“How do you explain Hideo Kojima to someone who has never picked up a PlayStation controller? His admirers have often compared him to filmmakers: Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, George Lucas, James Cameron. … Perhaps more notable than his resemblance to any particular film director is the fact that such a comparison would be made at all.” – The New York Times Magazine
Is This Playwright ‘The American Noël Coward’?
“Noël Coward’s fantastic, but all I could think was: What’s the use of having an American one?” says Richard Greenberg. To him, writes Kurt Soller in this profile, “that comparison has always felt like false equivalency, a naïve supposition about the people he was chronicling — and the behavior he was lampooning, particularly among urban cultural elites.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
A Plague Of Curators
“It’s used because it sounds fashionable. It sounds like it’s for … the aesthetically conscious.” As zeitgeisty as other oddly specific and much hashtagged words like “wanderlust” or “journey” or “empower,” “curate” is spreading. The word’s overuse has left it almost devoid of meaning, and curators themselves — the traditional, museum-dwelling kind — are up in arms. – The New York Times
How Do Prop Masters Make The Best Blood And Gore For Theatres?
“From cat brains to dismembered tongues, the teams behind theatre’s bloodiest shows reveal how they made audiences shriek with horror and delight.” – The Guardian
When Presidents Write Books
In the 19th century, politicians increasingly turned out memoirs as campaign books. The writing shifted from ideas and policies to character and personality. The writings of Andrew Jackson, a colorful veteran of wars and duels, exemplified this change. – Washington Post
Everything You Always Wanted To Know (Or Have Forgotten) About The Theremin
“The story of the theremin and its inventor has it all: drama, suspense, geopolitics, and, above all, tragedy. It’s a wonder Hollywood hasn’t yet made a movie about it.” – Quartz
Why Would Anyone Open A Record Shop Now?
It’s beautiful, but then there’s the obvious question … who in their right mind would open a record store now? There is no money in it. Even on this gentrified street there are empty shops, the rents are extortionate and landlords are keen to turn properties over to property developers. What about profit? “What about artistic profit, creative profit, intellectual profit?” replies Thurston Moore. – The Guardian
Fox Trot Mit Schlag: When Viennese Composers Met The Harlem Renaissance
“While jazz-inspired music by the likes of Stravinsky and Weill has never been forgotten, the similar efforts of dozens of other composers from the same period have fallen into obscurity. Now some of those experiments are enjoying a fresh hearing.” Seth Colter Walls has a listen. – The New York Times
Pornhub Releases Its First-Ever Non-Porn Film — A High-Art Documentary, No Less
“The movie in question is the documentary Shakedown, from filmmaker and conceptual artist Leilah Weinraub. It hails from the upper echelons of the art world, where the project enjoyed a prestige rollout in exhibits at the Whitney Museum and MoMA over the last three years.” And what’s it about? Lesbian strip clubs in L.A. – Variety
How Arts Orgs In California Are Handling Coronavirus Concerns
“The common line among museums and theaters is that they are monitoring the situation and planning to operate as usual, unless told otherwise by county or state health departments, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization. Even though more than 3,000 have died from COVID-19 worldwide, health officials have not recommended closure of venues or the cancellation of public events in California because the immediate risk of transmission remains low.” – Los Angeles Times
For First Time, Two Women Win Pritzker Prize, Architecture’s Nobel
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, principals of Grafton Architecture in Dublin, have already racked up some impressive awards in recent years: the World Architecture Festival’s World Building of the Year (for the Università Luigi Bocconi’s school of economics in Milan), the RIBA International Prize (for UTEC in Lima), and this year’s RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture; they also curated the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. – The Guardian
How Post-Brexit Visa Restrictions Could Impact UK Arts
The effect on the UK’s artistic landscape is more worrying. For a European artist, it changes whether they decide to base themselves in the UK rather than just sometimes performing here. And then for UK-based companies regularly touring in Europe, it may be easier to employ EU artists for ease of touring rather than UK ones. – The Stage
What We Know About Deja Vu
Scientists do have some hypotheses for what brings déjà vu to the surface of consciousness – from the idea that it might be a built-in processing glitch in the brain, or an indication of healthy memory, to the slightly more puzzling notion that it’s part of quantum entanglement. – Aeon
Nietzsche’s Fascination With Dance
Nietzsche offers an interpretive key: his references to dance (Tanz). Taken together, these references light a path that begins in Nietzsche’s first book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872), and wends through every major work into his final, the posthumous Ecce Homo (1908). These references not only link his ideas and styles, they also shed light on Nietzsche’s enduring motivation: to teach readers how to affirm life here and now on Earth as human bodily selves. Nietzsche’s dance references call attention to the sensory education that he insists is necessary for creating values that ‘remain faithful to the Earth’. – Aeon
Will The Art World’s Growing Rejection Of Fossil Fuel Funders Make Any Difference?
While commentators have often dismissed the interventions of artists on the issue of oil sponsorship as “virtue signaling,” BP’s CEO effectively conceded in his speech that opposition to the company’s sponsorship deals has had a tangible impact. In his statement on the new policy, he addressed protesters directly as he discussed rebuilding the public’s trust. “Many question our motives in supporting the arts,” he said. “I get that.” – Artnet
No Mystery!
When dealing with new communities, staff and board members of nonprofit arts organizations are sometimes puzzled when things they thought would work crash and burn. Often, there is really no mystery. – Doug Borwick
Good news about Mrs. T
I’m overjoyed to report that her condition has improved significantly since yesterday. The internal bleeding has stopped, she is resting comfortably, and her doctors are completely satisfied with her progress to date. – Terry Teachout
Another COVID Casualty: Art Dubai Postponed
Fair organisers say they will instead hold a programme of exhibitions, events and talks tailored to Dubai-based galleries, museums and artists from 25 to 28 March, when the fair was due to take place. Parts of the fair including the Global Art Forum, Residents section and Campus Art Dubai are still expected to go ahead. No alternative dates for Art Dubai to be held later in the year have so far been offered. – The Art Newspaper
Grammys Make It Official – Fire Deborah Dugan
The academy announced Ms. Dugan’s removal in a letter from its executive committee, sent to the organization’s members. “We placed our trust in her and believed she would effectively lead the organization,” the committee wrote in the letter. “Unfortunately, that is not what happened.” – The New York Times
David Hallberg Will Be Artistic Director Of Australian Ballet
The ABT star, who credits the company and its physiotherapists with restoring his ability to dance following a severe injury in 2014, will take over from David McAllister at the beginning of 2021. – Sydney Morning Herald