“‘You’re not stretching your face enough’, explains Crystal Pite, patiently. She demonstrates with a lop-sided grimace that distorts her rather beautiful, open features into a kind of agitated question mark. It’s not the standard rehearsal note from a choreographer to their dancers, but the eight men and women in the studio mimic Pite’s expression as they dance, and an unsettling new energy comes into their bodies. You can feel a shift in the atmosphere of the room.”
What It Means When All Of Our Experts Are Wrong
“History’s roster of morons, you begin to realize, bears a worrisome resemblance to its roster of geniuses. Whomever you happen to rely on for your present stable perch—John Oliver, Elizabeth Kolbert, the Freakonomics guys — you can’t help but begin to feel the chair-legs wobble. Wrongness, now and forever, is an equal-opportunity affliction.”
An International Glossary Of Happiness
“Could understanding other cultures’ concepts of joy and well-being help us reshape our own? The Positive Lexicography Project aims to catalogue foreign terms for happiness that have no direct English translation.”
Public Radio Station Manager Drops ‘This American Life’ Because Ira Glass Put It On Pandora – And Ira Fights Back
Mike Savage, general manager of WBAA in West Lafayette, Indiana, made the announcement on LinkedIn’s Pulse; in the comments, Ira Glass, TAL reporter Ben Calhoun, Audible.com SVP Eric Nuzum, and several other public radio execs debate the issue.
More Stolen Old Master Paintings Discovered In Ukraine – Hidden In The Bushes
The canvases by Tintoretto, Mantegna, Rubens, and Pisanello were stolen from the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona in November; 13 suspects were arrested for the thefts in March. (Last month, a different set of old masterworks, taken from a Dutch museum ten years ago and held for ransom by a Ukrainian militia, were recovered.)
Historic African-American Theater ‘Automatically’ Loses Tax-Exempt Status
“The behind-the-scenes tumult [t Karamu House] has elements of tragedy, mystery and a touch of dark comedy. If it were a play, it would be titled ‘Finagle’s Law: Anything That Can Go Wrong, Will – And at the Worst Possible Moment.'”
In A Snapchat World, Does Queer Poetry Still Matter?
“Queerness was present in poetry long before queer was queer or gay was gay.”
The Deal With How We Forget American Writers (The Women, That Is)
“Women’s literary ambitions are not a recent phenomenon. [Woolson] was a writer who aimed for and reached the heights of literary recognition, despite even greater obstacles than those facing women writers today. The fact that Woolson has been buried under decades of critical neglect should matter to anyone who is concerned about the VIDA count and the reputations of women writers.”
What Jodie Foster Has Learned From Her (Weirdly Slow) Life As A Director
“Foster formed a production company, Egg, and entered into a deal with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, a studio that eventually merged with Universal. ‘Failed moguldom!’ she said with a loud laugh. ‘I was following a path, and — I can’t say I think it was a mistake? But it was a lot of energy output, and I think the energy would have been better spent in other places. When you’re young, you try things.'”
Why Women In Dance Aren’t Encouraged To Be Mavericks
“When you’re a young boy wanting to study ballet you’re already a kind of rebel, someone who is thinking outside the box, so you’re more likely to end up making work or running a company. Girls are less likely to be prized for being a maverick, they’re more likely to be encouraged to look and dance like everyone else – which means that a lot of the creative women will end up in contemporary dance.”
Data’s In: Movies With Women Make More Money. So Why Is Hollywood Resisting?
“These are just a few of the many, many studies that all prove the exact same thing: Movies that have women in them make money. In fact, years with the healthiest total box office revenue also tended to be the most female-friendly. Despite these findings, Hollywood has been very slow to change—whether it’s in terms of gender diversity, racial inclusion, or LGBT representation.”
Is It Time To Do Away With Artistic Directors For Theatres?
“Even though I have been an artistic director myself, we should see the end of artistic directors. The idea that one person has the knowledge, vision and know-how to create all the necessary work that a building needs in terms of output is a bit old-fashioned.”
Modernist Icon Destroyed In Oklahoma
A spiraling 1955 house that was considered one of the icons of 20th-century organic modernism has been destroyed. And not just demolished but ripped out of the ground, as Bruce Goff’s Bavinger House in Norman, Oklahoma, had been built right into the state’s red earth.
