk, he has made a ballet for an iPad app—his demeanor is habitually grave.”