The streaming pioneer is spending $6 billion a year on making shows. “Out of the blue Netflix comes into the market and says, ‘We’re going to give you a number [to license a network show],’ ” says one television agent. “For the studios, it was, ‘Holy shit. Do we even need a cable sale?’ They all got addicted to crack. Nobody really thought they’d be a competitor on the originals market. They used stuff from the studios and became important. Now you see the backlash.”
Swing Dancing’s Sexual Assault Scandal, And How The Lindy Hop Sommunity Handled It
“With his silky moves and electric personality, [Steven Mitchell soon rose to prominence as a swing dancer, receiving a star’s welcome in every city. When interest in swing experienced a resurgence, particularly in the 1990s, Mitchell – depending on who you ask – either rode the wave or created it. But there’s a group of women who know a very different Steven Mitchell.”
Why Is So Much Of The Internet Blue?
“How did we get the blue regime that [Paul] Hebert’s actually quantified, and many others have observed? It’s not like there’s some centralized Web design authority dictating these things. Anecdotally, Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook is blue because he’s red-green colorblind, and Google has said the color clicked best in rigorous A/B tests. But the underlying reason may be that design, like art, imitates life.”
The Incomparable, Insufferable Lou Reed
“Few personalities – particularly as one as protean and occasionally as brilliant as Reed’s – can be summed up in two syllables. But if you were to do a word cloud of memories of Reed in the various volumes that have been published on his life, the word asshole would turn up in surprisingly large type.”
The Coming V&A Branch Museum In Scotland
“On the north bank of the River Tay, Scotland’s new museum of design is taking shape. Designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, it resembles a beached ship. The first major project by a London museum in Scotland, the V&A Museum of Design Dundee represents an opportunity to show the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to a new audience in the UK. The process has not been without bumps.”
On The Competitive Pro-Am Ballroom Dance Circuit
“Couples are everywhere, moving fast and vying for the judges’ attention. You have no control over the music – please, you think, just let it have a discernible beat. You’re counting – ‘1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8’ in your head, and your teacher is hissing in your ear to get your head back out of her space and keep your frame up.”
Teaching Claudia Rankine’s ‘Citizen’
“The labor itself of ‘proving racism,’ and providing testimony is heartbreaking. Talking about it in spaces like poetry workshops, about the craft of it, breaking it down like it wasn’t about living people in that room, as though we can’t spend our entire lives with our own testimony, as though we weren’t witnessing in each poem we wrote? That just seems excruciating.”
What Happens When Arts Writers Dive Into #AskACurator Day?
“How did you engage with the liminal space between eggs and toast? It would seem to me like a particular challenge to explore.”
Paul Wolfe, 90, Director Of Sarasota Music Festival And Orchestra
“During his 34-year tenure, Wolfe led countless concerts for the organization now known as the Sarasota Orchestra, performed in what is now the Sarasota String Quartet, co-founded the Sarasota Music Festival and expanded and enthusiastically conducted the organization’s vibrant youth orchestra.”
Much Angst About Destruction Of Syrian Historical Sites But Little Success
“For all the pageantry, the retaking of Palmyra has served as a powerful reminder of how detached from reality the international campaign to save Syria’s endangered cultural heritage has been.”
Instagram Now Lets Users Ban Words. This Says Something Important About Our Evolution Of Language
“This is a cultural moment that is newly respectful of the individual experience, of the individual voice, of the individual truth. It is a moment that is grappling, belatedly, with the many flaws of mass media and monoculture; it is a moment that is respecting, finally, how varied people’s sense of the world can be. All of that involves, intimately, the words people choose to share that world with each other. In that landscape of fast-moving language, one person’s slur is another’s term of endearment. The regulatory body with the most authority to determine what will offend you is, in the end, you.”
New African American Museum Is DC’s Best Architecture In A Generation
“The most impressive and ambitious public building to go up in Washington in a generation — if also the owner of a truly awkward acronym — the NMAAHC draws its considerable power from a willingness to embrace the nearly bottomless complexity of both its mission and its site.”
