Because they’re focused on the phenomenon, they misunderstand how individual episodes work.
Jawn – The History Of Philadelphia’s Strangest Word
“The word ‘jawn’ is unlike any other English word. In fact, according to the experts that I spoke to, it’s unlike any other word in any other language. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people. It is a completely acceptable statement in Philadelphia to ask someone to ‘remember to bring that jawn to the jawn.'”
Bosch’s Hometown Gets In The Spirit For His 500th Anniversary
“The Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch is as unlike Hell as a place could be. … But this month, in honor of the five hundredth anniversary of his death, a major exhibition at the Noordbrabants Museum and several citywide celebrations of Bosch’s work have studded the innocuous landscape of his home town with tributes to the infernal bacchanals he depicted.”
Fort Worth Symphony Musicians Occupy Management’s Offices
“Fort Worth Symphony musicians staged a sit-in at symphony offices near Bass Hall on Thursday after management canceled upcoming contract negotiation meetings, they said. Symphony management and union representatives met earlier this month and had agreed to additional meetings over the next two weeks. However, the meetings were canceled without being rescheduled.”
Musicians Probably Need Resilience Training
Because it’s tough out there. “Each concert we produce is a battle on our own frontline with our own increasing expectations and with an ever more discerning audience that will likely be anticipating a CD-level performance. Every piece we write is a wrestling match with the achievements of our predecessors, our heroes, and our own internal struggles. “
What Happens When Debut Novelists Make Risky, Assured Choices?
“Everything is a choice that seems like it could make the whole house of cards fall down — unless you don’t live in a web of doubt. But I write in a dark room of doubt.”
Ann Patchett’s Bookstore Takes To The Road
“The bright blue bookmobile, which hit the road this week, is a roving offshoot of Parnassus Books, a popular independent bookstore. It will roam around town, stopping at food truck rallies, farmers’ markets and outside restaurants.”
After Police Broke Open The Door And The University Closed The Station For Six Weeks, This Classical Music Station Is Back
“Some of the station’s 45,000 listeners grew alarmed over the past six weeks when the station ceased live broadcasts — and played nothing but canned programming.”
New Biopics Of Jesus Use Artistic License To Fill Gaps – Just As Gospels Did
“Though the idea might seem heretical to some, modern film-makers are doing what the Gospel writers did: showing and telling. By filling in the gaps, they are inventing their own non-canonical Gospels, in which they ask Jesus who he might be, and whether he thinks he is who some say he is.”
Sir Peter Moores, Arts Philanthropist Who Funded Opera In English, Dead At 83
“There was nothing dilettantish about Moores’s commitment. His tastes were discriminating and his knowledge extensive – particularly in the field of opera – and he was personally involved in every funding decision.”
Drama Teacher Leaves £3 Million In Her Will To Fund Edinburgh Festival
Ms Rankin’s published will has shown that she has asked for the bulk of her £2,848,368 estate to be set aside for the trust, which was created to help fund productions during the event, which currently relies on around £5m of public funding.
London’s Royal Court Theatre At 60
“London’s powerhouse of new writing is celebrating its 60th birthday. Explore some of the Sloane Square theatre’s key productions through extracts from the Guardian and Observer archive, alongside new recollections from Wole Soyinka, Ann Jellicoe, Amanda Redman, Sally Hawkins and others.”
Does Language Create Ideas Or Merely Describe Them?
“Language, like everything else that matters to human beings, cannot be understood as a kind of semantic Lego, where we acquire individual words with firm, clear shapes and string them together to form sentences, paragraphs, essays and books. Language is shaped by the culture that has produced it, which means that it, in turn, shapes those who go on to use it.”
The Political Novel For The Age Of Trump
Terry Teachout: “When you consider how completely the pundit class failed to get the primaries right, I’d be more inclined to seek political wisdom in the pages of a novel written by a poet-professor who looked 70 years into the future and foretold the coming of a populist demagogue who spoke the language of the plain people.”
Is The Divide Between Fiction And Nonfiction Just An English-Language Quirk?
