“In Coeur d’Alene, four members of a committee dedicated to curriculum review have urged the city’s school district to ban Steinbeck’s famous novel from being taught in classrooms … In Asheville, one school has already suspended [Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 bestseller], a frequently challenged novel about an Afghan boy growing up in Kabul.”
Why Is It So Difficult To Make A Good Film About Writing?
“One of the main problems with films about writers is that the films are too often very inarticulate when talking about books.”
Art And The Cherished American Right To Do Something Stupid
“Congress has made no law abridging the right of free speech for this or any of the other hack artists. The show itself was proof enough of that. But neither is there a law that requires liking their cheap propaganda.”
Can Silicon Valley Build Better Schools?
While “information technology has vastly expanded access to information, a major challenge remains: How do you figure out what kind of information each child needs, when, and in what way? Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley is home to an unusual number of schools devoted to solving this problem.”
Opera Australia Squeeze: Bigger Audiences But Not Enough Money
“Even as audiences grew, the company’s decisions to hold ticket prices relatively stable and offer discounts and packages meant the total box office of $67.4 million was lower than expected.”
Yannick Nézet-Séguin To Leave Rotterdam Philharmonic Post In 2018
“The Rotterdam Philharmonic said on Tuesday that its principal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin will step down in 2018, his tenth year on the job. The announcement was widely expected, as the conductor has also been juggling directorships at the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, and is increasingly tapped as a guest conductor.”
Neil Shicoff Gets An Opera Company To Run – In St. Petersburg
The 65-year-old tenor, said more than once in the past to have been a candidate for the top post at the Vienna State Opera, has been named chief of opera at the Mikhailovsky Theatre which artistic director (and chief funder) Vladimir Kekhman has transformed from poor stepsister to the Mariinsky into one of Russia’s most dynamic opera and ballet houses.
Three Great Cartoonists – Bechdel, Spiegelman, Gaiman – Defend Charlie Hebdo’s PEN Award
“Cartoonists tend to stick together because they have to; as Gaiman points out, their work is disproportionately singled out for suppression both abroad and in the U.S., while at the same time often regarded as not ‘serious’ enough to deserve a full-throttle defense.”
Marc Maron Became A Comedian Because He Thought They Have Life Figured Out
“I think when I was a kid, I always thought that the comics seemed to have a handle on things because they had a joke about everything or they had a point of view about everything, or they were able to manage a certain amount of chaos and pain and family situations. They just seemed to be able to handle life.”
Before You Start: A Look At Introductions, Forewords, and Prefaces
Nick Ripatrazone considers some classic examples of the genre(s), from Walker Percy’s foreword to A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole to Graham Greene’s own preface to The Comedians (framed as a letter to his editor) and Jack Kerouac’s intro-in-the-form-of-a-questionnaire to Lonesome Traveler.
Portable Neuroscience For The Masses?
“The device uses a technique called neurofeedback. This has been around since the 1960s, but traditionally, the EEG equipment needed to practice neurofeedback was limited to research centers and specialized clinics. Now, devices like the Versus are bringing the technique into the homes of corporate executives, elite athletes like Walsh, and others.”
The New Whitney: Thinking About The Future
“Finances permitting, the Whitney should one day revert to its original intention to operate in both its old and new buildings. This could occur after the Metropolitan Museum’s eight-year lease on the Whitney’s former home runs out. Historic art was seen to better advantage in architect Marcel Breuer’s more structured confines.”
What “The Hollywood Model” Tells Us About How To Work Creatively
“This approach to business is sometimes called the “Hollywood model.” A project is identified; a team is assembled; it works together for precisely as long as is needed to complete the task; then the team disbands. This short-term, project-based business structure is an alternative to the corporate model, in which capital is spent up front to build a business, which then hires workers for long-term, open-ended jobs that can last for years, even a lifetime.”
Is Pop Music Still Evolving? Here’s What The Research Says
A multifaceted examination of the musical properties of hit songs from 1960 to 2010 concludes that pop is, in fact, continually evolving. This process occurred “with particular rapidity during three stylistic ‘revolutions’ around 1964, 1983, and 1991.”
The Onion Is Turning Into A Digital Media Empire – And Doing It Better Than The Media It Makes Fun Of
“Now, The Onion is not just a comedy website. Onion Inc. cannot be described, simply, as a publisher. It has been transformed into a bonafide digital media company – with a profitable, in-house advertising agency in tow – that wants to succeed where the targets of its barbs have not.
How Virginia Woolf Brought Her Mother Back To Life
Christopher Frizzelle looks at the miracle(s) the author worked in To the Lighthouse.
‘Cryptomnesia’ – How We Come Up With Ideas Or Songs Or Paragraphs That Other People Already Had
The term, which means “hidden memory,” describes the cause of what’s often described as “unconscious plagiarism” – and it’s a phenomenon that can be replicated in the lab.
How The Hell Do You Install A 40-Ton Richard Serra Sculpture?
“The artist’s latest work, Equal, a series of paired 40-ton stacked steel cubes now on display at David Zwirner’s West 20th Street gallery, required master riggers, hydraulic gantries, and a custom runway just to be installed in a building itself expressly designed to accommodate artists’ big ideas. Now, if you were to buy one, just imagine trying to get installing it [past] your co-op board.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.05.15
Uncompromising positions
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2015-05-05
Theatre in London and New York
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2015-05-05
Thoughts On New Orleans And Jazz
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-05-04
Another Take On New Orleans
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-05-05
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UK Lottery Generates Record Amount For The Arts
“£1.8 billion was shared between the Lottery Good Causes, of which the arts receive a 20% share – £359 million – alongside other areas such as sports, heritage, health and education. It represents a 2.6% increase on the previous year, which saw Lottery Good Causes benefit from £1.7 billion.”
Director Joss Whedon Quits Twitter After Criticism
Many called him sexist and misogynistic and said he had done a “hatchet job” on Black Widow, also known as Natasha Romanoff. Whedon had been a high-profile user of Twitter, calling it “enormous work – very fun”.
Rare Garcia Marquez Book Stolen From Colombian Book Fair
“The first edition is one of only 8,000 copies published in 1967 by an Argentine editorial house, Sudamericana, and a signed copy like the one stolen in Bogota can command as much as $23,000 online.”
Orlando Philharmonic Appoints Knights’ Eric Jacobsen As Music Director
“As music director, he will be the top artistic official at the orchestra, choosing programs, arranging guest artists and conducting concerts. His selection followed a two-year search for a replacement for Christopher Wilkins, music director from 2005-13.”
The Conductorless Orchestra That Plays In Soup Kitchens And Crumbling Churches
Violinist Vena Johnson of the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra: “There’s this disconnect between what the art means to us and how that translates into the community. Many people just aren’t reached. It’s not necessarily economic – if the art isn’t speaking to a society for what we’re going through, then it won’t translate.” (Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 5 went over particularly well in the soup kitchen.)