“Back in January, Tony Zhou shared a sharp little video essay on Akira Kurosawa’s geometric style, a video that was technically culled from a much larger, more expansive piece on the director that Zhou was still fine-tuning. That piece is now finished, and it’s a bracing analysis that applies Zhou’s insight to Kurosawa’s use of movement in general.”
Gut Check: Are We Really Sure We Want To Make Our Important Decisions Based On Data?
“The gut is dead. Long live the data, turned out day and night by our myriad computers and smart devices. Not that we trust the data, as we once trusted our guts. Instead, we “optimize” it. We optimize for it. We optimize with it.”
Changes To Criminalize British Copyright Laws Has Museums Worried
“Art museums and publishers are currently trying to work out how to respond to the new British copyright law, which goes into effect in 2020 and effectively makes it more expensive to reproduce images in publications and on goods offered in museum shops. But what’s got everyone really worried is that the new regulation makes copyright breach in Britain a criminal, rather than a civil, offense.”
Hans Erni, Prolific Swiss Artist, Dead At 106
“During his long career he produced murals, tapestries, mosaics, sculptures, ceramic art and medals, as well as designing stamps, hundreds of posters and illustrations for books. In 2009, at the age of 100, he completed a 60-metre-long ceramic fresco that decorates the entrance to the United Nations [compound] in Geneva.”
“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” Coming To The Screen
“Sony Pictures is planning a film adaptation of the Broadway musical … Tom Hanks and his producing partner Gary Goetzman will produce through their Playtone banner along with Paul Blake, the lead producer on Broadway.”
Yiddish ‘Death of a Salesman’ Headed Off-Broadway
“An earlier version of Mr. Miller’s story centered on a salesman named not Loman, but Schoenzeit. An actor, Joseph Buloff, translated the play into Yiddish and put on a small production of his translation in Brooklyn in 1951, titled Toyt fun a Salesman. This new production hopes to draw and expand on Mr. Buloff’s.”
Sydney Theatre Refuses To Let A Jewish Youth Group Perform
“Their inquiry was dismissed with an unsigned email that read: ‘Our policy does not support colonialism/Zionism. Therefore we do not host groups that support the colonisation and occupation of Palestine.'”
British Copyright Law Changes Are A Disaster For The Arts And Artists
“The new regulation makes copyright breach in Britain a criminal, rather than a civil, offense. That is not just out of proportion but totally and utterly insane. Are we now going to start sending art publishers, authors, artists and museum curators to jail?”
Is It Time For Hollywood And China To Get Even Closer?
“We are at an interesting point on the road. Maybe a turning point. To date there has been more talk than action. Looking forward we will see more action with every passing year. We’ve moved from the looking stage to the consummation.”
How Nature Writing Became Such A Powerful Literary Force
“Bondage is so last year. Publishers who spent much of the past year in search of the next Fifty Shades of Grey are now seeking to exploit another literary phenomenon: the British public’s seemingly unfettered desire for nature writing.”
The Actor Who Wished He’d Never Heard Of Ed Wood
“Gregory Walcott, an admired actor who appeared in such memorable films as Mister Roberts, The Eiger Sanction, Norma Rae and, unfortunately for him, Ed Wood’s lamentable Plan 9 From Outer Space, has died. He was 87.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning Novelist Says People Now Read Novels Purely For Fun
Mario Vargas Llosa: “You have such a mass of information about everything that qualification disappears completely, and everything is equally measured…. Now the novels that are read are purely entertainment – well done, very polished, with a very effective technique – but not literature, just entertainment.”
South By Southwest Allows Young Musicians Into The Spotlight
“The promise for musicians is that a stray festival encounter or its ripples across the Internet can bring new opportunities, and many of them spend the festival in a whirlwind of performances, interviews, handshaking and making contacts.”
The Seoul Philharmonic’s Tour Cancellation Might Have Come From Its Deep, Troubling Infighting
“When the respected Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra announced this month that it was canceling its United States tour set for April, it cited fiscal woes. Left unsaid were the lurid allegations of sexual harassment and financial improprieties that have rocked the orchestra recently, culminating in a police raid of its offices.”
Did Buena Vista Social Club Sell A Tourist-Approved View Of Pre-Revolution Cuba?
“There is a huge disconnect between what Cubans are listening to and what tourists want. There is more modern and international-sounding dance music. There is timba or salsa cubana, a mixture of son, US funk, jazz and reggaeton, and local folklore drum styles. It’s very modern-sounding, very dense rhythmically.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs For 03.22.15
The Problem with the L Word
AJBlog: We The AudiencePublished 2015-03-22
Quantum Theory, Soul Removal, and Atheists
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2015-03-21
News: A Jan Lundgren Compilation
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2015-03-21
The Horatio Alger Myth: Amanda Palmer
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2015-03-20
Ask a Simple Question… or Three
AJBlog: Field NotesPublished 2015-03-20
Stop Talking About Art as an Abstract Concept
AJBlog: Field NotesPublished 2015-03-20
Arguing for the Arts in Contemporary Society
AJBlog: Field NotesPublished 2015-03-20
Exhibitions To See This Spring
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2015-03-20
When Burning Man Goes To Northern Ireland
“More than 60,000 people visited the structure in the week before it was set alight, leaving hundreds of personal messages of love and loss.”
No Surprise: Women Purchased The Vast Majority Of Theatre Tickets Last Season
“The average theatergoer is a 44-year-old woman who attends plays frequently, the report said. Not surprisingly, the report found that most people who go to Broadway plays are well-heeled.”
Karole Armitage Makes Eco-Dances
“In 2013, she created Fables on Global Warming, a performance-art ballet inspired by animal stories and, last year, presented an ecology-minded piece for families, Four Seasons – A Spinning Planet. Now with the premiere of On the Nature of Things, performed by Armitage Gone! Dance, March 25-27 at the American Museum of Natural History, Ms. Armitage’s activist side has grown even more brazen as she tackles climate change.”