“For me, ghostwriting fulfills the creative side where I get to take a story from scratch—material that has been rolling around in the head of my subject—and build it up. On the other side, I can pay the bills, the mortgage, and have a great income.”
What A Forensic Psychiatrist Says About Gesualdo, The Wife-Murdering Composer
Don Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa is even more famous for killing his wife and her lover in flagrante than he is for his surpassingly weird madrigals. But he didn’t simply dispatch the pair himself: he brought along three men armed with guns and double-headed axes and he energetically mutilated the dead bodies. Dr. Ruth McAllister considers what might have driven Gesualdo to such extremes (and then tortured himself over them for the rest of his life) when a couple of bullets or sword thrusts would have done the job.
Lost “City Of The Monkey God” Discovered In Honduran Rain Forest
“An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with dramatic news of the discovery of a mysterious culture’s lost city, never before explored. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied ‘White City,’ also referred to in legend as the ‘City of the Monkey God.’ “
It Had To Happen Eventually: Lorna Luft To Play Mom (Judy Garland) In Jukebox Musical
“Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft is to step into her mother’s ruby slippers for a career-spanning new show, Judy: The Life and Music of a Hollywood Legend. With Arlene Phillips as creative director, the show is billed as the only one authorised by the late star’s estate.”
The Sad, Sorry Story Behind The Fraudster “Japanese Beethoven”
“The irony is that Mamoru Samuragochi didn’t have to lie. His story was compelling without embellishment. He was the child of Hiroshima survivors; he did have hearing problems; his brother did die young. If he and Niigaki had simply billed themselves as a team, they might have still shared fortune and fame. Instead, Samuragochi cultivated the image of a solitary genius.”
Here’s How The Egyptian Museum Is Responding To The Tutankhamun’s Beard Debacle
“The embattled Egyptian Museum says it has begun to log every act of conservation it makes, as it attempts to restore its reputation following the furore over Tutankhamun’s botched beard.”
Workers Of The Word Unite! – Language And Class At The Copy Desk
“The truth is that the work of the copy editor is largely disdained. And because their work is so undervalued, copy editors (and fact checkers) routinely work significantly longer hours for much less money … The popular image of the copy editor as a usefully malfunctioning person justifies the natural order of things: In the Calvinistic world of magazines, maladjusted grammar weirdos simply fall to their natural station.”
“Relying On Private Sector Funding Makes Me Uneasy,” Says Top British Stage Director
Rupert Goold, artistic director of the Almeida Theatre: “The arts have to be very uncomfortable and provocative at times, that is their function, it is their function to really serve you. Inevitably, people who are bringing people to see the work in a corporate climate may be resistant to that kind of work being made.”
How Much Do Britain’s Top Arts Institutions Get From Corporate Sponsors? And What Do The Sponsors Get For Their Money?
“Details of specific deals are usually secret, because neither arts organisations nor sponsors want their rivals to know exactly what is changing hands. So we looked at the accounts of 10 top arts organisations – Royal Opera, English National Opera, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Southbank Centre, British Museum, Science Museum Group, Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and National Gallery – and asked them how much money they get from sponsors overall.”
Who Was THE Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl? (Hint: You Saw Her On The Oscars)
“[She] is one of the earliest examples of an affected and oft-debated cinematic trope … that fictional bearer of quirky fun and madcap outings and ultimate lifelong happiness once emotional walls have been dismantled, brick by brick.”
Why Net Neutrality Ruling Might Not Be All It’s Cracked Up To Be
“Competition on the internet is constantly evolving and poorly understood. AOL was a has-been before the ink was dry on the relentless complaints about its unassailable monopoly; cable content is suddenly challenged by streaming video; DSL, once thought dead, now offers 25-75 Mbps service. Yet the FCC’s rules ignore this complexity, insisting on a one-dimensional conception of internet competition that’s never actually existed.”
Survey: What Men Are Reading (And Why)
The “survey showed that 39 per cent of adult fiction works and 56 per cent of non-fiction were for males, suggesting men are not so keen on keeping up-to-date with storytelling, but slightly ahead of women when it comes to reading history, politics and biography.”
Mass Exodus? Why Nearly Half Of Miami’s Art Museums Don’t Have Directors
“Four museums in Miami are currently searching for new directors. In a city that has transformed itself into one of the top destinations for contemporary art in the US over the past decade and boasts perhaps ten significant art institutions, nearly half are now leaderless.”
Here’s What It’s Like To Run NY City Ballet
“I think the thing that’s changed the most over the years is that it just becomes more and more and more difficult to sustain organizations and to sustain the art itself. The funding climate has changed over the years: it’s much more difficult and much more competitive. And the nature of the audience has changed as well. There is just so much more competition for people’s time especially with what’s available online, in new media, and on demand.”
In St. Paul: How A New Hall Redefines An Orchestra
“It’s the sound equivalent of what happens when curators at museums do that very careful cleaning process of old masters’ paintings and the colors become more vibrant and you can see all sorts of detail.”
Have We Just Found The Next Terrific Woman Conductor?
Mark Swed: “Word was out. The hall sold out. Presenters from Chicago, New York and elsewhere came to check her out. Managers who didn’t were simply not paying attention. The debut was a preview. Mirga mania can now officially begin.” (What’s more, “[she] was the third exceptional woman to conduct the L.A. Phil in a week.”)
Iraq’s National Museum Reopens, In Gesture Of Defiance To ISIS
“In response to the destruction of antiquities in Mosul last week by Islamic State militants, the Iraqi government reopened the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad this weekend, with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaking out against the terrorist group at the ribbon cutting.”
The Show That’s Turning Islamophobia Into A Laugh Riot
“What do you do if your inbox is clogged up with anti-Muslim hate mail? Turn it into a cabaret show. Daryl Lindsey reports from Berlin on a strangely joyful evening of horrendous abuse.”
Maggie Smith Will Do No More Theatre – “It’s So Exhausting”
“I just don’t think I could cope with it. Almost every Wednesday and Saturday I wake up relieved it’s not a matinee.. … It’s hard enough doing film and television, but at least you know it’s not day, after day, after day. I just found it so exhausting.” (By the way, what she actually said about Downton Abbey is less definitive than you think.)
Should The NYPD Be Deciding When Busking Counts As Art And When As Begging?
“Recently, a busking video went viral. In it a police officer, armed with a gun and club, passed judgment on a busker, who protested by reading out the law covering art in public. He got a loitering charge. Boos are bad, hisses worse and an audience unsatisfied enough to pelt is humiliating. But a criminal record? Does society want such severity?”
The Economics Of Arthur Miller’s Plays
“But it was really his view of the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression: even more than an economic crash, it was a national emotional collapse, ‘like all the winds had stopped, gone dead’ … That sense of existential and economic desperation carries across all his plays.”
L.A. Phil’s Deborah Borda Is Going To Harvard (Temporarily)
“Deborah Borda will take a four-month sabbatical from her role as president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Philharmonic so that she can assume a residency at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.”
Another Friday-Afternoon-News-Dump Departure: CEO Of L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse Steps Down
“Kenneth Novice has departed the Geffen Playhouse after serving as its managing director for more than five years, the company has announced.” Both parties refused to comment further.
Here’s One Of Those Fairytales Rediscovered In Bavaria A Couple Years Ago
“An evil witch kidnapped three princesses and would not set them free. While they were in captivity, the girls learned a few magic tricks from the witch. …”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.02.15
Moving Toward the Light
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-03-02
Los Angeles Ballet’s Notable The Sleeping Beauty
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2015-03-02
Monday Recommendation: Terry, Keepnews & Monk
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-03-02
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