“The problem with Misty’s fame, however, is precisely it’s relationship to her ethnicity; she should be known as an incredible dancer who is a principal at American Ballet Theatre, not as an incredible dancer who is the first African American to be named a principal at American Ballet Theatre. To see her as an African American first is, in fact, benevolent prejudice — to congratulate someone for doing something that most people of her race have not done. But to do so only reminds us that it is not the norm.”
Ya Know, ‘Lolita’ Just Isn’t A Great Novel, Let Alone Nabokov’s Masterpiece
In an essay to make a reader pound the table in either relieved agreement (“Finally someone said it!”) or incredulous vexation, Roxana Robinson argues that the book “lacks a crucial component of great fiction: compassion. … The only real emotion in Lolita derives from Nabokov’s embitterment, and its expression lies in his interior laughter.”
Right, Let’s Do Talk About Why There Aren’t Any Great Women Composers
“Clara Wieck was already thirteen years old when she started writing her piano concerto, and all of the composers on the aforementioned goodness scale wrote their masterpieces by the age of ten. Little-known fact: Strauss called the Four Last Songs that because he wrote them on the eve of his fifth birthday.”
You’re Way More Likely To At Least *Open* A Book You Bought If It Was Expensive
And much more ebook data, including: “Some books glue readers to the page with completion rates at 70 to 90 percent—well above the norm — whereas, for other books, it might be 20 to 40 percent. Readers are generally more likely to finish a plot-driven genre novel than they are a literary one.”
Metropolitan Opera Posts Budget Surplus, Year After Big Deficit, Strike
“The opera company, founded in 1883, on Wednesday said it closed its most recent season in the black, with a balanced budget and a $1 million surplus. The preliminary financial results, which haven’t been audited, are an improvement from the Met’s previous fiscal year. Last November, the company reported a $22 million shortfall for fiscal 2014 soon after it averted a potential lockout by striking a series of deals with unions representing its musicians, singers and stagehands.”
Now This Is Loyalty: Yannick Nézet-Séguin Signs For Five More Years With His First Orchestra In Montreal
“If all goes according to the plan announced Wednesday morning in the concourse of Place des Arts, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will become a 20-year man with his hometown Orchestre Métropolitain.”
More Personal, More Political, More Varied, More Viral – The Obituary Is Changing
From a family-placed obituary in Maine that dealt openly with the deceased’s heroin addiction and the closure of the state clinic that was treating her (it was noticed nationwide), to the news obituaries (now less strait-laced) that run in big-city papers, the genre is getting multiple makeovers.
Enough With the Queer and Trans Films That Are Actually About Straight People
Kyle Buchanan: “Nor am I saying that just because a movie features a gay or trans character that that character deserves to be the undisputed lead … But if these movies are being made because the queer and trans characters are so fascinating, let’s keep those characters at the center, where they belong.”
After ‘Being John Malkovich’ And ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’, Charlie Kaufman Makes An All-Puppet Movie (And Wins Prizes For It)
“The fact that they’re puppets being manipulated becomes an existential issue as well. You know someone’s manipulating them – they don’t know it.”
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test Isn’t Perfect, But Folks Seem To Love It
“Given all this controversy [among researchers], you might think people would treat the test as just a curiosity, or at least take it with a grain of salt. Instead, many people use types as a schema for understanding the world. There are blogs that sort Disney characters into MBTI types and YouTube sketch videos that compare types. According to CPP, a company that administrates the MBTI, college and universities worldwide use the test, as do 89 of the Fortune 100 companies.”
Much-Anticipated Movie Pulled From Toronto Film Festival After Lawsuit
“On Thursday, the film was withdrawn from the Toronto International Film Festival just one day before it was set to enjoy its world premiere after news emerged that the film’s director, Matthew Cullen, has moved to sue the producers for fraud. It’s a turnabout almost worthy of the novel’s unpredictable comic suspense.”
New Galleries Flock To LA’s Art District Attracted By Lots Of Space
Of roughly two dozen galleries now in the district and its environs, half have opened in the last year, drawn in part by a glut of cheap space. A fistful came from New York or Europe, all vying for talent and clientele. And there will be more, like the blue-chip Hauser Wirth & Schimmel’s 100,000-square-foot complex coming next spring. Within a few minutes’ drive of one another, the galleries are beginning to give the area the urban cultural density that Los Angeles mostly lacks.