Motion Picture Association Slams USC Study About Impact Of Movie Tax Credits
Among other criticisms, the MPAA contends the study treats all state film production incentive programs the same and ignores how different sized incentive programs may have more or less impact.
Did Alec Baldwin’s Lawsuit Against Gallery Owner Reveal His Ignorance About How Art Works?
“It is not inconceivable that a clever lawyer may well manage to convince a jury of the validity of Baldwin’s case—but the action has made him a laughing stock in the art world, singling him out as a classic know-nothing celebrity art buyer.”
This Year’s National Medal Of Arts Honorees
Among the 24 honorees: musicians Wynton Marsalis and Santiago Jimenez; composer Philip Glass; actor Audra McDonald; and authors Sandra Cisneros, Ron Chernow, Rudolfo Anaya, and James McBride.
Research: Impact Of Museum Admission Fees On Who Comes And What They Do
Introducing an admissions fee does not affect the diversity of museum visitors, but can lead overall visitor numbers to fall, according to research released this week by the Association of Independent Museums (AIM).
Why Theater Artists In Taiwan Have To Avoid Politics, Even Though It’s A Democracy (Is The U.S. Headed This Way?)
Stan Lai, the country’s leading playwright-director: “The acute confrontational stance of the two opposing parties has created a fatigue and distaste toward politics in society in general, including the artistic community. … There is no space for objective and rational discourse. That is why artists in Taiwan today naturally gravitate away from dealing with political issues.”
U.S. House Passes Bill To Outlaw Ticket Bots
“The Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or BOTS Act, would make it illegal to circumvent the security rules of an online ticketing Web site in order to buy tickets. The bill passed the House of Representatives in a voice vote Monday, and it’s now being considered by the Senate.”
Fort Worth Symphony Cancels More Concerts As Strike Continues
“Although performances with the Texas Ballet Theater this weekend in Dallas will go on as scheduled, thanks to an arrangement made with the striking musicians, symphony management said it is canceling” concerts on Sept. 24 and 25.
Buffalo Philharmonic Considers Branding Overhaul
“On the eve of a new season, which starts on Sept. 17, the orchestra is polling its subscribers, supporters and community leaders, among others, as it considers rebranding itself and creating a new logo. … Survey questions include the frequency that people attend BPO concerts and whether it is for the traditional classics series or its Pops or Rock shows.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.14.16
Why Music And The Concert Experience Are On The Front Lines Of Virtual Reality
Following on my post from yesterday about anticipating the kinds of experiences people will want from concerts comes this article from Wired about virtual reality and music. Evidently creating content for virtual reality is proving to be a challenge and music is so far the best showcase for VR. … read more
AJBlog: diacritical/Douglas McLennan Published 2016-09-14
Chi jazz fest 2016, details in photos and words
My DownBeat overview of the 38th annual Chicago Jazz Festival, comprehensive as I could make it, didn’t go into depth on any of the couple dozen performances I heard from Sept 1 through 4 … So here are some previously unreported details. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-09-14
Snapshot: Isaac Stern appears on The Jack Benny Program
“Isaac Stern Boosts Jack’s Morale,” an episode of The Jack Benny Program originally telecast by CBS on November 6, 1955. Mel Blanc plays Benny’s violin teacher and Isaac Stern plays himself. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-09-14
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Helsinki Guggenheim Project In Doubt After Government Blocks Public Funding
“The decision is the latest blow to the Guggenheim Helsinki project, whose initial plans met with widespread public opposition when they were unveiled in 2011 and were formally turned down by the city board the following year. After an international competition last year drew more than 1,700 entrants, the scheme seemed to be back on track.”
Study: Music And Theatre Students Face More Bullying Than Others
“Music and theater students face a significantly greater risk than their non-arts peers of reporting being the victims of bullying behavior,” write Kenneth Elpus of the University of Maryland and Bruce Allen Carter of Florida International University.
Plan For Lucerne Festival Opera Theater Killed By Local Officials
“An unusual episode in classical music philanthropy – the effort to build a theater for the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland to produce operatic and experimental works – came to an apparent end on Monday when Swiss officials voted it down.”