The growing presence of the elite in Burning Man is not just noticed by outsiders — long-time attendees grumble that Burning Man has become “gentrified.” Commenting on the New York Times piece, burners express dismay at attendees who do no work. “Paying people to come and take care of you and build for you . . . and clean up after you . . . those people missed the point.”
Louvre’s Attendance Down 20% So Far This Year
“In a phone conversation with a representative for the Louvre – which is the most-visited museum in the world – artnet News discovered that attendance from January through June dropped 20 percent compared to the previous year.”
Dance Is The Perfect Art Form For Export, Which Is A Business Opportunity For Companies
Anthony Missen, director of Britain’s Company Chameleon: “From [our company’s] perspective, dance as an international export works because our dance pieces are scalable. Working both indoors in theatres and studio venues, and outdoors at events and festivals, our work can be presented in small squares, big plazas and huge theatres in sprawling cities, busy towns and relatively isolated rural communities. This flexibility means we can perform in a huge number of contexts and within a wide range of budgets.”
Woody Allen, At 80, Says That What Didn’t Kill Him Did Not Make Him Stronger
“I don’t believe in the Nietzschean notion that what doesn’t destroy you makes you stronger. You see these soldiers come back with PTSD; they’ve been to war and seen death and experienced these existential crises one after the other. There are traumas in life that weaken us for the future. And that’s what’s happened to me. The various slings and arrows of life have not strengthened me. I think I’m weaker. I think there are things I couldn’t take now that I would have been able to take when I was younger.”
‘Project Prospero’ – Shakespeare’s Globe Plans Major Expansion
“Shakespeare’s Globe is planning a major redevelopment project that will create a new library and archive facility, rehearsal studios underneath the theatre and an upgrading of its production departments.”
How Harvard’s American Repertory Theater Came Back From The Brink
“The past several years have marked a revival for the Cambridge theater, which in 2008 was mired in financial and artistic distress. Since then, the ART has doubled its revenue as it launched 10 plays and musicals that ended up in New York, a record pace for the theater. The shows have won a bevy of Tony awards, notice that’s led to regular sellouts of its 534-seat Loeb Drama Center.”
After 400 Years, Giordano Bruno Is Still A Free-Speech Hero
“Go to Campo dei Fiori in Rome on 17 February and you will find yourself surrounded by a motley crowd of atheists, pantheists, anarchists, Masons, mystics, Christian reformers and members of the Italian Association of Free Thinkers … In the four centuries since he was executed for heresy by the Roman Inquisition, this diminutive iconoclast has been appropriated as a symbol by all manner of causes, reflecting the complexities and contradictions inherent in his ideas, his writings and his character.”
This Ballet Studio That’s Been Above A Hardware Store Since WWII Must Close
“‘Nobody threw us out the door,’ Gleason said. But Gleason said the 25-by-30 foot rehearsal room above the hardware store, which an athletic dancer could bound across in about three leaps, is too small to train dancers for professional careers.”
On Sunday, Italian Museums Donated All Of Their Profits To Earthquake Victims
“As rescue efforts continue in the town of Amatrice and the surrounding area, where the death toll has risen to 247, the culture minister Dario Franceschini urged Italians to ‘go to museums in a sign of solidarity with the populations involved in [the] earthquake.'”
When Works Of Art Come Apart (Or Get Knocked Down, In Banksy’s Case)
“Often, the issues can be traced back to the artists themselves. While painting’“The Last Supper’ in Milan in the 1490s, Leonardo da Vinci tried a number of oil-paint experiments, hoping to achieve better effects by painting on dry wall rather than on wet plaster. Within 20 years, the masterpiece was flaking off the wall, creating an ongoing headache as experts argued over which parts were authentic and which had been added by overzealous restorers.”
Ava Duvernay’s Mission In Movies And TV
“It’s not strategy, it’s not networking. It’s not trying to get someone’s card, asking people out for coffee, being at the cocktail party, doing the panels. It’s joy. You have to find joy in the work.”
A Relationship Between Your Politics And Your Personality?
“For many political psychologists, it seems abundantly clear that traits and politics go together. There’s evidence that many aspects of personality develop quite early in life and have a genetic component, but we don’t become actively political until we are older. So it’s sensible to assume that the one might have some bearing on the other. But most of the work on the subject in the past decades has consisted merely of scientists conducting surveys and observing correlations.”
German People’s Theatre Community Protests Appointment Of Tate Modern’s Director Chris Dercon
In June, 90 staff members and 80 freelancers of the Volksbühne sent one to the Berlin House of Representatives expressing deep concern that Dercon will trade long-established artistic standards for “a globally extended consensus culture with uniform presentation and sales patterns.” Volksbühne means “People’s Stage” and was established in 1914 as a working-class theater committed to the experimental.
