Dan Kois: “Ready to explain how you CODDLE WRITERS, Laura?”
Laura Helmuth: “Hello, Kois. Have you made anybody cry today?”
How The U.S. Supreme Court Helped Create The Cover Song As We Know It
It all started in 1908, with a somewhat ridiculous copyright decision involving player pianos.
Why Is There So Little Non-Fiction For Children?
“No one would dream of telling an adult that novels offer a better experience than history or biography. So why do we do this with children?”
Why It’s So Difficult To Bail On Bad Theatre
“Having paid for your seat, having promised yourself a special evening, and finding yourself sitting in the middle of a long row beside others who have also paid and promised themselves a special evening, others whom you imagine have similar interests to your own, people willing to spend time and money supporting avant-garde culture, a community almost—in these circumstances you are probably always going to hang on at least thirty minutes, however bewildered and sceptical you may be.”
The Book Tour – Not For Delicate Egos
“Behold the book tour, which is an ordeal for many writers. They stand alone on a stage quaking and exposed, prepared to offer the world the results of years of hard labor, perhaps only to find that their audience consists entirely of family members.”
David Henry Hwang Fesses Up About ‘Miss Saigon’ Controversy
In an essay, the playwright revisits the outcry in the U.S. over the “yellowface” casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian character in the hit musical, explains how his thoughts about cross-racial casting have evolved, and confesses to the lie he told Cameron Mackintosh.
We Live In A Sea Of Carefully Designed Beeps
Even the word barely existed until 60 years ago. Now electronic tones are everywhere from heart monitors to smartphones to supermarket scanners, alerting us to everything from the truck backing up toward us to the train doors closing behind us to the Lean Cuisine in the microwave being ready. And those sounds aren’t chosen casually: psychoacousticians work hard to match the beep to the job.
TV Industry’s New Hot Property; Audience Warm-Up Artists
“For a long spell, [many Hollywood] comedies … were taped without a live audience as laugh tracks fell out of fashion. But with the re-emergence of the traditional sitcom – comedies staged on a familiar set – living, breathing warm-up performers like Mr. Lundblade are suddenly in vogue. Producers fight for the best and virtuosos can command anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000 a day.”
Dance On HD – Is It Real Or…?
“Broadly speaking it seems fully appreciating a live ballet screening requires recognising it as a concession to the real deal, not a substitute for it.”
Long Missing Van Gogh Painting Discovered In Tax-Evasion Raid
“The safe-deposit box was one of more than 100 targeted by Spanish officials in a tax-evasion investigation. The painting was discovered unframed in the box, El Mundo said.”
An Opera Initiative Aimed At Convincing The Uninitiated That Opera Matters
“Saturday afternoon’s live-streamed Inside Opera event united all seven of the UK’s publicly funded opera houses in an unprecedented collaboration that aimed to introduce new audiences to the art form.”
Cornelius Gurlitt Died. Now The Battle Over What Happens To The Art
“Many must have been unpleasantly surprised when they learned that Gurlitt had willed his collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland. According to reports, Gurlitt was deeply shocked by the way he was treated by the government. And now there are signs that his own will and testament won’t be respected by the state either.”
Data In: Active Learning Beats Passive Learning Hands Down
“Students in a traditional lecture course are 1.5 times more likely to fail, compared to students in courses with active learning.”
Could Philly’s LGBT Bookstore Have Been Saved? There Was A Buyer
“Makella Craelius and her business partner, the filmmaker Puppett, founded Queer Books LLC in February of this year with an eye to buying the store. They hired on two other employees and Craelius began working full time at Giovanni’s Room. They’d been in contract talks with [store owner Ed] Hermance up until the week” he announced the closing – without Informing Craelius first.
Met Orchestra Authorizes Strike Vote If Talks Fail
“The orchestra’s contract, along with those of 15 other unions representing workers at the end of July, and the company’s management is trying to reduce labor costs at a time when ticket sales have fallen and its endowment has dwindled. The vote by the orchestra’s union would authorize a strike ‘should management’s intransigence warrant such an action’.”
PBS Will Offer Video On Demand – But Only If You Pledge
“As television viewers increasingly turn to video on demand to watch shows when they want, PBS and its local stations plan to follow them, but with a twist: They are creating a streaming video service that will be available only to members of local PBS stations.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.12.14
Art, Work and Money
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-05-12
Who Won The 2013 Curatorial Awards?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-05-12
Art and money
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-05-11
Crack-Up: Taste, Anxiety and American Populism
AJBlog: We The Audience | Published 2014-05-11
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Is The Golden Age Of Philanthropy Over?
It is safe to say that the golden age is over. Not that philanthropy has lost all its luster—there are still plenty of folks who consider it the best hope for, in the words of the Rockefeller Foundation charter, “promot[ing] the well-being of mankind throughout the world.” But there is now, once again, a significant and vocal faction willing to call those ambitions into question.
Colorado Symphony Looks To Relocate To A Church
Church leaders informed the congregation of the proposal during the regular Sunday morning service. They followed up immediately afterwards with a town-hall style meeting so people could ask questions and share their views about the plan. – See more at:
The Most Famous (And The Longest) Battle Of WWI Was An Accident
“The air sagged under the sickening odor of rotting bodies, feces, and fear — fear of decimation, fear of poison gas, fear of being buried alive — all of which made for an especially intense sense of isolation and solitude, perhaps unique to Verdun.”