It’s “live coding” and it’s already happening. “The code on display is used to control software algorithms. The musician synthesizes individual noises (snare hits, bass blobs) on their computer, then instructs the software to string those instrumental sounds together based on a set of predefined rules. What comes out bears the fingerprint of the artist but is shaped entirely by the algorithms.” – Wired
Could Michelle Obama’s Book Become The Bestselling Memoir Of All Time?
“According to publisher Penguin Random House, [Becoming] has sold more than 10 million copies — including hardcover, audiobooks and e-books — since its November release. That puts it near the top, if not the pinnacle, of all-time memoir sales.” It’s already the top-selling hardcover of last year, and it has outsold both of her husband’s books put together. – The Washington Post
Choreographer Ann Carlson Makes Her First ‘Dancey-Dance’ In Ages
“Ann Carlson is not the type of a choreographer who makes what are known as dancey-dances. Steps aren’t really her thing. She works with everyday movement, text and props. She has choreographed works for lawyers, fly fisherman, basketball players and even … a flock of sheep. … With Elizabeth, the Dance, created for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City, she’s not only working with trained dancers, but she’s also examining the art form itself.” – The New York Times
Why Are We So Fascinated By Ruins?
Like all architecture, abandoned and ruined spaces are animated by what people want from them. They can be massive economic boons or cynical attempts to cloak a neighborhood’s rapid socioeconomic transformation. They can also be powerful symbols and drivers of community engagement. – Fast Company
Hawai’i’s Last Monarch Was Also Its Most Important Composer
Queen Lili’uokalani steered her people through the difficult period of annexation and prevented a war — and she was also a highly trained musician who wrote some 200 songs (the most famous of them being “Aloha ‘Oe”) that became the foundation of modern Hawaiian music and a bulwark against the onslaught of mainland American culture. – Smithsonian Magazine
Bournemouth Symphony Started An Orchestra For Disabled People. A Year Later, Here’s What They’ve Learned
One of the aims of the ensemble is to show young disabled people that they can pursue a career in music. As percussion player Philip Howells said: “Don’t lost sight of who you want to be to begin with. When people say that you should be a butcher or a gymnast, just think to yourself ‘what do I want to be deep down?’, that’s my moral.” – ClassicFM
The Literary Agency That’s Made A Business Out Of Trump Administration Tell-All Memoirs
Ever since Keith Urbahn and Matt Latimer persuaded James Comey to write what became A Higher Loyalty, edited the manuscript, and worked a skillful media campaign around it, their agency, Javelin, “[has] become a popular destination for Trump administration officials, especially those contemplating an exit — ‘and they all are, by the way,’ Urbahn [said]. … Their central insight is that that hoary old fixture of Washington self-promotion, the tell-all, may be the ideal solution to the very new problem of post-Trump rehabilitation.” – The New York Times Magazine
Downtown Theater Finds Itself On Broadway (And Finds That It’s Not All That Different)
Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men, Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown, Daniel Fish’s very revisionist Oklahoma! — all are in the Off-Off-Broadway mode of messing with both the form and content of conventional theater, and all are or have been on Broadway (the ultimate conventional theater ecosystem) this season. And such recent Broadway successes as A Doll’s House, Part 2 and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 have a similar pedigree. Diep Tran talks to the creators of these works about crossing the downtown-uptown (non-)divide. – American Theatre
What It’s Like To Sing Wagner’s ‘Ring’ With The Met’s Mammoth ‘Machine’
Christine Goerke (Brünnhilde) and Greer Grimsley (Wotan) talk about working on, with, and around director Robert Lepage’s big, complicated contraption — and how it’s been changed in the sixe years since it was new. (For one thing, it’s much safer, and so, says Goerke, “it’s really kind of fun.”) – New York Observer
Why China’s Biggest Film Superstar Was Disappeared (And How She’s Slowly Coming Back)
Fan Bingbing’s place atop China’s movie pantheon is hard to describe to Westerners; she’s sort of a combination Jennifer Lawrence-Nicole Kidman-Julia Roberts-Sandra Bullock. (In the West, she’s appeared in the X-Men and Iron Man franchises.) Very suddenly last year, she vanished from public view, she was loudly denounced in a few official media outlets, and her ongoing projects were put on hold. Journalist May Jeong looks into the reason for her precipitous fall and the warning it sent to the entire Chinese film industry. – Vanity Fair
Local News Is Collapsing In America
In a previous world, perhaps one could imagine that a million bloggers would spring up to fill the void left by all the actual reporting jobs disappearing, but that clearly did not and is not going to happen. The explosion of national digital-only news outlets has come and gone. Many survive, but few do the kind of journalism that local papers did. It’s one thing to tweet from a city council meeting every once in a while, and a whole other thing to cover City Hall for a real newspaper. – The Atlantic
Open Call: This Museum Could Be Yours If You Have A Great Idea For It
The Autry will put out a call for proposals for the “revitalization and creative reuse” of L.A.’s oldest museum, a 12-acre campus near the Mount Washington-Highland Park border, plus the museum’s nearby adobe building, a 1917 replica of a Spanish California ranch house from the 19th century. – Los Angeles Times
Singer At Royal Albert Hall Told To Change Her Pro-EU Dress Before Concert
