For you young’uns, back before Stonewall, this was an expression gay men used to identify each other. (If a guy replied “Dorothy who?”, one quickly retreated.) But who was Dorothy — Gale or Parker? – Smithsonian Magazine
A Tale Of Two Booksellers, Just Off The Kabul Bazaar
“One is a former communist, the other a former mujahid. Both have witnessed and participated in Afghanistan’s turbulent history over the past half century. They have seen the rise and fall of regimes and today sell books about the men who made and unmade them.” – Newlines
Yeah, Well — We’re A Sucker For Those Dancing Robot Videos – This Time With BTS
“While Spot’s smooth dance moves might bring a frisson of worry to any K-pop fans thinking that K-pop boy-bands might be the next industry that Boston Dynamics is targeting for its robots to replace human workers in, right now it seems that BTS isn’t too worried about the competition. – The Verge
How Do You Prove Opera Singers Can Act? Put Them In ‘King Lear’
Director Keith Warner assembled a cast made up entirely of opera singers, headed by such major names as John Tomlinson, Thomas Allen, Kim Begley, Louise Alder, Emma Bell, and Susan Bullock — several of whom studied drama seriously as young adults and have been wanting to try this for some time. – The Guardian
Artworks Leaving UK As Museums Deal With Cash Shortage
UK museums can hardly try to buy multi-million-pound works of art when they are making large numbers of staff redundant as a result of Covid-19. – The Art Newspaper
James Cuno Steps Down As Head Of Getty
In 2011, Cuno was appointed to lead the Getty Trust, which manages four Los Angeles–based organizations: the Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Foundation, the organization’s main philanthropic arm. – ARTnews
How People Come To Deny Science
People live in information filter bubbles created by powerful algorithms. When those in your social circle share misinformation, you are more likely to believe it and share it. Misinformation multiplies and science denial grows. – The Conversation
The Internet Is Rotting. What To Do?
Links work seamlessly until they don’t. And as tangible counterparts to online work fade, these gaps represent actual holes in humanity’s knowledge. – The Atlantic
Donald Barthelme, Maybe The Least Likely New Yorker Writer Ever
“By most standards, many of his stories aren’t stories at all. They don’t have plots, or even realistic, believable characters. … In the manner of visual artists like Duchamp and Rauschenberg, they incorporated all sorts of found materials: snippets from ad copy, old travel guides, textbooks, and instruction manuals, even other writers.” – Literary Hub
The Shed Wants You To Play Pokémon Go On The High Line, But With Art And Not Cartoons
The two New York institutions have collaborated on The Looking Glass, an exhibition in which all the artworks are in augmented reality, and you point your smartphone at a QR code in order to see them. – The New York Times
Children’s Author Patricia Reilly Giff, Who Wrote The Kids Of The Polk Street School Series, Dead At 86
“Over nearly half a century, [she wrote] more than 100 books for young readers. She delighted younger ones with the adventures, misadventures and high jinks of the Kids of the Polk Street School, one of several popular series she penned. Writing for older readers, Mrs. Giff animated historical events in volumes such as Lily’s Crossing.” – MSN (Washington Post)
How Artists Are Using Tech/How Tech Is Art
The NEA research examines the creative infrastructure supporting tech-focused artistic practices and provides insight into the existing challenges and opportunities faced by artists and organizations working at the intersection of arts and technology. – NEA
Why The Minister Who Slashed Britain’s Funding Of Museums Is Now Chairman Of Its Biggest One
George Osbourne, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in David Cameron’s Conservative government from 2010 to 2016, instituted savage cuts to the budgets of arts institutions. Why did the board of the British Museum unanimously choose him as chairman? For the same reason that American arts organizations put rich and powerful people on their boards. – The Guardian
Fox News To Pay $1 Million Fine To New York City
The settlement with the city’s Commission on Human Rights is for “a pattern of violating of the NYC Human Rights Law” — that is, the culture of sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation for complaints that developed under the network’s late founder and chairman, Roger Ailes. – The Daily Beast
‘Hamilton’ Has Grossed $650 Million. Why Did It Get At Least $30 Million In Pandemic Relief?
The Broadway production and each of the show’s touring companies are incorporated separately, and each corporation can qualify for a $10 million Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. Lead producer Jeffrey Seller talked to the Times to justify applying for the money and explain what it’s being used for. – The New York Times
Storm Blows Roof Off Stuttgart’s Opera House
On Monday night, pieces of the building flew onto the ground; water flowed down the lighting rigs and flooded parts of the stage — all while 250 people were inside listening to lieder. Company superintendent Viktor Schoner told a reporter, “I’m standing underneath the roof and getting very wet.” – AP
Houston Grand Opera Names New General Director, Opera San Jose’s Khori Dastoor
The former soprano only became general director of the company in 2019, though she worked in administration starting in 2013 and started her career there as a resident singer in 2007. Dastoor earned quite a lot of praise for the innovative and decisive ways she moved Opera San Jose into digital media after the pandemic shut down live performance last year. – San Francisco Chronicle
Choreographer Jan Fabre To Stand Trial For Abuse Of Power, Sexual Harassment
Serious allegations made by current and former dancers in his Antwerp company, Troubleyn, became public in 2018. After a lengthy investigation, that city’s labor tribunal has referred Fabre’s case to criminal court. – The Bulletin (Belgium)
Dutch Government Makes Big Change In Restitution Of Nazi-Looted Art
“Particularly significant is the Dutch Government’s new approach to ‘heirless art.’ … Now, in cases where no heirs can be identified, any artwork deemed to have been looted by Nazis will be transferred to an appropriate Jewish heritage institution.” – Artnet
Book Sales Soar Year-Over-Year (Duh!)
It comes as little surprise that statistics newly released by the Association of American Publishers found that total sales for the 1,358 publishers that report results to the association jumped 43.7% in April 2021 over the same period last year. – Publishers Weekly
Scientists Use Scans To Determine Whether National Gallery Vermeers Are Authentic
The two paintings are not obvious fakes. Indeed, one is considered a masterpiece, but they are unusual in the oeuvre of Vermeer: smaller than his other works, and painted on wooden panels instead of canvas. – The New York Times
Juilliard Pulls Video Of Zukerman’s Racist Masterclass
At one point, Zukerman told a pair of students of Asian descent that their playing was too perfect and that they needed to add soy sauce, according to two participants in the class. – The New York Times
Tania León interview, 1989
The 2021 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music composition has not often been interviewed in the popular press, so here’s a Q&A I conducted with her as published in 1989 by Ear magazine. – Howard Mandel
Martha Baer, 82, Dies: Contemporary-Art Rainmaker in Christie’s Early Days in New York
I like to pay special tribute on CultureGrrl to art professionals who took time from their busy lives to deepen my limited understanding of art and the artworld, back when I was beginning my own professional journey. Martha Baer was one always reliable, unfailingly gracious source of help and knowledge. – Lee Rosenbaum
Judge Strikes Down Feds’ Monopoly Case Against Facebook
The judge eviscerated one of the federal government’s core arguments, that Facebook holds a monopoly over social networking, saying prosecutors had failed to provide enough facts to back up that claim. – The New York Times