“[Tedi] Asher’s initial one-year appointment is part of a broader strategy at the Peabody Essex [in Salem, Mass.], which over the next five years will completely redesign its galleries, incorporating neuroscience to devise multisensory exhibitions, unexpected gallery spaces, stories, and interactive features to heighten audience engagement.”
Celebrities Caught Smoking In The Met Museum Bathroom (And Museum Board Members Aren’t Happy)
According to “Page Six,” one board member was “horrified to go into the ladies’ loo” to find a “host of celebs messing around,” including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Kendall Jenner, and Kim Kardashian. On top of that, certain celebrities, such as Bella Hadid, Marc Jacobs, and Dakota Johnson, were also caught smoking in the bathroom.
Richard Florida’s Contrition – Tooth-Fairy Thinking?
When the world’s most famous mayor writes off the U.S. government as a partner in the battle for clean air and the world’s most famous urbanist falls back on a set of tooth-fairy political fixes, then maybe cities’ best option really is despair.
Elvis Fans Are Starting To Die Off, And No One Wants Their Memorabilia
So this is what happens when a cultural phenomenon fades. “There are about 32,000 Elvis records being sold on eBay at the moment – this number was closer to 20,000 items for all memorabilia five years ago. And it’s not even as if they are selling well.” Ouch.
Remodeling Modernism, And Saving A City Center
The town of Chester, UK, had a problem: An empty old Odeon movie theater, and a library that needed to move in order to save money. Then architects worked a miracle of a performance space that also incorporates a library (open from 8 am to 11 pm, just like the venue), restaurants and space that might “make connections between one use and another, such that someone coming for a show might leave with a book, or a school party visiting the library’s education rooms might also see some acting.”
Ai Weiwei On The Toxicity Of Censorship
“The harm of a censorship system is not just that it impoverishes intellectual life; it also fundamentally distorts the rational order in which the natural and spiritual worlds are understood. The censorship system relies on robbing a person of the self-perception that one needs in order to maintain an independent existence. It cuts off one’s access to independence and happiness. Censoring speech removes the freedom to choose what to take in and to express to others, and this inevitably leads to depression in people. Wherever fear dominates, true happiness vanishes and individual willpower runs dry. Judgments become distorted and rationality itself begins to slip away. Group behavior can become wild, abnormal and violent.”
Do Reviews Of ‘Family Musicals’ Matter? Not To Kids, The Critical Power In The Family
Just ask Anastasia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Or rather, ask their producers, who are happy that kids and their parents say things like, “It’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! How do you not come?”
The Story Of A Child Prodigy Who Found Her Perfect Violin, And Then Had It Stolen
Min Kym: “I didn’t know who I was anymore, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt as though I was just a sort of shell of a person. … You know, when it’s a human relationship, it’s something that everybody can relate to and understand. But I think as a violinist, as a musician, as an artist, when you know the relationship that you have with your particular art, it’s something that lives inside you and has a life of its own.”
We Can (Maybe) End Discrimination With This One Weird Trick
In a single two-hour workshop, “Devine and Cox offered ideas for substitute habits. Observe your own stereotypes and replace them, Cox said. Look for situational reasons for a person’s behavior, rather than stereotypes about that person’s group. Seek out people who belong to groups unlike your own. Devine paced among the desks, making eye contact with each student. ‘I submit to you,’ she said, her voice steady with conviction, ‘that prejudice is a habit that can be broken.'”
The National Symphony Creates A One-Take Recording [VIDEO]
Conductor Deborah Wiseman: “We’re recording straight onto vinyl. As we are playing, the little grooves of vinyl are being created, so really, what you play is there forever.”
Will MTV’s Non-Gender-Segregated Award Start An Avalanche?
Or is it a one-time thing? “Where will all this lead? I don’t even want to predict. Maybe nowhere. Maybe somewhere. … Wherever it leads (or doesn’t), I have to give the MTV Movie & TV Awards credit for having the audacity to shake up the cultural DNA, to show us what a new kind of post-gender consciousness feels like.”
A New Banksy In England Shows A Man Chipping Away At An EU Flag
Banksy has some feelings about Brexit, and the artist wants everyone to understand them. “The artwork emerged overnight on the Castle Amusements building near the ferry terminal, which connects the UK with mainland Europe.”
How Do Celebrities, And Studios, Get Hacked? Blame Smart Hackers, And Careless Vendors
Here’s the issue: “While they may not be able to break into a Universal Studios or a Netflix directly, [cybercriminals] have learned that the highest-profile targets are supported by a system of soft targets — content collaborators, remixers, postproduction studios and others — that do not have the same resources, security technology or sense of paranoia. And the hackers have started capitalizing.”
Barbara Cook, Who Originated The Role Of Cunigonde In Bernstein’s Candide And Reinvented Herself Decades Later, Has Retired At Age 89
Her son conveyed the news to The New York Times to forestall speculation. “She defied so much for so long: depression, alcoholism, age. Mr. LeGrant said, on the phone and over lunch a couple of days later, that she had decided to put out the word about retirement. ‘The public hasn’t seen her in months,’ he said, ‘and somebody would go ‘Oh, my God,’ and it would be on Page Six.'”
Are You Ready To Pay For Things With Your Face?
That’s right: Google may be making plans for people to use Android Pay … by triggering facial recognition.
Top AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 05.07.17
Don’t Make People Think About Guns, If You Want to Fund the Arts
Excellent news this week as Congress said ‘NO’ to the President’s request to eliminate funding for the arts. How did that happen? With a lot of heavy lifting. Every time we fight this fight (and … read more
AJBlog: The Bright Ride Published 2017-05-07
Pushing the Past Forward
The Limón Dance performs at the Joyce Theater, May 2 through 7. Members of the Limón Dance Company (L to R): Elise Drew Leon, Jesse Obremski, and Kathryn Alter in José Limón’s Concerto Grosso José … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-05-07
Cost disease does not explain everything
In my last post I wrote about cost disease, the powerful analysis of economic shifts that results from labor-saving technological change occurring at different speeds in different sectors of the economy. This is an addendum: … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2017-05-06
Songwriting’s Roots in Poetry and Prose
GENERALLY, I’m skeptical of the glib and automatic denoting of any intelligent or articulate musician as “a poet.” But the connection between popular song and literature go back, in the Anglo-American tradition, at least … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-05-05