The British soprano Anna Patalong donned the yellow-and-blue outfit, along with a necklace of gold stars redolent of the EU flag, for a Classical Spectacular performance on Saturday after taking part in the anti-Brexit march in London earlier in the day. However, she changed back into a red dress worn for previous performances for Sunday’s concert following a request by the concert’s producer, Raymond Gubbay. – The Guardian
Large Rallies Against Sweeping New EU Copyright Law
Munich police said 40,000 protesters turned out under the motto “Save our internet.” Organizers said Berlin’s protest (pictured above) drew 30,000, with participants walking past the center of Germany’s collaborative Wikipedia online encyclopedia. Police put the number of protesters at 10,000. – Deutsche Welle
EU Passes Sweeping New Copyright Law. It Will Change The Very Nature Of The Internet
Under the law, internet platforms will be liable for content that users upload, a burden that will fall heavily on some of the most popular online services. Years in the making, the EU Copyright Directive has been heavily debated and divisive among politicians, as well as a cause of concern for the tech industry. One part of the proposal in particular — Article 13, which will govern the way copyrighted content is uploaded to the internet — has many in the tech community throwing their hands up in despair. – CNET
Air-Safety Kabuki (This Is Not A Metaphor)
“Japan’s largest airline, All Nippon Airways, has taken that literally, with actual kabuki performers in its newest in-flight safety video. … Kabuki actors stow their elegantly lacquered bamboo boxes in the overhead bins and under the seats (not in the aisles, thank you), fasten seat belts over their elaborate kimono and dutifully turn off electronic devices displaying scenes from classic ukiyo-e woodblock prints on their screens.” – Forbes
The Arts In LA Are Booming. Why? Geography, For One
One example: The LACMA, in an effort to reach underserved populations, announced plans to transform an 84,000-square-foot building in South Los Angeles into a center for a variety of community-targeted arts programming. “If you look at a map of L.A.’s public schools, the dots representing the neediest students are all through South Los Angeles,” MichaelGovan said. “You start thinking, where can the value of your collection and program be the greatest? When you’re behind a big fancy fence on Wilshire Boulevard, or out in the community?” – Inside Philanthropy
Should Batsheva Dance Company Be Held Responsible For Bibi Netanyahu’s Policies?
Protests against the Israeli government’s policies toward the West Bank and Gaza have become almost routine outside (and occasionally inside) Batsheva’s performances abroad. “But why target a dance company? What does Batsheva have to do with Israel’s geopolitical conflicts?” Brian Schaefer wonders if that isn’t like protesting Trump’s policies at a U.S. company’s tour dates. – Dance Magazine
Talking With The Choreographer Who Gave Lupita Nyong’o Those Weird Moves In ‘Us’
“To hear more about [Madeline] Hollander’s role in the film’s production, ARTnews spoke with the artist, whose background in ballet helped her supply the Nutcracker-inspired choreography in one prominent sequence. The conversation, which includes spoilers for Us, follows.” – ARTnews
What’s The Huge Fight Between The Writers Guild And The Hollywood Agents All About? Here’s An Explainer
The struggle is over how the talent agencies negotiate pay for the writers they represent and whether there’s a conflict of interest. As David Simon (The Wire, Tremé, The Deuce) put it to a notional agent, “If you can only leverage profit for yourself, but not for me, what the fuck do I need you for?” – Vulture
San Antonio Symphony’s Music Director Announces Departure, Gives Orchestra $100K
Sebastian Lang-Lessing will finish up a successful, admired (if sometimes difficult) ten-year tenure at the end of next season. But he says he means to stay involved with the orchestra in his emeritus position — and he’s backing it up with a $100,000 challenge grant. – The Rivard Report (San Antonio)
Court Throws Out All But One Of James Levine’s Defamation Claims Against Met Opera
“The ruling came just over a year after the Met fired Mr. Levine, who had been its music director for four decades and who had recently assumed an emeritus position … Mr. Levine, who has denied any wrongdoing, sued the Met for breach of contract and defamation; the Met countersued him, accusing Mr. Levine of decades of misconduct.” – The New York Times
MoMA Settles Lawsuit By Curator Claiming Job Offer Was Rescinded When She Had Baby
“A curator who accused MoMA PS 1 of gender, pregnancy and caregiver discrimination has settled the claim she brought against the museum saying it had rescinded a job offer upon learning she had recently given birth. Nikki Columbus, who is also an art editor, filed the claim in July 2018 with the New York City Commission on Human Rights.” – The New York Times
Prosecutors Drop All Charges Against Jussie Smollett In Attack Hoax Case
“Infuriating Chicago’s mayor and police chief, prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges against Jussie Smollett on Tuesday after the Empire actor accused of faking a racist, anti-gay attack on himself agreed to let the city keep his $10,000 in bail. But he maintained his innocence and insisted he was attacked.” – AP
Britain’s Largest Bookstore Chain Says It Can’t Afford To Pay A Living Wage
More than 6,000 staffers at Waterstones have signed a petition for the chain’s in-store staff to be paid a starting wage of £9 per hour (£10.55 in metro London), and 1,340 authors have signed a petition in support. Though the chain returned to profitability two years ago, its managing director says it can’t pay that much: “There’s a long gap between wanting to do something and it being remotely sensible.” – The Guardian