Critical Disconnect – The “Best Movies Of The 2000’s” List Shows Gulf Between Critics And Audiences
“Critics can champion as many ferociously innovative films as they like, but if the audiences who actually feed the coffers of studios continue to ignore their recommendations, then the industry will simply keep delivering substandard, heavily franchised fare.”
Why Bollywood Is The Heart Of A Nation
“There is something about a big, popular art form that dramatizes a society’s deepest tensions that I find desperately moving. In the West, this is the kind of heavy lifting that was once the preserve of the novel — think of Dickens and Balzac. But in India, Bollywood alone deals with our society’s inner tension, its fault lines and frictions.”
Director Of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Sues Weinstein Brothers For Fraud
“[David Frankel is] alleging fraud and negligent representation as well as breach of contract over the size and scope of the October 2014 release in North America” of his film One Chance, “which stars James Corden as Paul Potts, a real-life shop assistant and amateur opera singer who won Britain’s Got Talent in 2007.”
Remember The ‘1812 Overture’? What Happened To The Whole ‘Light Classical’ Repertoire?
“What is disappearing, some say, are the light classics that once were staples of mainstream classical concerts that, around the middle of the last century, migrated to pops” and which pops orchestras have now abandoned in favor of classic rock and the like. Says conductor John Mauceri, “If you’re going to do a Mahler symphony as the centerpiece of a concert, you don’t have any room for von Suppé or Offenbach.”
Rudy Van Gelder, Dean Of Jazz Recording Engineers, Dead At 91
“[He was] perhaps the most influential recording engineer in the jazz genre, who brought to vivid life the sounds of such legendary artists as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard,” and was responsible for many of the Blue Note label’s most important discs.
The Best New Public Library Of 2016?
That’s what the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions decided, and Slate design writer Kristin Hohenadel agrees. It’s in a seemingly unlikely spot: the working port area of Denmark’s second city.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.25.16
Collaborators
Artistic collaboration is finally getting the respect it deserves. No longer looked down on as Art by Committee Meeting, interdisciplinary work is being celebrated for its ability to bring multiple voices into a single event, to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-08-25
Rudy Van Gelder, 1924-2016
Rudy Van Gelder, who recorded thousands of albums by musicians including some of the most important in jazz, died today at 91. As a young man, Van Gelder began recording in … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-08-25
Weekend Listening Tip: Two Herman Drummers & Friends
Jim Wilke alerts us that his Jazz Northwest broadcast this weekend features two drummers who at different times drove Woody Herman’s Herd. Jeff Hamilton and Joe LaBarbera will co-lead an all-star big band that includes … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-08-26
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What’s The Solution To LA’s 99-Seat Theatre Stalemate?
Whenever I have waded into this debate, making the argument that the best solution to the stalemate would be some sort of compromise that would provide a feasible economic path for those institutions that have benefited from the old plan while paving the way for a new era in the city’s theater ecology (one more conducive to institutions being able to pay their artists, compete for new plays and widen their audiences), a few passionate theater folks write to remind me of the state of L.A. theater before there was what used to be known as the “Equity Waiver.”
The World’s Highest Paid Actors
“Combined, the top 10 men on the list earned $457 million, more than double the top 10 women’s $205 million pay. Additionally, 18 actors reeled in more than $20 million, versus four on the actresses’ side.”
The World’s Biggest Viral Video Star Is A Grumpy Young Chinese Woman
“Jiang Yilei is the girl next door who rants about dieting and nagging parents in the living room of her cluttered apartment here. … She is also one of China’s most sudden and popular online celebrities, better known as Papi Jiang. In less than a year, her business partners say, she has accumulated 44 million followers, across multiple platforms, with her fast-talking satirical videos.”
Oxford Dictionaries Begins Search For World’s Most Disliked English Word
“Kicking off what it hopes will be the largest global survey into people’s language gripes, the dictionary publisher is inviting English speakers around the world to answer a range of language-related questions under the #OneWordMap initiative, starting with the quest to find the least popular English word.” (includes current leading contender)
Earthquake Wrecks Scores Of Pagodas In Myanmar’s Ancient Capital
“At least four people were killed and at least 171 pagodas were damaged in Bagan after a 6.8 magnitude quake struck the area on Wednesday. … The city is one of Myanmar’s top tourist attractions, drawing visitors from all over the world who can view a panorama of temples stretching to the horizon flanked by the Irrawaddy River.”