James Cousins: “It’s not every day that you get approached to reimagine a piece of choreography that will then be performed at the 90th birthday celebrations of the original choreographer. But this is the position I found myself in a few months ago. The work was Cell by Robert Cohan, which was created back in 1969 for London Contemporary Dance Theatre when Cohan was artistic director at the then newly formed dance organisation The Place.” (includes video)
Think You Can Make A Living Writing A Book? Not With These Advances
“The median advance for traditionally published authors is “well under £6,600”, according to early findings of a survey into authors’ attitudes towards their publisher. The survey also found that bigger publishers pay more.”
Does Children’s Theatre Damage Young Performers By Keeping Things Too Sweet?
“The typical demographic of the audience for the young company’s work isn’t enough to educate our young performers about the needs of an audience. How will they ever fulfil their potential as artists and theatre-makers without that understanding?”
Who’s Really To Blame For MoMA’s Björkgate?
“This is obviously about the board members going to dinner parties and such, and being told by friends and associates that they should be embarrassed by the show. And they should be, I guess; the problem is that they refuse to accept any responsibility for fostering the conditions that allowed it to happen.”
JK Rowling’s Great Answer To A Question About Dumbledore’s Sexuality
“When Rowling first told fans about Dumbledore’s sexuality, she shed light on the wizard’s confirmed single status by indicating that he was once in love with his childhood friend Gellert Grindelwald – who later went on to become an extremely dangerous dark wizard, and was defeated by Dumbledore prior to the events of the first Harry Potter book.”
LA County Museum Of Art Makes An Unprecedented Sponsorship Deal With Car-Maker
“In a deal that will be the longest corporate sponsorship in its history, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is expected to announce Thursday a partnership with Korean automaker Hyundai, a ten-year agreement that will put a spotlight on Korean art through exhibitions and provide support for the museum’s art and technology program.”
What Shakespeare Knew About Robert Durst’s Confession-Or-Non-Confession
Adam Gopnik: “Many people have pointed out the eerie resemblance of Durst’s words to a Shakespearean soliloquy. Actually, only one kind of soliloquy – the villain’s kind – takes this form. Durst’s words are not at all Hamlet-like, as some have said. They recall, instead, the soliloquies of Iago, in Othello, and of Edmund, in King Lear – the moments when an evil man speaks out loud of his own capacity for evil, and then assures us that there’s nothing really shocking there.”
Why Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton Building Is a Masterpiece (And Why Photographs Can’t Communicate Its Genius)
Justin Davidson: “With its white body encased in a cloud of pearl-grey glass, it borrows the muted palette of the 16th Arrondissement, but its cornucopia of forms expresses an alien exuberance. … If you’re going to make an architectural argument for excess, this is the way to do it.”
Video From Last Production Of Two Opera Singers On Downed Germanwings Flight
“Two opera singers were among the victims of the Germanwings crash on Tuesday: the contralto Maria Radner and the baritone Oleg Bryjak. Both had been performing in Siegfried, the third opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle, at the Liceu opera house in Barcelona, Ms. Radner as the earth goddess Erda and Mr. Bryjak as the scheming dwarf Alberich.”
How Important Is Color? Watch What Happens When Colorblind People Experience It
“A recent video by Valspar Paint highlights just how awe-inspiring color really is. In it, they give color blindness-correcting glasses made by EnChroma to color blind people and allow them, for the first time ever, to experience color.”
Elena Ferrante And Karl Ove Knausgaard (And What Preferring One Or The Other Says About You)
“The meta-question, of course, is what these affinities mean. What’s at stake when we opt for snow over sun, anger over awkwardness, herring over prosciutto, women over men, the north over the south, 1955 over 1985? What does our preference for Knausgaard or Ferrante suggest about us?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.25.15
Meeting Half Way
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-03-25
Boffo Senufo: Companion Images for My WSJ Piece on Cleveland Museum’s African Show
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-03-25
What Makes a City Beautiful ?
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-03-25
cool concerts
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2015-03-25
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Here’s How Much Cultural Tourists Impact London’s Economy
“The report comes after the latest figures from the Society of London Theatre reported an 11th consecutive year of growth among West End theatre box office takings, measuring gross sales of more than £623 million in 2014. Similarly, attendances for the 53 theatres in full SOLT membership grew to 14.7 million in 2014, a 1% increase on the previous year.”
Pierre Boulez Turns 90: His Influence Is Undeniable
“Boulez’s style is explosive. He detonates a germ of an idea and, like a seed, it grows a sonic forest. The common fallacy is that pieces as highly and intricately structured as these require technical understanding. But you don’t need to be a botanist to be stirred by a field of wild flowers.”
Málaga Tries To Make Itself Spain’s Newest Arts Hub
Francisco de la Torre, mayor since 2000 of the Andalusian seaside city, has attracted branches of such museums as the Pompidou, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the State Russian Museum – in a bid to make the city a destination for more than just cruise ships. Not all Malagueños are pleased, however.