“What they do say is actually much weirder.”
This Is One Crazy-Ass Linguistic Analysis
“Let’s face it, there is no depth to which linguists will not sink in their hunt for the oddities of language. … Just to emphasize, yes, there are actual serious-ass, um, analyses about the word ass.”
The Hamilton Algorithm (Or How Does He Make All Those Words Work?)
Here’s a word-by-word analysis plus a nifty playback tool that shows you how the “Hamilton” rap works.
14,000-Year-Old Cave Paintings Discovered In Spain
“Archaeologists in Spain have come across an extraordinary series of Paleolithic-era paintings in Basque Country’s Atxurra cave that they estimate date as far back as 14,000 years. The 70 or so animal drawings lie nearly 1,000 feet underground, which made access difficult when archaeologists first found the site in 1929 and during excavations carried out by José Miguel de Barandiarán five years later.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda Gets The Full Rolling Stone Treatment
“I get it 50 times a day: ‘Please film [Hamilton]! Please film it so we can watch it!’ And I understand it’s hard to get to New York and it’s hard to get a Broadway ticket. At the same time, filming is an act of translation. It is not being in the room with us. It’s different. You will get the forest, you will not get the trees.”
Does Ballet Have A Massive Sexism Problem?
“The bodies that represent an art form are female, but the minds moving those bodies around on stage — for the last century and in the coming one — are mostly male. Dancers come and go. Choreographers can enjoy a kind of eternal life, and immortality shouldn’t be granted to one gender but withheld from another.”
Houston Grand Opera’s Pretty Good Year
“The group also reported that it added 68 new patrons this season and sold out nine performances, bringing in a total of 75,925 patrons. During its 61st season HGO presented eight main-stage productions, as it did last season, for a total of 47 performances. Next season, it’s slated to host 42 main-stage performances and two free shows.”
Nine Things About Classical Concerts That Need To Change
Michael Vincent: “If classical music is ever going move beyond a reputation for stiff upper lips, it’s time to start to look carefully at the conventions that have formed around the concert ritual. Here are my picks for 10 [sic] things that should change about classical music. Feel free to contribute your own to the comments below.”
Newly Discovered James Ensor Painting Sells For €1 Million
“A previously unknown painting by the Belgian artist James Ensor was the star lot in Dorotheum’s Modern art auction in Vienna on 31 May. Baptême de masques (1925-30), which is based on a contemporary photograph featuring the artist, vaulted over its high estimate of €500,000 selling for just over €1m (including buyer’s premium). “
Battle Over A Building And An Important Piece Of Mexico’s Heritage
“It is considered one of the most important pieces of land art in Mexico, a tranquil oasis in a chaotic city. But the recent construction of a white eight-story building nearby has prompted a furious protest that pits the university’s needs against Mexico’s cultural heritage.”
Prince Post-Death Sales Smash Beatles Record
“For the first full sales week following Prince’s death on April 21, five of his albums were in Billboard’s top 10, at Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7. Only Beyoncé’s Lemonade kept him from the top. Billboard says no artist has had that many albums in the Top 10. Prince had 19 discs in Billboard’s top 200, beating a record of 14 previously set by the Beatles.”
When The Language Of Of Art Became Americanized
“Even today, music fans ask why British soul singers sound so American. Why do Paul McCartney, Adele, Mick Jagger, and Elton John take on a Yankee tone when they shift from talking to singing? And it’s not just music. The same patterns of influence and dissemination can also be traced in movies, novels, and other creative fields.”
Two Neuroscientists Try To Figure Out A Microprocessor (It Doesn’t Go Well)
Last week, the duo uploaded their paper, titled “Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor?” after a classic from 2002. It reads like both a playful thought experiment (albeit one backed up with data) and a serious shot across the bow. And although it has yet to undergo formal peer review, other neuroscientists have already called it a “landmark paper”, a “watershed moment”, and “the paper we all had in our minds but didn’t dare to write”.