Urbexing – The Art Of Recording Unique Places Before They Disappear
Places are hot one day and gone the next while others stand the test of time as they resist the developers and the demolition men. But however long the window of opportunity, the urbexers steal through it. They leave nothing but footprints, take nothing away except photographs.
Remake Of LA Car Museum Is Gaudy, Retro (Not In A Good Way), And…
According to the architects, the façade is meant to “evoke the imagery of speed and the organic curves of a coach-built automobile.” And this will no doubt attract attention from passing motorists. But we’re getting a Vegas-esque distillation of every bad architectural trend. Corrugated aluminum? Check. Steel cladding? Check. There is an old axiom in design, “If you can’t make it good, make it big. And if you can’t make it big, make it red.” The redesign seems to have taken this dictum literally.
A Glut Of Indie Films (Why?)
The super-abundance of TV programming can be traced to the basic laws of supply and demand — the network appetite keeps growing. The increase in indie film production is more idiosyncratic.
Battle Between Carnegie Hall’s New Chairman And Longtime CEO Over ‘Transparency’
In an email sent to other board members, Ronald O. Perelman, the famously combative finance executive who became Carnegie’s chairman in February, said there was “a troubling lack of transparency and openness in the way [executive director] Clive Gillinson was interacting with me and the Board.”
Why Singapore Censored An All-Male ‘Importance Of Being Earnest’
The company W!ld Rice was by no means the first to cast a man as Lady Bracknell, but Gwendolyn and Cicely were played by men, too – and not in drag. “The play was transformed into a homoromantic comedy – a love letter to same-sex marriage.” This fell afoul of section 377A of Singapore’s penal code – the same “gross indecency” law under which Oscar Wilde himself was sent to prison.
Instead Of Arrests, Subway Dancers Are Getting A Stage Above Ground
“As part of a pilot program aimed at curbing illicit performances on the rails, the de Blasio administration is urging dancers to take their act above ground, setting aside outdoor space for performances that can allow dancers to earn tips legally.”
Why Are Boston Accents So Wicked Awful In Movies?
“Boston native Seth Stevenson demonstrates the do’s and don’ts of non-rhoticity, the intrusive r, and the broad a. Soon enough, you’ll be pahking cahs, sawring wood, and taking a bahth.” (video)
Melvin Bernhardt, 84, Tony-Winning Director
“Known for his astute casting and skillful work with actors,” Bernhard directed two Pultizer-winning plays – Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1970) and Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart (1980) – and picked up a Tony for his 1978 production of Hugh Leonard’s Da.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sally Mann Lead List Of National Book Award Nonfiction Nominees
“The nominated works, which were announced on Wednesday, tackle a diverse array of subjects, and include a book that explores the rich inner lives of octopuses; a deeply researched account of the outpouring of grief that followed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; and a natural and cultural history of rain that, according to one critic, ‘will make a rain fanatic out of anyone.'”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.16.15
How the old ways faded
In my last post I said that I’m now not happy talking about the decline of classical music. That post was a striking anecdotal report about falling ticket sales at European music festivals, which … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-09-16
Flash: The Detroit Institute of Arts Names New Director
They have replaced Graham Beal as director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and it’s an inside job. Salvador Salort-Pons, the current curator of European paintings a the DIA, plus–since 2013–director of collection strategies and information, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-09-16
$600-Million Endowment?!? My Q&A with Salort-Pons, Detroit Institute’s New Head—Part I
In an appointment reminiscent of the Art Institute of Chicago’s elevation to its directorship of Douglas Druick and the Metropolitan Museum’s appointment of Tom Campbell to its top spot, the Detroit Institute of Arts today … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-09-16
a-musing
I’m off to Ann Arbor this weekend to work with violinist Danielle Belén for a recording session. Danielle is one of the newest faculty members in the School of Music at the University of Michigan … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2015-09-16
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Detroit Institute Of Arts Picks A New Director
“Salvador Salort-Pons, 45, who is the DIA’s executive director of collection strategies and information and an authority on European art, will take the post effective Oct. 15.”
Seriously? The KFC Metropolitan Opera?
“We have to keep poking the tires and looking at new ways of approaching the art itself in the form of new productions and commissions, and also looking at the physical plant of the Met, and how we perform. We’re looking at everything.”
Ottawa’s New Music Director Was A Tough Choice
“The National Arts Centre’s search for a successor to veteran maestro Pinchas Zukerman was an epic story of its own It went on for 15 months, according to Peter Herrndorf, who is the CEO and known among arts leaders across the country as the godfather of Canadian culture.”