“Pessimistic essayists and philosophers may not cast the same narrative gloom as fiction writers, but the implications of their work tend toward the universal. Indeed, to believe that unhappiness was merely a question of immediate circumstance and particular character might be seen as a crass form of optimism.”
Why Are Americans So Resistant To The Idea Of State-Funded Culture? (A European Wants To Know)
“In Western Europe, support for the arts is in great part the result of centuries of patronage culture. Cultural policy there is as much the product of longe durée tradition as it is about the post-war concept of welfare. And for countries like France, the arts inform its self-conception as a great nation. In the 1980s, the French government appointed a minister for Rock and Roll, to try to fix the country’s flagging presence in that field. By contrast, private interest has always had a large stake in the cultural policy of the United States.”
Why Some People Find Audience Participation Completely Terrifying
Basically, the fear is the same as that of public speaking – except, as Christine Ro explains, that one of the best tools for combating the fear of public speaking isn’t available for audience participation.
An Unknown Play By Edith Wharton (!) Emerges
As Rebecca Mead reports, the manuscript of The Shadow of a Doubt wasn’t hidden in a trove of papers in some remote attic; it was right there in a collection of theater manuscripts at a well-known research library.
Why This Collector Paid $110 Million For A Basquiat
“You’re talking about a handful of masterpieces, which are distributed among a few collectors who are not sellers,” said the art dealer Brett Gorvy, a former Christie’s chairman. “You’re going to have to wait a long time if you are a major collector to see another extraordinary painting like this.”
Opera And Broadway Have A Fruitful Relationship – If Only More Opera Fans Understood That, Says Anne Midgette
“It seems arbitrary to assert that Broadway musicals exist in a separate category from an art form that happily embraces popular forms such as opéra comique, Singspiel and operetta (all of which involve spoken dialogue interspersed with sung numbers). Those opera lovers who profess to look down on musicals act as though the genre were best represented by Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick.”
Why Are So Many Americans So Hostile To Government Funding Of The Arts?
In most wealthy countries, the idea of completely abolishing the equivalents of the NEA and NEH would be politically poisonous if not unthinkable; in the United States, there have been factions calling for those agencies to ve terminated for pretty much their entire existence. Why is the U.S. such an outlier on this issue? Josephine Livingstone argues that the reasons lie deep in the nation’s history.
John Mace, Voice Coach To Broadway And Campaigner For Marriage Equality, Has Died At 97
“After learning the singing exercise solfeggio from an older brother, he took voice lessons at a school sponsored by the Works Progress Administration and at 14 was singing on a local radio station with the Pawtucket Boys’ Club Harmonica Band.” And as a sophomore at Juilliard in 1948, he met the partner he finally got to marry in 2012.
This Tiny Rural Town Transformed Itself With A Small Grant From The NEA
A $25,000 grant to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, led to leveraging of quite a bit of private money and the transformation of a (beautiful) old mental hospital into artists’ residency living spaces and performance spaces as well.
What Happens To Art, And Music, When The Sources Of Revenue Just Float Off Into The Ether?
This is a big, big problem: “The digital distribution of music is not fairly compensating the people who create it, and continual touring cannot make up the difference.”
What, Aside From The Next Big Hit, Do Indie Distributors Look For When They Go To Cannes?
Not things that would work easily in the comfort of your own home: “The very obvious, generic star packages [that look good] on paper no longer necessarily work at the box office; the generic is consumed online at home [on streaming platforms]. If you want to get people to go to a cinema, you really need to have something special, distinctive; it’s got to be an event, something that people talk about.”
Movie Credits Are Long, But Maybe They Should Be Even Longer
The history was that only the main players got credits – at the beginning of the film. Then the unions started to gain more clout, and “as productions grew more lavish and more complicated, more and more crew members were needed. But in the age of celluloid, studios had to be mindful of how long their credits would be. Film was more expensive to work with and process, so each added reel had an impact on the budget.”
What Happened With Netflix And Baz Luhrman’s ‘The Get Down’?
