“Art authenticity is all about perception. If the world thinks a work is authentic, then it is authentic. But forgers know that a convincing provenance is actually more important than an aesthetically perfect forgery or one that would fool forensic tests. … Provenance is the biography of an artwork, but provenance, like art, can be forged.”
Best Groomsmen’s Dance Ever Goes Viral (The Happy Couple Are, Of Course, Ballet Dancers)
Richmond Ballet member Kirk Henning gave his company colleague and bride, Valerie Tellmann-Henning, a big, wonderful surprise – a surprise that’s been viewed more than 165,000 times. (includes video)
Was Racism Really Why Nina Simone Wasn’t Admitted To Curtis?
“It’s one of those stories that has lodged in the minds of many for its injustice and irony. Nina Simone – before she was Nina Simone, when she was still an aspiring classical pianist named Eunice Waymon – auditioned for the Curtis Institute of Music and was rejected on grounds of her race.” Yet there is evidence to indicate that she simply didn’t make the cut at an extremely competitive school.
Against Binge-Watching: What We Lose When We Gain The Entire Story At Once
Scott Timberg: “You don’t have to be a hardcore Proustian – someone who sees life as shaped by the passage of time and delights in the pleasure of anticipation – to want this stuff to come out a little at a time. (Though it sure helps.)”
As Another Mega-Bookstore Opens, The Refrain Continues: Print Books Are Doing OK
“Waterstones managing director James Daunt, who built the eponymous Daunt Books chain, dubbed Amazon a ‘ruthless, money-making devil’ in 2011. A year later he signed a deal to sell its Kindle ebook reader, but Waterstones has struggled to sell the devices and has reduced the amount of space given over to them in its stores.”
The First Big Test For Apple Music
“So far Apple’s new service has had a mixed reaction in the music and tech press, and its impact on the music charts over all has been minimal. In a comparison of Nielsen streaming data for a dozen popular albums, most had increases of 10 to 20 percent in the week that Apple Music’s numbers were first incorporated into the charts, but had flat results or even a loss the next week.”
‘Straight Outta Compton’ Wins Big At The Box Office Without Superheroes
“Summer movies have become so monolithic over the last decade that releasing the film at this time of year was brazen, and I think youth culture responds to brazen.”
She Sculpted New York’s Frederick Douglass, But She Can’t Afford Her Studio Anywhere In The City Anymore
“The relentless tide of gentrification has made it impossible for her to stay. One by one, the craftsmen and artists have vanished from the red brick building on Jay Street where Ms. Koren worked. The cabinetmaker? Gone. The photographer? Gone. The lamp maker, the painter and the dealer of 1950s furniture? All gone.”
The Best Comedians Who Never Made It Big
All of the reasons it never quite clicks for these men and women, according to their much more famous peers – including the table comic, “the genre of beloved comic who is funny in conversation with other comedians but not onstage.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs For 08.16.15
WSJ Masterpiece: The Taj Mahal, As I Saw It
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2015-08-16
AJBlog: PostClassicPublished 2015-08-16
Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2015: What to See, How to Eat, Where to StayAJBlog: Lies Like TruthPublished 2015-08-14
The rest of the story
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2015-08-14
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2015-08-13
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The Brain Implant That Can Wirelessly Control Emotions
“What if we could, with the push of a button, make microscopic alterations of a few neurons, causing the happy chemicals to ring out in a jackpot celebration, with no side effects? Would we be ready to handle such complete control over our emotional reality?”
Adding Classical Music To Your Lawn Mowing Time: An Experiment
“Any Mahler symphony recorded by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will help with ‘long and heavy lifting in the yard.'”
When Architects Revolt For The Common Good
“Much of the credit should go to a quietly heroic generation of architects. These have grown up in the era following the backlash against their profession, when they could take nothing for granted, when they had to prove again and again that their ideas were not the fantasies of arrogant dreamers, but honest efforts to improve the quality of the lives of future residents. They sometimes find themselves among the worst-paid and hardest-working around the tables of consultants who nowadays get buildings built, and the most committed to the social benefits of the final product.”
Bayreuth Festival Starts Loosening Up (A Bit)
Yes, the programming is still restricted to ten operas, the theater seats are still hot and uncomfortable, you can still wait years for the privilege of buying tickets, and a Wagner descendant is still in charge, public funding or no. But the Richard Wagner museum is now far more forthcoming about the unsavory parts of the family history, production styles are about as Regiefied as anywhere in Germany, and (a huge change) about a quarter of the tickets are now available for purchase – by anyone – straight from the box office.
David Simon Talks About His New Miniseries – About Housing Desegregation – With Sen. Cory Booker
“In the edited conversation that follows, Mr. Booker” – former mayor of Newark, now U.S. Senator from New Jersey – “and Mr. Simon traded ideas about cities as America’s future, where not just the economy and creative capital but also equality and justice need to be worked out.”