Perhaps the clearest proof that the way we talk about food is saturated with moralism is the ubiquity of the term “guilt”. Marketing departments have seen the power of this and promoted “guilt-free” snacks and treats. This promises an escape from self-recrimination but simply reinforces it by suggesting that eating the “wrong” kinds of foods does and should make you feel guilty.
Quodlibet (That’s Classical For Mashup): How To Turn 57 Famous Melodies Into One Cool Six-Minute Viral Hit
“Earlier this year, Grant Woolard, a California-based cartoonist, musician, and producer, mashed-up 57 well-known classical music themes by 33 composers. Instead of a cacophony, he created a beautifully tailored 6-minute work that has been watched by nearly 3 million people. In the Q&A below, Woolard gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his process, as well as a insight about his next project.”
What Is The Purpose Of Music?
“Like language, music is organised, human-made sound that sprang up independently across early human cultures. Unlike language, however, music serves no obvious evolutionary purpose. So then why do we love it? And why is it so entwined with our emotions?”
Spencer Tunick Brought 100 Nude Women To Republican Convention HQ
“At dawn on Sunday, … Tunick posed the group in a photographic art installation where they held circular Mylar mirrors over their heads and reflected light at the city [of Cleveland] to expose what they view as the naked truth about Republicans.” (By now, of course, this is one of the less weird things to have happened there.)
Why Would 100 Women Go To Cleveland And Get Naked For The Republican Convention? Let Some Of Them Tell You
“I very much appreciate and identify with the mission of this piece. On a political level, my participation will be in contrast to many Republican ideals regarding the use of women’s bodies. My body. My body is mine and I choose how it is used, from abortion to posing nude publicly.”
Why Big Publishing’s Blockbuster Mentality Is Good For Indie Presses And Good For American Literature
“When editors and publishers feel they need to fight for every moment of planned reading, and readers are experiencing a shrinking cultural attention span, it’s surprising that large books inherently make the most market sense. With this pattern of investment behavior, major presses are inadvertently helping foster an environment where American indie presses can thrive by doing the very thing they’re best at: being small and, by extension, focusing on creativity and originality over sales.”
‘Reparations’: Opera Can – No, It Must – Become A Tool Of Cultural Change, Says New York Times Classical Music Editor
“For centuries, opera has been a tool of power, a spectacle developed and organized by influential Western nations and the elites within them. It is long past time for the art form to be more open about this heritage, and to make reparations for it. Using opera to understand the connections between cultures and to experiment with what can bridge them is no longer merely an aesthetic possibility; it’s a moral necessity.”
Is The Word ‘Queer’ Expanding Its Meaning, Or Losing It? When Everyone Can Be ‘Queer’, Is Anyone?
Jenna Wortham: “Facebook, which can be seen as a kind of social census, now offers nearly 60 different gender options … Plainly, we are in the midst of a profoundly exhilarating revolution. And ‘queer’ has come to serve as a linguistic catchall for this broadening spectrum of identities, so much so that people who consider themselves straight, but reject heteronormativity, might even call themselves queer. But when everyone can be queer, is anyone?”
Benjamin Millepied Is Now A Free Man (A Q&A)
“In a recent Skype call from London on a day off, Mr. Millepied looked happy and relaxed, quick to laugh. Words tumbled out of his mouth in sometimes hard-to-follow torrents. He spoke about his constantly expanding plans, his state of mind post-Paris and his love for Los Angeles. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.”
Composer Michael Hersch’s Lonely Path
“After early successes in the 1990s with expressionistic orchestral works performed under the likes of Mariss Jansons, … at 45, Hersch shows every sign of heading farther down a lonely road marked ‘art for art’s sake.’ He writes important” – and often long, and always challenging for audience ears – “works without a commission, and would premiere them at his own expense [if necessary].”
Keeping Choreography Alive After The Choreographer Goes Away
At the Trisha Brown Dance Company, keeping her work going will “require well-versed experts to convey Ms. Brown’s precision physicality and use of gravity to enhance basic movements, such as bending, stretching and rotating. Nothing about it is simple, say her supporters, and it needs careful preservation to survive.”