Though Netflix doesn’t release numbers, the series was expensive – and, according to one analytics firm, not as “buzzy” either as other Netflix series, like “The Crown,” or HBO’s also-canceled music series, “Vinyl.”
El Museo Del Barrio Fires A Senior Executive Who Raised Concerns
From Berta Colón’s letter to the board, in which she accused a co-executive of employee intimidation: “Staff is threatened with the possibility of being fired, they are pitted against each other. … During this period of transition without an executive director, Carlos has created an environment that promotes distrust, fear of retaliation and isolation.” And the museum’s newly hired executive director may not yet have permission to work in the U.S.
The Agony Of Ballet Feet
Regular ballet slippers are no good for dancers’ feet, and pointe shoes? Forget it. “While they may run, jump, squat, leap and pivot like any NBA star, dancers do it without shock absorption, arch support or any foot-comfort features whatsoever.”
Why Did A Japanese Billionaire Decide To Spend $110 Million On A Basquiat?
Yusaku Maezawa has a collection of Basquiats, and a lot of other art, and plans to open a museum in Japan to showcase it all – and to lend art to other museums as well. “Mr. Maezawa — who does not work with an art adviser — said he was driven entirely by his love of art and not financial investment. ‘I just follow my instinct,’ he said. ‘When I think it’s good, I buy it.'”
A Movie Theatre In Austin Adds A ‘Woman-Only’ Screening of Wonder Woman, And A Lot Of Guys Freak. Out.
Wow, did the Alamo Drafthouse stir up a hornets’ nest. But hey. “‘That providing an experience where women truly reign supreme has incurred the wrath of trolls only serves to deepen our belief that we’re doing something right,’ creative manager Morgan Hendrix told the publication. ‘As a result, we will be expanding this program across the country and inviting women everywhere to join us as we celebrate this iconic superheroine in our theaters.”
What Does Elena Ferrante Think About ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Being Adapted For The Screen?
In a Q&A with the author, a New York Times journalist gets to ask her many questions about the process of watching her book turn into TV. Ferrante: “No real person will ever match the image that I or a reader have in our minds. This is because the written word, of course, defines but by nature leaves much to reader’s imagination. The visual image instead shrinks those margins. It is destined to always leave out something that the words inspire — something that always matters.”
Denis Johnson, Who Wrote Of The Down And Out And Desperate, And Inspired Thousands Of Other Writers, Has Died At 67
He published a book of poetry at 19 and got his degrees from the University of Iowa, but then addictions derailed him for years. “Mr. Johnson initially believed that sobriety would damage his creativity, but later realized that his addictions were not fueling much writing.” When he got sober, he wrote many things, including Jesus’ Son, a beloved book of linked short stories.
The Guy Who Won The Mall Of America Writer In Residence Knew Just How To Get It
He’s a poet, and he has to string together residencies and gigs like any poet: “The winner, a poet named Brian Sonia-Wallace, has also won a highly publicized Amtrak residency. And a closer inspection of his resume revealed he had also been an artist-in-residence for the city of Los Angeles and had held similar gigs with the National Park Service and even Dollar Shave Club.”
Private Prison Sued For Censoring Inmates’ Reading Material
“A private Utah-based corporation that runs the North Central Correctional Complex in Marion, Ohio, has been sued by the nonprofit Human Rights Defense Center for blocking inmates from receiving books on ‘criminal justice policies, legal research, health care issues and other similar topics.'”
A Closer Look At The Big, New Projects Mass MoCA Is Putting In Its Big, New Space
James Turrell will have nine different immersive light installations. Jenny Holzer will be showing 200 silk-screened paintings and 21 stone paintings as well as several LED displays, all (of course) featuring text. Laurie Anderson will be playing with virtual reality.
Who’s Up To Become UNESCO’s Next Director-General?
Among the candidates to succeed Irina Bokova this November is former French culture minister Audrey Azoulay, the only one of nine who’s from Europe or North America. Three of the candidates are women, and four are from the Arab world.