“According to bankruptcy filings, the Pemberton festival lost money for three years, and sold 18,000 tickets in 2017, down from 38,000 last year. Event planners say it typically takes several years for a festival to become profitable – a threshold many cannot reach given the proliferation of rival events and the repetition of headliner acts.”
How Toronto Quickly Built A $2 Billion Movie Industry
“In 2008, when Pinewood first opened, production in the city descended to an ominous low of $499 million. Contrast that to 2016 when film and television production soared to a remarkable $2.01 billion. It is the third record-setting year in a row, up from $1.5 billion in 2015. And this year, based on interviews with producers, studio owners, unions and the city, that figure is on track to be eclipsed.”
Ten Reasons Why Your Kid Should Get A Music Degree Rather Than Something More “Practical”
Gradually I learned the truth about the working world: except in a few narrow areas of expertise, your undergraduate college major has very little influence on your career path — or your success. On the other hand, a kid with the strong muscles every young musician grows will be able to prosper in life. Following the tough road of a music major will make your daughter more sturdy and flexible than kids who drift through “safe” degree programs.
Two Billionaires Battle Over Proposed Performance Space Floating In Hudson River
Barry Diller – backed by pretty much every politician with jurisdiction over the spot – wants to replace, at his own expense, a crumbling pier at 13th St. in Manhattan with “an undulating platform featuring pathways, lush lawns and three venues for dance, theater and musical performances.” Real-estate mogul Douglas Durst is leading the (seemingly rather small) opposition to the project.
What The Philadelphia Orchestra Got Up To In Mongolia
Okay, it ended up not being the full orchestra, and “plans changed almost by the hour,” as David Patrick Stearns reports. But there was a performance and workshop for kids in the impoverished ger district, a master class for the national military band, an unannounced visit by the entire Mongolian State Philharmonic Orchestra to a rehearsal, a read-through of a Mongolian ballet score, and an outdoor concert by the brass players in (yes) Beatles Square.
Why Has Performance Suddenly Become A Big Deal In Visual Art?
“In the past, time-based, intangible work requiring an actively-engaged audience was typically left in the shadow of the more easily-accessed, traditional art object. So, what is it about performance that has suddenly become so alluring now?”
Markus Lüpertz: Why The Public Doesn’t Get What Artists Do
“In this moment—if everyone painted, and if everyone was more intelligent—we could all paint the greatest pictures, because we have unparalleled freedom. But nobody accepts it. Only us old sacks of shit live with it. But the youth isn’t interested. They’d rather save the world from extinction, or stop the poles from melting—that’s all nonsense.”
America’s “Most Important Orchestra” Finishes Its Season (But Uncertainty Lies Ahead)
Changes in leadership are in process…
Why Not An Arts Think Tank? There Have Been Models
“While a University affiliated Think Tank, with research fellows and a management staff, has to have income and a budget, it may be possible with today’s technology to run a tighter ship with more volunteer input. It may not be necessary for a bricks and mortar home base, but rather operate as a virtual entity, and it may not have to re-invent the wheel of all the activity already going on. Whereas the model for an Arts Think Tank has changed, so too has the model for its funding.”
Robert Schenkkan’s Anti-Trump Play Found An Audience Around America. In New York Not So Much. Why?
“Schenkkan’s purpose seems to have been understood and appreciated as Building the Wall was produced around the country over the past few months, first as a National New Play Network rolling world premiere by Fountain Theatre in California; Curious Theatre Company in Colorado’ Forum Theatre in DC; Borderlands Theater in Arizona; and City Theatre in Florida. But some prominent voices reacted differently when the play opened recently at New York’s New World Stages, in a production directed by Ari Edelson and starring Tamara Tunie and James Badge Dale. And the mixed reviews surely helped end the run of the New York production prematurely. It is closing Sunday, June 4, about a month earlier than the play’s intended run.”
