“The company declines to release financial data but claims to publish 50,000 books every month, making it, by its own accounting, one of the largest book publishers in the world.”
A Unified Theory of Humor
What makes something funny? There’s Plato and Aristotle’s old “superiority theory”, there’s Freud’s “relief theory”, there’s the currently-favored “incongruity theory”. But the founder of the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) argues that each of those theories has a flaw – and offers one of his own.
Ancient Fresco Stolen Off The Wall In Pompeii
“An initial theory that the fresco had been taken away for conservation was quickly disproved. Another wall painting fragment, from the House of the Orchard, was previously stolen from an on-site laboratory during restoration, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports.”
How The Henson Company Is Supercharging Puppets With Technology (Reinventing The Art)
“As soon as we could use things like radio-controlled servos, we started using them. As soon as we could use computers to help perform our creatures, we used them.”
The Shutdown Of San Diego Opera: “It Doesn’t Make Sense”
“Who has ever heard of a major arts institution with a $15-million budget, one of the country’s top 10 opera companies, simply throwing in the towel over a deficit of a couple million dollars and not fighting to the end because there is no dignity in that?”
Flavor Of The Month: Behavioral Economics (It Can Explain Everything!)
“So popular is the field that behavioural economics is now often misapplied as a catch-all term to refer to almost anything that’s cool in popular social science, from the storycraft of Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point (2000), to the empirical investigations of Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics (2005).”
Contention: Female Opera Singers Have To Give Up Everything For A Career
“It’s not just the fame and the pop culture that make opera people suspicious. The conventional wisdom has it that you must be ready to sacrifice everything — friends, family, a personal life — for an opera career.”
Conductor Bramwell Tovey Lashes Back At Classical Music Gender Gap Report
“In response to the article, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conductor Bramwell Tovey has launched a series of tweets while on vacation in Tuscany, blasting the article as inaccurate, sensationalist, Toronto-centric, plagiarized, and borderline liable.”
Auction Houses Aren’t Into Giving Artists A Cut Of Resale Royalties
“Art world deal making typically doesn’t involve Congress, so elite auction houses have not had much cause to spend time — or money — lobbying Capitol Hill. And in this case, the effort might seem outsize.”
Films, Especially Indies, May Not Be So Safe For Those Who Make Them
“The biggest Hollywood films … are overseen by studio safety officers who check and crosscheck potentially hazardous situations, making an accident of the kind that killed Ms. Jones almost unthinkable. But smaller productions … rely heavily on the professional skills of production managers and, especially, assistant directors.”
The German Publishing Company That Sells Wikipedia As Books
“Thousands are listed for sale on Amazon, all with the same cover design (albeit with different stock photos swapped in) and the same three names (Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster) listed as the ‘authors.’ Some go for as much as $100.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.23.14
What’s The Best Course For the Bamian Buddhas?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-24
A tenor laments the abolition of San Diego Opera
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-03-23
Creativity, Craft, and the Quants
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-03-22
Candy-coloured world of stupid
AJBlog: Performance Monkey | Published 2014-03-21
Dallas Park Pavilions: CooperJoseph outshines Snohetta
AJBlog: Aesthetic Grounds | Published 2014-03-21
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Will Apple Make A Deal With Comcast?
“If talks come to fruition, such a venture would mark a breakthrough for Apple, which has futilely attempted many times to get in on the TV business.”
Is This The End Of Cheap Music Downloads?
“The chancellor will bring in new laws making sure that internet downloads are taxed in the country where they are purchased, meaning web firms such as Amazon and Apple will have to charge the UK’s 20% rate of VAT.”
What Does Curating Mean In The 21st Century?
“Before 1800, few people went to exhibitions. Now hundreds of millions of people visit them every year. It’s a mass medium and a ritual. The curator sets it up.”
‘First Lady’ Of Czech Cinema Who Made ‘Mordant Satires Of Life’
“The only prominent woman among the Czech New Wave directors —a group of avant-garde auteurs in the 1960s who included Milos Forman and Jiri Menzel — Ms. Chytilova was known for films that were formally rigorous even by the standards of the movement.”
The BBC’s New Plan To Make The Arts ‘Less Elitist’
How? Add some big shows both new and old, sprinkle arts coverage into popular news shows – and raise arts coverage for the BBC by 20 percent.
How Will Deputy Director Erica Whyman Change The Royal Shakespeare Company?
First step: Get the RSC performing more work by female playwrights – and consider how to talk about gender and theatre without going directly to Issue Of The Day 101.
Starting Women Conductors Out Young
“It’s not so much actively sexist but there is a stereotype, really, of conductors being slightly older men. But hopefully a course like this will get younger women interested. It’s a big opportunity.”
James Rebhorn, ‘Homeland’ Actor, Dead At 65
“During his prolific five-decade career, the Philadelphia native also was memorable as the district attorney that sent Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer to jail on the Seinfeld finale in 1998 and as the prosecution’s FBI expert automotive witness in the hilarious film My Cousin Vinny (1992).”
How Do Adults Feel About Going To Kids’ Movies … Without Kids?
“The general ongoing sensation that I was about to be followed home by a pack of villagers with pitchforks who would burn my house down. If you’re a fan of excruciating awkwardness and/or feeling like you’d happily welcome death at any point, I really cannot recommend it enough.”
A New Specimen of That Rare Species, the Broadway Romantic Lead
Steven Pasquale “has generated excitement as the kind of bona fide leading man Broadway perpetually hungers for and has trouble holding onto.” Says a leading casting director, “They just don’t exist – leading men in musical theater who can sing. They’re snatched up by television and movies.”