“Writers have to write now for a world where readers are busy, on the move and have little time for contemplation and reflection. The writer has to focus on writing better, cutting to the chase and doing more of the readers’ contemplative work for them.”
How The Starchitects Of The 1950s Reimagined Baghdad
“In the 1950s, King Faisal II enlisted a coterie of architectural heavyweights—Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Josep Lluís Sert, and Alvar and Aino Aalto—to reimagine Baghdad as a bustling, cosmopolitan city.”
Sometimes Even The Danes Can’t Understand Danish
“One thing every foreigner living in Denmark knows to be true is that it’s a lot easier to comprehend written Danish than spoken Danish. … But fret not foreigners, you’re not alone.” Now even Danes need subtitles with some mumble-mouthed actors.
Technology Is Changing Our Lives. How We Control That Technology Is Getting To Be A Bigger Issue
“Just as the change from hand work to mass production dramatically changed our society over 100 years ago, the digital revolution isn’t just altering specific sectors of the economy, it is changing the way we think and live. This time, though, the transformation is different. This time, it is being driven by just a few hundred people.”
Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s Founding Music Director To Step Down
“Tracing its roots to the city’s first professional orchestra created in 1924, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic was formed in 1988 under the musical direction of Joel Levine and with the strategic vision and guidance of many civic and corporate leaders, committed to its future.”
Six Questions About The Future Of American Culture
Scott Timberg, author of the recent book Culture Crash and of the ArtsJournal blog of the same title, lays out the half-dozen issues he’s left wondering about after writing the book and traveling to country to promote it.
Neil Patrick Harris On The Difficulty Of Hosting The Oscars
“It’s so difficult for one who’s simply watching the show to realize just how much time and concession and compromise and explanation has gone into almost every single thing. Every joke. Wording of joke. Placement of joke. Canceling of joke. Embellishment for just one line.”
Theatre Folk – Performers And Audiences – Should Stop Being So Uptight About Viewers Making Noise Or Moving Around
Maddy Costa: “For an art form so dedicated to thinking about human behaviour and interactions, theatre is remarkably bad at allowing its audiences to be human beings once they take their seats.”
How Brass Bands Have Shaped The Culture Of New Orleans
“Musically, these bands helped shape and were in turn influenced by jazz’s development through the early decades of the 20th century. Brass-band tradition has evolved in the decades since to embrace other styles, such as funk, R&B and hip-hop, irritating purists while enticing new fans. Still, the form’s communal function has never waned.”
Will Virtual Reality Help Heal People?
“For years, virtual reality has made inroads in helping to treat serious phobias, post-traumatic stress, and burn victims’ pain. Now, as the price of VR tech plummets, this therapeutic tech is advancing—and could soon become available to many more people who need it.”
The Reds In Van Gogh’s Paintings Are Turning White (And Now We Know Why)
“Van Gogh loved the vibrant lead pigment colors, and the red in “Wheat Stack” turned out to contain a rare mineral lead called plumbonacrite that through light exposure was gradually coated in carbonates that were causing the discoloration. Or, in less science speak, the paint particles are now like if you had a gobstopper with the red core inside and a light blue layer and then gray layer on the outside of the particle mass.”
Ballet San Jose Warns It Might Have To Shut Down
“Ballet officials quietly began a fundraising drive in January and have thus far tallied half a million dollars. Now they must match that figure to keep the company afloat. Company officials also estimate they will need to have raised $3.5 million by October to be able to fully reinvent the company’s business model and ensure its long-term stability.”
Last Fall The World’s Largest Auction Houses Fired Their Leaders. The Art World Is Still Talking ABout It
“It may be the business has gotten too tricky for just one person to run it.”
Artist Shreds Thousands Of Dollars To Use In Art
Dustin Yellin resolved to take the allotted cash, in the forms of twenties, fifties and one hundred-dollar bills, and shred the loot in a wood chipper. He then used tweezers to apply the massacred dough to emulsion-covered canvasses.
Orchestra Pulls Piece After Learning It Quotes Nazi Song (Should It Have?)
The New York Youth Symphony pulled the piece this week after learning that it includes a musical quotation from the “Horst Wessel” song, the Nazi anthem.
The Ethics Around Photos Represented As Journalism Are Changing (Or Are They?)
“At a time when anyone with an Instagram account can become a de facto reporter, the controversy raises questions about what viewers should know about photos classified as journalism — and where one of the world’s most respected photo prizes draws the line between documentary photography and art photography.”
Jerry Saltz, Social Media’s Favorite Art Critic, Suspended From Facebook
“Art has always posed a problem for Facebook. Its community standards ban nudity, and the combination of algorithms and overseas workers that scan the site for infractions have trouble distinguishing between an artistically nude image and a pornographically nude one. … Now it seems New York magazine’s art critic Jerry Saltz has been caught in the net.”
Does The Future Of Orchestral Music Lie In These Two Pieces?
Justin Davidson: “These two not-yet-senior composers … have double-handedly resurrected the grand symphonic manner that, like the novel and the painting, has died any number of times.”
Documentary On Delhi Gang Rape Banned In India Following Media Outrage
“An Indian court blocked the broadcast of a documentary about a 2012 gang rape and murder that sparked national outrage and tarnished the country’s reputation, saying an interview in the film with one of the perpetrators could ’cause huge public outcry’.” (The BBC went ahead with a UK broadcast.)
David Hallberg Pulls Out Of ABT Spring Season
“David Hallberg, the American Ballet Theater principal dancer, is injured and will not perform during the company’s Metropolitan Opera House season … Mr. Hallberg, who is also a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, had foot surgery last fall.”
UK Finally Overhauls Child Labor Laws For Performers
“A 10-year campaign to overhaul child licensing and performance regulations is celebrating success after the introduction of a new act marked the biggest change in legislation in more than 40 years.”
Veteran Theater Critic Margaret Croyden Dead At 92
“Born in Brooklyn and educated in New York, Ms. Croyden contributed regularly to The New York Times during the 1970s and 80s, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, American Theatre, The Nation and Theater Week” and wrote books about stage directors Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook.
Should We Really Censor The Anti-Semitism In “The Merchant Of Venice”?
No less a Shakespearean than Mark Rylance recently said yes. Director Rupert Goold thinks shining a light on that prejudice is important. Booker Prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson says removing the prejudice from the script “is to tear out its very heart.” At least one Arab director won’t even go near the play.
The Power And Importance Of Touch (It’s Huge)
Remember the orphanages of Ceausescu-era Romania, overstuffed and understaffed institutions where infants and young children were severely touch-deprived – and grew up seriously disturbed? Maria Konnikova explains why that was no fluke.
The 1906 Novel That Imagined New York In 2015
“Set ninety years after the cataclysmic Terror of 1925, Sutphen’s book imagines that the world of 2015 has devolved into three tribes: the Painted People, the House People, and the marauding Doomsmen. Keeps, drawbridges, archery, and Sirs and Ladies have grown back as thickly as vines over the ruins of American civilization. At the center of it all is the city of Doom, ‘gigantic, threatening, omnipotent,’ and ruled by the post-apocalyptic godfather Dom Gillian.”