Company co-founder Jeff Perry: “Our group had an interesting mix of individual ambition, and even hubris, and love of group work. If we had started Steppenwolf in Los Angeles or New York, I don’t think we would have been left alone long enough to put down these roots.”
‘No Hugging, No Learning’: How ‘Seinfeld’ Really Changed Television
“Anti-hero sagas like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Shield, and Californication may not appear to have much in common with a sitcom about four nebbishy New Yorkers. But Seinfeld‘s immense popularity proved to network executives that audiences could get on board with a show that didn’t necessarily end with a lesson and a group hug – and characters that reveled in their flaws instead of working to overcome them.”
Why Do Critics Still Hate Andrew Wyeth?
“At best, one might say that the most virulent haters are dead or are moving on, but the void is still not exactly filling up with love. Maybe there is some grudging respect, which might count as a victory for this most singular of artists.”
Smacked Back Into Place: Pop Music And Musicians After 9/11
As the 15th anniversary of the attacks approaches, Scott Timberg talks with scholar Mark Anthony Neal about the taboos that sprung up in the wake of the events (and the ensuing wars) and what happened to the artists who tried to challenge those taboos.
Who Goes To Choral Concerts? The Survey Says…
Personal relationships fuel the audiences for choral concerts. Among the children and youth choruses surveyed, four in five respondents have a familial or friendship relationship with a young performer. Among adult choruses, about a third of respondents reported having a relationship with a performer.
Three Olympics Story Lines That The Media Should Just Drop Already
“Doping scandals, dubious economic benefits of hosting, and nail-biter badminton finishes aside, the Olympics are really the world championships of #content. Small wonder, then, that some media narratives emerging from the games are more tired than Katie Ledecky’s competitors in the pool.”
One Of London’s Top Dance Critics Gives Up Her Gig
“This is my last column as The Spectator‘s dance spectator. It’s been the deepest pleasure to wander on your behalf around the fertile landscape of dance, but I’m off to Oxford University to do some research. Thank you for bearing with my thoughts and I hope you bought a few tickets as a result.”
Met Opera Posts Balanced Budget Despite Falling Box Office, But Major Challenges Loom
“Despite a record low in paid attendance last season, the Metropolitan Opera is on track to balance its budget for the second year in a row, company officials said. … Below, a breakdown of the opera’s biggest challenges.”
J.K. Rowling Launches Series Of Mini E-Books
“The first three titles, to be released on Sept. 6 by her publishing platform Pottermore, will focus on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The e-books, each about 10,000 words long, will include new material as well as writing previously published on Pottermore.com.”
Will Thomas Mann’s House In LA Be Torn Down?
“Perhaps the juggernaut of the real-estate market is destined to roll over the Mann house as it has over many other notable places. Worse things will have happened in the world. But for anyone who loves Mann’s work, or who cherishes the story of émigré culture in Los Angeles, it would be a crushing outcome.”
‘The Good Old Days’ Isn’t Just A Harmless Illusion
“Nostalgia’s dark side … is badly underestimated, and wreaks havoc not only in politics but also medicine and anthropology. Far from being harmless, [it] is a virulent falsehood that infects those whose intellectual defences have been weakened by fear and insecurity. It is easily weaponised by power-hungry propagandists who seek to replace nuanced discourse with patriotic platitudes.”
The Fourth Remake Of ‘A Star Is Born’ Is Coming. Bad Idea
“The movie has been made three times (in 1937, 1954, and 1976), each time to diminishing critical returns, with barely any variation in story, and yet with every new Hollywood generation someone looks to try again. On Tuesday, the fourth version was announced: Lady Gaga will play the ingénue and Bradley Cooper her love interest, with the latter also writing and directing, and presumably trying to find a new angle to justify the remake.” David Sims looks at why the story is unlikely to play well in 2017.
Ellipsis – The Long, Strange History Of A Strange Punctuation Mark
“The punctuation mark of the ellipsis is perhaps the most unusual mark in the English language, for punctuation marks are designed to convey meaning by indicating relationships between ideas, but the ellipsis does the exact opposite.” What’s more, those three little dots date back centuries before Shakespeare.
Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra Says Lionel Bringuier Won’t Be Staying On As Chief Conductor
The young French conductor, who turns 30 next month and who assisted both Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, succeeded David Zinman in Zurich in 2014. The decision not to renew Bringuier’s contract, which expires in 2018, was widely expected in the city. (in German; Google Translate version here)
Norton Simon Museum Can Keep Cranachs Looted By Nazis, Rules Judge
“A judge in US District Court in California has dismissed a claim by an heir to the Dutch dealer and collector Jacques Goudstikker to recover Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve (around 1530), two paintings now at the Norton Simon Museum. The 15 August ruling in the decade-long case holds that the paintings became the property of the Dutch government after the Second World War.”
Barnes And Noble’s Board Fires CEO
“In a terse statement that lacked any attempt at corporate spin, the company said that ‘the board of directors determined that Mr. Boire is not a good fit for the organization and that it was in the best interest of all parties for him to leave the company.’ … [He] is the third chief executive to leave the troubled company in just three years.”
NPR Website Drops Reader Comments
“NPR introduced public comments to its website eight years ago, when many of today’s most popular venues for digital interaction didn’t yet exist or were in their infancy. Since then, we’ve explored and developed many options for strengthening those connections. Some of these methods have proven invaluable. Others less so.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.17.16
Bobby Hutcherson: 1941-2016
Bobby Hutcherson, whose vibraphone playing developed deep and complex harmonies, died on Monday at home in Montara, California. He was 75. When Hutcherson came to prominence in the early 1960s, he was in the forefront … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-08-17
From England Via Florida With Love
The Sarasota Ballet presents an all-Ashton program at the Joyce Theater. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-08-17
Groundhog Day, The (Buddhist) Musical
Intelligence is not exactly the first quality you look for in a musical. … But when Matilda the Musical grabbed our attention at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2010, we had to acknowledge that Tim Minchin had ploughed new ground. … In converting the 1993 film Groundhog Day into a musical for the Old Vic, Minchin has gone at least one better. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2016-08-17
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Jazz Vibraphone Great Bobby Hutcherson, 75
“Hutcherson’s career took flight in the early 1960s, as jazz was slipping free of the complex harmonic and rhythmic designs of bebop. He was fluent in that language, but he was also one of the first to adapt his instrument to a freer postbop language, often playing chords with a pair of mallets in each hand.”
The Possibilities Of Love In This Summer Of Fear And Anxiety
Natasha Lennard: “It would be facile to respond to recent events – political upheaval, mass murder, police violence and festering racism – with a call to “love.” But in extreme times, it’s worth considering: Can love (as we know it) act as a radical force rather than a distraction? Does our current idea of love need revision? Is there a new kind of love emerging in new social movements, one that works against the narrow kind of love fostered by capitalism? I discussed these and other matters with Moira Weigel, the author of Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating.”