Why Sofia Coppola Winning Cannes’ Best Director Prize Isn’t As Great As It Might Be
“Because it’s not winning the Palme d’Or. In the screwy universe of Cannes awards, Coppola actually got the equivalent of fourth place, behind the third-place Jury Prize winner, Loveless (directed by a Russian man); the second-place Grand Prix winner, 120 Beats Per Minute (directed by a French man); and the Palme d’Or victor, The Square (directed by a Swedish man). Best Director is considered such a nonessential prize — unlike those other three — that there have been 12 separate years when the jury decided not to award it.”
Nigerian Music Is Having A Moment – But Pirates Are Stealing It
“Nigerian music — Afrobeats in particular — is having a moment. It blares in hotel lobbies, airport lounges, nightclubs and the dozens of bedroom recording studios where young men and women dream of stardom in this clogged, overheated city. While many countries have courts or jurists focused on intellectual property cases, artists in Nigeria have only in recent years begun to pursue copyright protection. They complain that laws to protect them are so seldom invoked that some judges don’t even know they exist.”
Should Theatres Have Intermissions? A TV Producer Says They Just Force People To Drink ‘The Worst Red Wine’
Steven Moffat, showrunner for Doctor Who: “That really spoils the evening when they stop the show and give you the worst red wine you have ever drunk in a crowd of people who just want the show to keep going.”
Can A Novelist Save The Struggling – But Formerly Influential – Sewanee Review?
“The journal, which once published works by literary giants like Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Cormac McCarthy and Wallace Stevens, was nearly moribund. When [novelist Adam] Ross was approached to apply for the position, the review had just a few hundred subscribers, and virtually no web presence. Its plain blue cover hadn’t changed since 1944. Reviving it seemed daunting.”
Progress For Women In Hollywood Has Come Far Too Slowly, But ‘Wonder Woman’ May Speed It Up
Of course, “the real currency in Hollywood is less principle than success. And that’s why there’s so much hope attached to the ‘Wonder Woman’ premiere — that its success with audiences of all genders and ages would bring the ‘knockout punch’ persuading Hollywood to give more female directors a break.”
The ‘Saddest Buildings In Britain’ Are Looking For Buyers (And Fixers)
A charity in Britain is pushing people to buy and restore buildings like the Tonedale Mills in Somerset. “The original timber structure was built in 1754, and rebuilt in brick after a fire in 1821. At its peak, making wool serge, and later khaki dye for army uniforms, it was the largest mill in the south-west, employing more than 3,600 people. Plans for redevelopment were stymied when the housing market collapsed in the 2008 financial crash.”
An American Ballet Theater Dancer Rescued A Man Who Fell Onto The Subway Tracks
The dancer, 31-year-old Grey Davis, lifted the unconscious 58-year-old man on the tracks to safety “with a lift that they do not teach in dance school.”
Top AJBlog Posts For The Weekend Of 06.04.17
Bud Shank, Just Because…
…because you feel like hearing Shank play something you’ve never heard him do. You look around on the internet and see what you can find. There he is in Sao Paulo in … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-06-02
Sgt Pepper’s at 50
SO, you may have heard that a famous record from the ‘60s is marking an anniversary. If you’ve not heard more than you can stand about Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band — which … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-06-02
Proud and Unbowed: Tom Campbell’s Valedictory to the Press (plus, a look to the future)
I was surprised and saddened to realize (from Robin Pogrebin‘s tweet) that I hadn’t been invited to Tom Campbell‘s press briefing at the Metropolitan Museum on Wednesday—the last of these biannual events before he “step[s] … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-06-02
Cory Doctorow’s Post-Apocalyptic Utopia
THE other day I hung out with Burbank resident and globe-trotter Cory Doctorow, who is a cult figure with a very large cult. We talked mostly about his new novel, Walkaway, which is intellectually … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-06-02
Juan Goytisolo, Anti-Franco Spanish Novelist And Political Essayist, Dies At 86
Goytisolo won Spain’s Cervantes Prize in 2014 and, despite leaving Spain in 1956, was still quite immersed in Spanish literary life. Although he wanted “to leave behind the traditional forms of the Spanish literary culture, Cervantes was his guide, as were the classic nonconformists who broke the language and the conventions of the novel, poetry or theater.”