“The British Museum in London – complete with all of its exhibits – is to be recreated in the video game Minecraft. The project is part of the Museum of the Future scheme, which aims to expand the institution’s appeal.” And they’re crowdsourcing the (virtual) construction.
What Happens When You’re The Only One?
“Every minute she’s asked to spend serving that function, valuable and necessary as it is, and perfectly understandable as it is that people are curious about her experiences, is a minute she’s not answering the same questions Damon Lindelof gets, or Joss Whedon gets, or Chuck Lorre gets. She’s not talking about her process, she’s not talking about her characters, she’s not telling her silly show business stories.”
Vienna State Opera Boss Defends Himself Following Conductor Walkouts
Early this month Franz Welser-Möst suddenly (but discreetly) quit as the house’s principal conductor; eleven days later, Bertrand de Billy angrily resigned, hurling accusations at the company’s Intendant, Dominique Meyer. Now Meyer is responding, saying, “We went into the summer season at peace. Now these allegations. I cannot understand where they’ve come from.”
Chicago Symphony Considering New Summer Home In Western Burbs
“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is considering a privately owned site in Naperville as a location for a permanent outdoor concert venue. But DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin says a lot has to happen before the proposal becomes a reality.”
Nashville Symphony And Musicians Agree on Four-Year Contract (With Raises!)
“The agreement, which goes into effect immediately, provides 3 percent pay increases for the first two years of the deal. The musicians may enter into a wage renegotiation for each of the last two years of the deal. Last year, with the Schermerhorn Symphony Center facing foreclosure, the musicians took a 15 percent pay reduction and worked on a one-year deal.”
Do Ideas Actually Matter?
“If you go to the Boston Review Web site, you’ll find the slogan ‘Ideas Matter’ gracing the top of the homepage. … But in the social sciences, the idea that ideas matter has always been controversial. How much do ideas really matter? Do they affect individuals and societies more or less than do material circumstances such as economic incentives, physical constraints, and military force?” (In one way, definitely.)
Spoilers – They’re All About Social Power
“Revealing … dramatic plot twists and turns of hit television shows used to be considered a social faux pas. Today,” according to a study for Netflix conducted by a cultural anthropologist, “the motivation for spoiling a show for someone else now is about more than just watching TV, he said. It is about the politics of daily life.”
While People Make Viola Jokes
“In truth, there are jokes about every instrument in the orchestra, and about the perceived personality of an average operator of that instrument. But the viola jokes are particularly numerous and omnipresent on orchestral stages, and there’s a reason for that.”
Why Being Wrong Is The Future Of Design
It was a “major creative breakthrough for me—the idea that intentional wrongness could yield strangely pleasing results. Of course I was familiar with the idea of rule-breaking innovation—that each generation reacts against the one that came before it, starting revolutions, turning its back on tired conventions. But this was different. I wasn’t just throwing out the rulebook and starting from scratch. I was following the rules, then selectively breaking one or two for maximum impact.”
Broadway’s “Lion King” Becomes The Top-Grossing Entertainment Of All Time (Including Movies)
“That tally makes “Lion King” more successful than any single movie in history. The top film earner of all time is “Avatar,” weighing in at $2.8 billion.”
Atlanta Symphony Cancels First Seven Weeks Of Concerts Amid Lockout
“The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced on Monday that it will delay the opening of its 70th anniversary season, sending patrons a rather downbeat email announcing that it had ‘regretfully’ postponed all concerts… through November 8.”
Pa. Drama Teacher Fired Over “Spamalot” Controversy
“[South Williamsport, Pennsylvania] school officials on Friday dismissed the show’s director after months of back-and-forth arguments – which drew unflattering media attention – over whether the [high school] principal canceled Spamalot because of the show’s gay content.”
Disney/Taymor “Lion King” Is Now Top-Earning Title In Any Medium
“With a worldwide gross of over $6.2 billion, The Lion King stage musical has now achieved the most successful box office total of any work in any media in entertainment history. … The show quietly took over top spot from the $6 billion-earning The Phantom of the Opera late this summer.”
NY Times Public Editor Slams Article About Shonda Rhimes
“The readers and commentators are correct to protest this story. Intended to be in praise of Ms. Rhimes, it delivered that message in a condescending way that was – at best – astonishingly tone-deaf and out of touch.” (includes responses from the Culture Editor and the article’s writer, TV critic Alessandra Stanley)
Alessandra Stanley Says She Meant To Praise Shonda Rhimes, She Was Just Being “Arch”
“In the review, I referenced a painful and insidious stereotype solely in order to praise Ms. Rhimes and her shows for traveling so far from it. … I didn’t think Times readers would take the opening sentence literally because I so often write arch, provocative ledes that are then undercut or mitigated by the paragraphs that follow.”
García Márquez’s Books Finally Get U.S. Digital Release
“Vintage Books will release nine of García Márquez’s works as e-books on October 15th, marking the first time his books will be available digitally in the United States.” Not included are One Hundred Years of Solitude and No One Writes to the Colonel, which are published by HarperCollins.
Actress Polly Bergen, 84
“A brunette beauty with a warm, sultry singing voice, Bergen was a household name from her 20s onward. She made albums and played leading roles in films, stage musicals and TV dramas. She also hosted her own variety series, was a popular game show panelist, and founded a thriving beauty products company that bore her name.”
Paul Taylor Reveals First Plans For His Revamped Dance Company
“The choreographer Paul Taylor startled the dance world earlier this year by reinventing his company as Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, which he said would perform his works along with those of other modern dance pioneers and contemporary choreographers. Now the new enterprise is coming into somewhat clearer focus” with the announcement of its first season.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.22.14
How should we subsidize charitable giving to the arts?
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-09-22
Who Broke Hollywood?
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-09-22
What’s It All About, Jean Nouvel? A Pace-Setting Museum?
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-09-23
Monday Recommendation: Ali Jackson
AJBlog: RiffTides | Published 2014-09-23
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How To Build Arts Audiences?
Join the conversation: Building Arts Audiences – live panel discussion with Kurt Andersen, NEA chairman and national arts leaders. Oct. 1 at 3pm est. #buildingartsaudiences
Networks Are Desperate For A Laugh
“Comedies have long been the ratings and profit drivers of the television industry, cheaper to produce than hourlong dramas and lucrative in syndication,” but “only 14 of the 82 prime-time comedies unleashed since 2009 are on the air.”
Police Investigation Threatened For ‘Wolf Hall’ Author, Who Penned Short Story About Margaret Thatcher
“In her story she imagines she is two someone elses – an IRA hit man and a seemingly ordinary woman with a fatally good view. These unlikely allies conspire to kill the prime minister. The writer succeeds where terrorists failed.”
Author Rolls Her Eyes At Controversy Over Short Story
Hilary Mantel: “I think it would be unconscionable to say this is too dark; we can’t examine it. We can’t be running away from history. We have to face it head on, because the repercussions of Mrs. Thatcher’s reign have fed the nation. It is still resonating.”
Wonder Woman – And The Man Who Created Her
“It isn’t only that Wonder Woman’s backstory is taken from feminist utopian fiction. It’s that, in creating Wonder Woman, William Moulton Marston was profoundly influenced by early-twentieth-century suffragists, feminists, and birth-control advocates and that, shockingly, Wonder Woman was inspired by Margaret Sanger, who, hidden from the world, was a member of Marston’s family.”
Misty Copeland’s Long, Strange Journey
“Copeland’s proceeding along a kind of inevitable music-box destiny, but her path to becoming a star ballerina has been as dramatic, unlikely, and hinged on coincidence as the plots of most ballets – the ones that have plots, anyway.”