“It was a succès de scandale, which brought roars from vaudeville audiences and censure from social reformers, with all sides agreeing that ‘I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife – But Oh! You Kid!’ had captured the zeitgeist … It incited countless newspaper editorials, fulminating sermons by preachers, and at least one fatal shooting.”
Lisbon Battles With Itself Over Its Fabled Tile Sidewalks
“Lisboners have a love-hate relationship with their distinctive sidewalks – painstakingly crafted from five-inch cubes of limestone since the 19th century – that flank most of the city’s streets.” But that limestone gets very slippery when wet, and “officials have stirred passions with a plan to make one of the world’s oldest cities a safer place to walk.”
What’s A Website To Do When Google Stops Sending Visitors?
“A couple weeks ago, Matt Haughey, the founder of TLDR’s favorite website, Metafilter , announced that his website is dying. And he says it’s because Google algorithmically stopped directing traffic to the site over a year ago . Alex tries to figure out what you do when Google’s algorithm decides it no longer likes you.” (audio podcast)
Ukraine’s New President Is High On Culture
While little is known about Petro Poroshenko’s personal interest in contemporary art, he has certainly caught the attention of the country’s artists.
How About A SportsCenter For Classical Music?
“Would a ‘classical music ESPN’ work in bridging the gap between our great musical institutions and every cable-subscribing home in America? By leveling the media playing field, could classical music once again compete for the attention of American households?”
An Americorps For The Arts
“Three recent graduates of the Curtis Institute of Music will become inaugural fellows of ArtistYear, a pilot program designed to bring a year-long AmeriCorps-like community service opportunity to the world of the arts in Philadelphia.”
Is The Classical Music World Really So Sexist And Looks-ist? (Alex Ross On Chubbygate)
“Classical music has much to be ashamed of, but it can point with some pride toward increasing gender parity in the makeup of orchestras, toward considerable progress in the representation of female composers, and – caveats aside – toward the historic empowerment of the diva.”
The Book Industry’s First Attempt At A Comic Con-Style Shindig Was A Sold-Out, Chaotic Mess
Book Expo America hoped that its first-ever pop-culture-oriented day for consumers, BookCon, would have Comic Con-level excitement and marketing power. But they forgot to plan for Comic Con-level crowds and behavior.
Exodus At National Academy Museum: Is It Financial Or Personal?
“The National Academy Museum and School has let go several members of its staff, including both its registrars, the marketing director, the building manager and senior curator Bruce Weber.” Other staffers, including the contemporary curator, have left for other jobs. Some argue that the layoffs are to combat a persistent operating deficit; others report that the situation is due to the elevation of a new creative director.
The First Psychology Research Term To Be In The Urban Dictionary
The term is “p-hacking”, and it seems to lie at the heart of a growing “replication crisis” in the field of psychology – “a lack of confidence in the reality of many published psychological results.”
When Maya Angelou Told Me, ‘You May Now Kiss My Cheek’
It was much less grandiose and more affectionate than it looks in a headline – or, for that matter, than journalist Dawn Reiss had expected when she received a list of “communication courtesy” instructions prior to interviewing Dr. Angelou.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.02.14
Devining “Artistic Excellence”
AJBlog: We The Audience | Published 2014-06-01
Another concert for today
(or, Living composer sells out 2400-seat concert hall, and audience roars for him)
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-05-30
News Flash: Financially Challenged National Academy Restructures and “Streamlines” Its Staff
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-06-02
Malaga: A Different Version of Bilbao?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-02
Blurring Thresholds
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-06-02
Film tax credits, jobs, and lost incomes
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-06-02
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Beethoven Was, After All, A Guy
A new biography: “He might have been one of the greatest artists who ever lived, but he was still a man who had to live among fellow mortals, eat and drink, buy clothes, pay his rent.”
The Horrendous Upbringing That Edward St. Aubyn Spun Into Finely Honed Fiction
“St. Aubyn is seen to have done something remarkable with his balance of wretchedness and wit. … He is fifty-four and the father of two, and has the air of someone who is puzzled, and rather impressed, to find that he is not dead.”