US Senate Scrutinizes Private Museums Over Taxes
“The US has 43 private art museums, the second-most of any country, according to a recent survey by the collector database Larry’s List. The 11 museums on Hatch’s list alone have assets totalling $1.6bn, according to their 2013 federal tax returns.”
Laurie Anderson: ‘I Didn’t Want To Be The Artist Who Was Playing Concerts For Dogs. Now I AM The Artist Who Does The Concerts For Dogs.’
“So we did the show [for the first time] and we thought a few hundred dogs would show up. Thousands. They were all up the steps to the Sydney Opera House. … And there are a lot of Australian dogs who just. Want. To. Rooooock.”
The Lonely Island: How Andy Samberg And His Bros Changed Comedy, Online And On TV
“1. Cut a hole in a box.
The Lonely Island disrupted the distribution and aesthetic of filmed comedy.”
Seth Meyers And The Staff Of ‘Saturday Night Live’ Pick The Greatest Lonely Island Digital Short Of All Time
“In March of [Andy] Samberg’s final season, Seth Meyers, SNL‘s head writer at the time, had an idea: a bracket, voted on by the staff of the show, to determine the greatest digital short of all time.” As it turned out, one of the most popular of them all (over 150 million online views) didn’t even make it past the first round of voting. (And “Andy Popping Into Frame” didn’t even make the ballot, so feh!)
European Union Youth Orchestra Saved By Order Of EU President
“Last month, the EUYO announced that it would close this summer after EU funding was withdrawn.” Weeks of protests followed, and on Tuesday it was revealed “that President Jean-Claude Juncker had asked commissioners to find ‘immediate solutions that can be sustainable.'”
New York Times Drops Its ArtsBeat Blog
The number and frequency of posts on the blog had been falling rapidly in recent weeks; since the most recent redesign of nytimes.com, most of the content that would have appeared on ArtsBeat has simply been posted directly to the site’s main Arts page.
After Six Years, Oakland Ballet Gives Its Artistic Director A Full-Time Job
“Oakland Ballet Company Artistic Director Graham Lustig, who has run the company part-time since his appointment in July 2010, will join full-time in September. The expansion of Lustig’s role signals an improvement in the financial position of the respected but beleaguered company, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015.”
2,000-Year-Old Documents From Roman-Era London Found In Mud
“Researchers from Museum of London Archaeology uncovered more than 400 wooden tablets during excavations in London’s financial district for the new headquarters of media and data company Bloomberg. So far, 87 have been deciphered, including one addressed ‘in London, to Mogontius’ and dated to A.D. 65-80 – the earliest written reference to the city, which the Romans called Londinium.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.01.16
Formerly famous
In a popular culture, fame is cheap. That’s what Andy Warhol meant when he said that in the future, everybody would be famous for fifteen minutes. (Remember JenniCam?) It’s also what I had in mind … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-01
Snapshot: Junior Brown sings and plays “Highway Patrol”
Junior Brown sings and plays “Highway Patrol” in an undated TV clip. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-01
[ssba_hide]
Turning A Salman Rushdie Novel Into An Opera
A report on how composer Jack Perla and playwright Rajiv Joseph (a Pulitzer finalist for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Lortel and Obie winner for Guards at the Taj) developed their adaptation of Shalimar the Clown, which premieres next week at Opera Theater of St. Louis.
Tate Director: We Won’t Be Doing Satellite Tates
Nicholas Serota: “Although other big institutions earn or are negotiating lucrative fees from branded projects abroad—the Pompidou receives around €1m a year for its pop-up space in Malaga, Spain, and the proposed Guggenheim Helsinki’s annual operations fee is €1m—Serota ruled this out as a source of funding or profile-raising.”
Bolshoi Dancer Convicted Of Acid Attack On His Boss Now Out On Parole
“Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2013 for orchestrating the attack on artistic director Sergei Filin, has been granted parole and is already ‘back at home in Moscow,’ his lawyer Sergei Kadyrov told TASS news agency.”