Author/editor/publisher Victoria Brownworth was there when the Philadelphia institution was literally a room down at South and Third, and she was with it through all of its moves, she marked major parts in her own life in the handsome old brick house where the store helped anchor the city’s community, and she watched the last-ditch efforts to save it fall apart.
The Steep Learning Curve Of Trying To Bring Cultural Options To A Devastated Downtown
“The broader stakes of what we hoped for our town became manifest: not just to open up a bookstore, but to open up the very conditions in which a bookstore might thrive. We could help revitalize the whole town.”
Grieving Gabriel García Márquez
“García Márquez coddled us, promising that not only would traffic lights turn green for us, but swallowtails would swarm the house if someone in it had their heart broken. He didn’t offer a solution for sorrow, but he promised cosmic sympathy. Believing him might be foolish, but it is a legitimate way to grieve.”
The Unbearable Whiteness Of MFA Programs
Junot Díaz: “I can’t tell you how often students of color seek me out during my visits or approach me after readings in order to share with me the racist nonsense they’re facing in their programs, from both their peers and their professors. In the last 17 years I must have had at least three hundred of these conversations, minimum.”
Audiences Are Fainting At Shakespeare’s Globe ‘Titus Andronicus’
“One theatre-goer, who watched the show’s opening night, said there had been ‘quite a few droppers’ in the audience, who fainted upon seeing so much blood. Another reported he had ‘almost puked’ by the interval.”
Twitter Is Now Entering Its Twilight
“The publishing platform that carried us into the mobile Internet age is receding. Its influence on publishing will remain, but the platform’s place in Internet culture is changing in a way that feels irreversible and echoes the tradition of AIM and pre-2005 blogging. … People are still using Twitter, but they’re not hanging out there.”
Abu Dhabi Louvre Opening Amidst Debate On Where Its Art Comes From
“The generous spending pot has produced a collection as impressive as it is diverse, unafraid to grapple with themes such as sexuality and different religions. The project has been raising eyebrows among Europeans, who say that culture requires more than just a chequebook.”
Study: High Rate Of Musicians Suffer Hearing Loss
“An analysis of medical-insurance records of Germans found that, compared to non-musicians, professional musicians were nearly four times more likely to experience some degree of noise-related hearing loss.”
Actor Bob Hoskins Dead At 71
“In his moments of on-screen rage, he resembled a pink grenade. But he was defined from the outset by a mix of the tough and the tender that served him well throughout his career. … No other actor has a more legitimate claim on the title of the British Cagney.”
Forget ‘The Long Good Friday’ And ‘Mona Lisa’ – This Was Bob Hoskins’s Greatest Performance
“[His] appeal lay in a chirpiness forever on the edge of explosion. Yet his most powerful hour came playing a man with genuinely unsettling intent beneath that cuddly exterior.”
Is Art’s Primary Purpose To Be Therapeutic?
Jian Ghomeshi hosts a Q Debate over philosopher Alain de Botton’s “controversial contention that the goal of art should be self-improvement.” Holding up the opposing side is Canadian artist and writer R.M. Vaughan. (audio)
Full-Size Copy Of King Tut’s Tomb Opens In Egypt
“Installed two-meters underground, in a building next to the archaeologist Howard Carter’s house at the entrance of the Valley of the Kings, the project gives a boost to the trend of using precise replicas to promote sustainable tourism at massively popular ancient sites.”
How To Solve Egypt’s Looting Problem? No One Can Agree
“Looting in Egypt has reached crisis point, but there is widespread disagreement over the best way to stop the theft and illegal trade of antiquities. Cultural heritage experts in the US have signed a pact to tackle the issue, and companies such as eBay and Christie’s have pledged their support. Meanwhile, ordinary Egyptians are turning to Twitter to try to save their heritage.”
Cairo To Restore Saladin’s Citadel
“Like many of Egypt’s post-Pharaonic sites, the historic complex has not received the same level of conservation as more ancient attractions.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Taps At Reveille’ Stories Published Uncensored For First Time
“From sexual innuendo to antisemitism, a wealth of censored material that was sliced out of F Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories by newspaper editors is being restored in a new edition of the author’s work which presents the stories in their unbowdlerised form for the first time in almost 80 years.”
Why Are Sales Clerks In Super-High-End Stores Mean To You? Because It Works
“Being snubbed by a luxury store only increases your desire for its goods, according to a new study.”
What Belarus Free Theater Is Up Against
Company co-founders Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin and Vladimir Shcherban may be political refugees in London, but they’re still working via the Web with their colleagues back in Minsk – who have to give performances deep in the forest, and who had to give up their tumble-down garage headquarters after authorities threatened to bulldoze it. (Naturally they’ve all been jailed and beaten up.)
The Songs That Never Made It Into ‘Fiddler On The Roof’
Terry Gross interviews the show’s lyricist, Sheldon Harnick, about writing songs with and without Jerry Bock – and about the big Shabbos number with which they were going to open what became their most popular musical. (audio)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.30.14
Yep, We Do That
AJBlog: Engaging Matters | Published 2014-04-30
Free pricing and access
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-04-30
St. Gauguin: Trouble in Paradise
AJBlog: Artopia | Published 2014-04-30
“Bronze” — A Reprise, Sort Of
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-05-01
Storify of My Top-to-Bottom Wander Through the Metropolitan Museum: Graham’s Rooftop Funhouse
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-30
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FCC Chairman: We’re Not Gutting Net Neutrality Rules
“According to Tom Wheeler, those who have objected to the new net-neutrality rules don’t understand them, and he reiterated his complaint that reports have misconstrued the FCC’s plans.”
Why Bad Grammar Awards Are Really Stupid
“But in failing to mount any noticeable challenge to the language police, academic linguists have left the rest of us easy prey to nonsense and ashamed of our English when we should be celebrating our extraordinary mastery of a language which really is ours.”
Snapshot Of New York State Orchestras Shows State Of The Art
“The golden age, if indeed it existed, must have been fleeting and local, making it more sensible to think about the future than dwell on divergence from a misremembered past. What will the American orchestra be like in 2050?”
Terry Teachout Wins $250,000 Bradley Prize
“Terry Teachout has distinguished himself, not just as a first-rate journalist, but as a supporter of the arts,” the Bradley Foundation’s president, Michael W. Grebe, said in a written announcement of the prize, which also cited Teachout’s work as a biographer (books about Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, H.L. Mencken and George Balanchine), a playwright and an opera librettist.
Herzog And De Meuron Picked To Design New Vancouver Art Museum
Gallery director Kathleen Bartels said the firm was chosen because of its “proven ability to create innovative museum buildings that place prominence on artists and institutional mission.”
Director Of Royal Ballet School Dies
“Gailene Stock has died aged 68 after suffering from cancer. Born in Australia, she ran the world-renowned school, in Covent Garden, for 15 years.”