Analyst: The End Of Music Downloads Is Near
Midia Research founder Mark Mulligan, who’s spent more than a decade scrutinizing the digital-music market, predicts the music download business will stutter at around $600 million in 2019—a depressing fall from $3.9 billion in 2012, when Apple’s iTunes Store (the world’s preeminent downloads platform) was at its revenue peak. In 2015, downloads declined by 16%, and they look to slide as much as 30% more this year.
Why Americans Tend To Discount The Role Of Sheer Luck In Success (And Get Furious When You Remind Them Of It)
“Part of the problem is hindsight bias, of course – hard work and merit constitute a tighter, more linear and straightforward story, and therefore one that’s easier to process cognitively. The other problem is that people tend to react very poorly to any ideas that chip away at their sense of who they are.”
Curtis Institute Gets $55 Million Gift, Largest In Its History
Nina Baroness von Maltzahn, who steps down at the end of the month as the Curtis Institute of Music’s board chair, has made a grand parting gesture. … On an adjusted-for-inflation basis, [her] donation is the largest single gift Curtis has received since Mary Louise Curtis Bok established the school as tuition-free in 1928.”
Robert Wilson Stages A Hermès Furnishings Show
“The man with the parrot on his shoulder was preening as he examined necklaces before a vanity’s mirror. The woman in a feathered dress was clutching a crystal on the floor. All around them, under a canopy of suspended couches, chairs and wicker baskets, expensively suited executives of Hermès, the French luxury-goods company, were beaming.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.12.16
The deepest power of classical music
I got chills at the end of The Rhinegold (as they called it at the Washington National Opera Ring, though they did the cycle in German). And I cried at the end of The Valkyrie. That’s one way to measure the power of this production, … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-05-12
If Antony Tudor Wrote a Novel
Girl Through Glass, Sari Wilson’s debut novel about the 1970s New York ballet world, focuses on the imprint of George Balanchine on the young dancers in the city. … read more
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2016-05-12
Arhoolie Records (a dozen faves) to Smithsonian
Excellent news on the archival recordings front: Arhoolie Records, the 55-year old treasury of American folk and vernacular musics, has been acquired by … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-05-12
Are We Still Awake? My Storify on Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Snooze
I don’t know about you, but I’m experiencing severe auction fatigue, which is not nearly as rewarding as museum fatigue. So let’s cut to the chase and get right to my Storify account … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-12
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National Association for Music Education Removes CEO After Comments About Diversity
“After a thorough review process, the National Executive Board of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and Michael Butera have agreed that he will not be returning to the association. We wish him well and thank him for his service to our purpose and mission.”
Why Hasn’t The Teaching Of Philosophy In American Colleges Diversified Beyond European History?
“Given the importance of non-European traditions in both the history of world philosophy and in the contemporary world, and given the increasing numbers of students in our colleges and universities from non-European backgrounds, this is astonishing. No other humanities discipline demonstrates this systematic neglect of most of the civilizations in its domain.”
Eviction Of Small Detroit Arts Center Suggests City’s Rising Fortunes
“The plight of the Carr Center — the public face of the 25-year-old Arts League of Michigan — is a multilayered story whose meaning shifts depending on perspective. From one angle it looks like a tale of gentrification: A small cultural organization that moved into the neighborhood when property values were low can no longer afford to stay amid escalating prices in a downtown on the make. From a more global perch, the longstanding financial challenges facing the Carr Center, including annual deficits of about $200,000 on an $800,000 budget, are consistent with the troubles often affecting black and Latino nonprofit arts groups nationwide.”
Picasso And The Making Of ‘Guernica’
“As the most ardent promoter of Spain’s pavilion [for the Paris World’s fair], [Juan] Larrea … realized that the obliteration of Guernica would provide the artist with the very subject he had been seeking. When Picasso claimed to have no idea what a bombed town looked like, Larrea replied, ‘like a bull in a china shop, run amok.'”
A Cheeky Shortlist For 2016 Turner Prize
“This year’s artists include one who made an 18ft sculpture of a man’s bare buttocks, another obsessed by corrugated shop window shutters, another whose sculptures are described as ‘slippery and elusive’ and a fourth who allowed thrilled visitors to ride around the gallery on a choo-choo train.”
Why People Are Turning Once More To James Baldwin
“Like sixty years ago, much of the public rhetoric about race is devoted to explaining to an incurious white public, in rudimentary terms, the contours of institutional racism.”