What we see as the clear-cut dichotomy between “the writing of imagination and the writing of fact” doesn’t exist in many languages, and in others the equivalent distinction is drawn along somewhat different lines.
Joe Garagiola, Sportscaster And TV Host, Dead At 90
After a mediocre career as a Major League Baseball player, “Garagiola called games at NBC for a quarter-century and served as a host on the Today show from 1967-73 and 1991-92. The likable St. Louis native sat in at times for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and hosted a number of game shows, including Joe Garagiola’s Memory Game, Sale of the Century, To Tell the Truth and Strike It Rich.”
New York City Ballet Finally Commissions Some Dances From Women
“New York City Ballet announced Thursday that it would focus on new and recent works next season, with a spring festival dedicated to dances it has commissioned in recent decades, world premieres by Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck, and, after a notable absence of new works by women in recent seasons, premieres by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Lauren Lovette.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.24.16
Max Facts: How Hollein Straddles the Divides Between Contemporary/Historic, Tech/Traditional
When I interviewed him more than a year ago over lunch in New York, Frankfurt museum director Max Hollein and I were obsessed with technology. I was then working on this Wall Street Journal article … … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-24
Nuzzling Brussels: The Musical Instruments Museum Tweets Through the Tears
Horrified, as we all were, by the news from Brussels, I surfed yesterday to the website of a museum there that I’d always wanted to visit — the Musical Instruments Museum. My jaw dropped when I saw … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-24
Despite AA – Don’t Avoid People, Places & Things
The National Theatre and Headlong’s production of Duncan Macmillan’s new play, People, Places & Things, has got a well-merited transfer to the West End at Wyndham’s Theatre, with … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2016-03-24
Garry Shandling, Influential Comedian And TV Writer, Dies Suddenly At 66
“His death is a tragically sudden end to a storied career that more than once redefined comedy: He was best known as the creator and star of the surreal 1986 sitcom It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which ran for four seasons on Showtime, and the landmark HBO series The Larry Sanders Show, a spoof of late-night talk shows that pioneered an age of darker, more adult humor on television and inspired a new generation of comedians.”
English National Opera’s Dire Straits (Is This The End?)
“If ENO is to survive, it must do so in reduced circumstances. It is an understandable impulse for the company’s defenders to decry any cut or any change. But it must change. Its history is full of change. It moved to the Coliseum only in 1968, for example. At the same time the question of what ENO is – what it is in its bones and sinews – must be cherished and protected.”
Jian Ghomeshi Acquitted Of Sexual Assault Charges
The former host of the popular CBC Radio program Q “has been acquitted on four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking by an Ontario Court judge who says the ‘deceptive and manipulative’ evidence of the complainants raised a reasonable doubt [about his] guilt.”
New Scans Suggest Shakespeare’s Skull May Be Missing From His Grave
Researchers used ground-penetrating radar to explore the playwright’s tomb in Stratford-upon-Avon’s Holy Trinity Church. Staffordshire University archaeologist Kevin Colls, who led the study, said they found “an odd disturbance at the head end,” with evidence of repairs some time after the original burial.
Frick Museum Abandons Expansion Plans That Would Have Replaced Gardens
While the Frick abandoned its earlier renovation plan, designed by Davis Brody Bond — which called for a six-story addition that eliminated the gated garden on East 70th Street — its space constraints have remained the same, if not “become more pressing.”
Don’t Blame “Reality” TV For Donald Trump
Yet “reality TV star” is constantly attached to Trump as a label and his rise in popularity as politician, with all its reverberations, is regularly blamed on the existence of reality TV. This is nonsense. Coarse, rabble-rousing politicians existed and thrived before television existed, let alone what we now call reality TV.
‘Big Ego And High-Handed Obstinacy’: Maybe It’s A Good Thing That English National Opera’s Music Director Quit
Rupert Christiansen: “Urbane and cultured, [Mark Wigglesworth] is a charming and intelligent person with exceptional musical talent, but his big ego and high-handed obstinacy are qualities that, in its current ’emergency measures’ position, ENO cannot accommodate. He’s long been well known to be a tricky customer with a short fierce temper, and his brilliant early career hasn’t fulfilled its promise because of it.”