“After the AI devoured all that video to train itself, the researchers fed the algorithm a single frame from a video it had not seen and tasked it with predicting what would happen next. The algorithm got it right about 43 percent of the time.”
The Beat Goes On: Lawrence Ferlinghetti And Sterling Lord, Still Friends And Business Associates As They Approach 100
“The partnership between Mr. Ferlinghetti and Mr. Lord, two towering legends in the publishing world, traces back to the heady, early days of the Beat movement … Though neither of them can recall precisely when they first met, their long association dates from the 1950s, when they became acquainted through Jack Kerouac, one of Mr. Lord’s first clients.”
Is ‘Art For Art’s Sake’ Just A Conceit Of The Privileged?
Pankaj Mishra: “Artists in America and Western Europe have been allotted a share, however small, in their nations’ wealth and power. … Art itself in [less prosperous and open societies] may seem the prerogative of the socially privileged; but it has to flourish for the sake of much more than art.”
Rivka Galchen: “Art that directs our feelings about contemporary events, even when well intentioned, quickly reads as dated, corrupted, almost always wrong. … Art for art’s sake avoids false warmth; it is untamed, but orderly.”
Dr. Seuss’s Only Live-Action Feature, ‘The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T’
“The film’s producer, Stanley Kramer, that most earnest of Hollywood liberals, never oversaw anything comparable to this extravagant Technicolor vision of a tyrannical piano teacher’s quest for world domination. Nor was any other anti-fascist musical children’s film expected to precipitate a merchandising bonanza. (It never happened.)”
Why Doesn’t Canada Have A National Theatre?
“At a time when many in the arts bemoan shrinking audiences, wonder whether live performance is losing social relevance and even predict the death of theatre, here is a new institution vigorously engaging local and global audiences through national drama. It’s enough to make you ask, why doesn’t Canada have a national theatre?”
Problem: Artificial Intelligence Starts With The Biases Of Its Programmers
“Sexism, racism and other forms of discrimination are being built into the machine-learning algorithms that underlie the technology behind many “intelligent” systems that shape how we are categorized and advertised to.”
Edward Snowden’s Busy International Social Life – As A Robot
“Snowden’s body might be confined to Moscow, but the former NSA computer specialist has hacked a work-around: a robot. If he wants to make his physical presence felt in the United States, he can connect to a wheeled contraption called a BeamPro, a flat-screen monitor that stands atop a pair of legs, five-foot-two in all, with a camera that acts as a swiveling Cyclops eye.”
Now *This* Is A Theater Company That Knows How To Make Do On A Tiny Budget
“It sounded like your typical aspirational, ‘I want’ musical-theater song. Except for the part where a jaguar, played by Jennifer Lim, roared into the scene and pounced on [Celia] Keenan-Bolger. Also, the horses were cardboard heads on sticks, and the ensemble a team of cardboard cacti (with sad faces drawn in black Sharpie).”
Reading Conrad With Convicts: Leading A Book Club In A Maximum-Security Prison
“I’ve always believed that, to remain open to the surprises and contingencies offered by literature, you have to value ignorance more than self-confidence. … The prisoners, however, see my openness as wishy-washy. If this is what you get from literature, they tell me, maybe it’s better to leave it alone. Who wants to be uncertain and indecisive? At least they know where they stand. That may very well be true, I reply, but look where it’s got you.”
Ticketmaster’s Ticket Voucher Settlement Has Been A Big Fiasco
“The entire process was flawed and confusing from the start. Ticketmaster emailed people their voucher codes. When people went to the Ticketmaster website to get the codes, they had disappeared without explanation. Another annoying detail: Part of the settlement included vouchers for $2.25, which could only be redeemed as a discount on additional tickets.”
Also (Possibly) Screwed By Brexit: The Art Market
Because the pound sterling has fallen dramatically, says one expert, “the supply is going to dry up — particularly in the Old Masters market.”
Screwed By Brexit: Theatre, Dance, Film Industries In Britain
“Between 2007 and 2015, a European Union program provided nearly $145 million to Britain’s film, television and games industry, according to an open letter published by a number of British film producers.”
A New, Small, Perfect Shakespearean Theatre – At A Castle In France
“Todd wanted to make a building that ‘is absolutely up to date but could be 500 years old’, by which he means in spirit rather than in detail.”
Tenor Albert Remedios Sang Wagner Like No Other
“Rising from an apprenticeship as a welder in Liverpool’s dockyards to a pinnacle of international success on the world’s opera stages, Alberto Remedios, who has died aged 81, traced an almost mythological career path, appropriate for the singer who so memorably incarnated the role of Siegfried in Wagner’s Ring.”
All Honor And Respect To Ralph Stanley’s Voice
“Stanley’s voice has been called “a force of nature,” “otherworldly,” “elemental,” “eerie.” Try to describe it and you inevitably tumble into a deep mountain mine of contradictory clichés. Trying to capture its singular tone in a fresh way risks foolishness. (“Like a woodwind crossed with a coonhound, turned up to eleven” is a note I just jotted down, before scratching it out.)”
Last Week’s Don’t-Miss AJ Stories: Brexit Edition
Clearly Brexit is a cultural decision, and it will have a big impact… A new jazz scene emerges and re-energizes the art form… There’s a practical reason there are so few women ballet choreographers… Christo’s simple idea wows the world… Has public radio figured out a compelling future?
Refugees Living In New York Set Up Their Own Symphony
“I was hoping that this project would showcase the importance that refugees continue to play in our culture and society while also raising funds for those in need.”
NPR Takes A Gander At Bosch (And Freaks Out A Little)
The headline is “Hieronymus Bosch Died 500 Years Ago, But His Art Will Still Creep You Out.” The story below that headline, however, talks of art history custody battles, the Italian Renaissance, and Bosch’s Gothic printing press-style signature.
Archaeologists Say They Have Found Aristotle’s Tomb
“Aristotle was born in Stagira in 384 BC and died in Chalcis, Evia, at 322 BC. The great philosopher was originally believed to have been buried at Chalcis, however, archaeologists are now certain that the tomb they have found belongs to Aristotle.”