The Legal Troubles Of The Brothers Who Are Antique World Stars
“Their behavior in recent months has been oddly out of sync with their stature as antique world luminaries. A buying spree this spring left them with nearly $600,000 in debt and spurred legal action from two auction houses. More bizarrely, in several instances during one auction, the brothers, who are partners in at least one business, bid against each other. Their competing efforts sent the price of routine items soaring.”
Where Is This Election Year’s Shepard Fairey?
“As the 2016 campaign season enters the nominating stage — the Republican National Convention opens on Monday in Cleveland; the Democratic National Convention follows the next week in Philadelphia — no image even approaching the power or reach of Mr. Fairey’s poster has emerged.”
Wonder Woman Needed A Woman To Direct It, Says Its Star, And Here’s Why
“For a long time, people didn’t know how to approach the story. When Patty and I had our creative conversations about the character, we realized that Diana can still be a normal woman, one with very high values, but still a woman. She can be sensitive. She is smart and independent and emotional. She can be confused. She can lose her confidence. She can have confidence. She is everything. She has a human heart.”
Grafitti Bombing With The Artists In Hong Kong
“The main mission of the night was to paint a highway spot. I quickly lost track of where we were as we drove through canyons of high-rises and tangles of highways, occasionally glancing a prominent throw-up or a tag on a roadside structure.”
Theatre’s (Not-So-) Hidden Power Couple
“We were both winning awards, but we couldn’t come to each other’s [ceremonies] to celebrate each other.”
Top Posts On AJBlogs For 07.17.16
The Future of Orchestras, Part III: Bruckner, Palestrina, and the Rolling Stones
“Would the New York Philharmonic sing Palestrina?” – the question posed by my … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered QuestionPublished 2016-07-17
AJBlog: Unanswered QuestionPublished 2016-07-17
Dancing With Your Selves
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer present the New York premieres of two works. Myrna Packer and Art Bridgman(s) in their Voyeur. Photo: Tyler Silver One source of theater’s magic lies in the interplay between what’s … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-07-17
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer present the New York premieres of two works. Myrna Packer and Art Bridgman(s) in their Voyeur. Photo: Tyler Silver One source of theater’s magic lies in the interplay between what’s … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-07-17
Twyla Tharp: Past, Present, Future
Twyla Tharp presents one new creation and two golden oldies at the Joyce. Reed Tankersley in the first half of Twyla Tharp’s Brahms Paganini. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu Watching Reed Tankersley perform the long opening solo … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-07-16
Twyla Tharp presents one new creation and two golden oldies at the Joyce. Reed Tankersley in the first half of Twyla Tharp’s Brahms Paganini. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu Watching Reed Tankersley perform the long opening solo … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-07-16
Stainspotting
It’s the pale grey sweaters that are so creepy. Thin, tight, high necked, they cling to the performers’ bodies. They’re nubbled by nipple and you can practically count the ribs. And, within minutes of …read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2016-07-15
It’s the pale grey sweaters that are so creepy. Thin, tight, high necked, they cling to the performers’ bodies. They’re nubbled by nipple and you can practically count the ribs. And, within minutes of …read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2016-07-15
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Our Don’t-Miss Stories From Last Week’s ArtsJournal: Musical Prime Minister Edition
This week: A penetrating portrait of artist Chuck Close, a reality check on meritocracy as a concept, a look at anger and our access to visceral emotion in a media-saturated world, the enduring meritocracy of the Emmy as measure of success, and a Prime Minister exits stage right, humming.
This Week In Audience: Audience Confusion Editon
This Week: Pokemon Go suggests a different relationship between real and virtual, an art prize in which critics don’t matter, museums challenge visitors to spot fakes, a French city that has reinvented itself around art, and a claim that modern audiences are confused and uncertain.
Summer Camp For The Conductors Of Tomorrow
“Adding a conducting program seemed a natural way for [the Eastern Music Festival] to expand beyond training 200-plus young instrumentalists in classical orchestral and chamber music.”