“There has been ongoing debate at the company about what to do about the limit, a feature unique to Twitter that has created its own lingo and quirky style of brevity but has had its obvious constraints. Users have come up with workarounds to the character limitation by attaching screenshots of longer text or by linking tweets together in a so-called ‘tweetstorm.'”
What Makes Lin-Manuel Miranda A Genius?
Now 35, Miranda began working on Hamilton in 2008, shortly after he read the Ron Chernow biography Alexander Hamilton. A lot of people read that same biography around then, but it’s hard to imagine that anybody else was hit by the thought—whew, this would make a great hip-hop musical with a multi-racial cast playing the Founding Fathers!
Catherine Coulson, Log Lady Of ‘Twin Peaks’, Dead At 71
“[She] became a classically trained actor – and, as a burgeoning special-effects technician, assistant director and still photographer, a force behind the camera as well. A collaborator at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where Coulson lived from 1994 until her death, said she was once a camerawoman for 60 Minutes.”
Herzog And De Meuron Reveal Plans For New Vancouver Art Museum
“In the design, the 310,000-square-foot gallery is a tall, distinctive monolith. In drawings it appears as a stack of slabs, growing bigger at the middle and then smaller again at the top; some of these boxes are wrapped in wood-and-glass screens, others almost entirely in wood. An inukshuk? An Inca temple in the air? Pick your likeness.”
New Dia Director Cancels Plans For New Space In Chelsea
“I want to be programming constantly in Chelsea again because it makes no sense to have this incredible real estate and to be renting it out. It’s essential that we have a presence in the city.”
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Musicians Get A Raise
“The terms were strictly financial. Musicians making less than $80,000 a year will receive a $4,000 raise in the first year and $2,000 in the second. Musicians above the $80,000 threshold will only get the bump in year two. The guaranteed minimum salary will rise to $66,000 in 2018, an increase of 10 percent over two years. The roster will stay at 28 players.”
First Female Winner Of Thurber Prize For American Humor
“Julie Schumacher became the first female winner of The Thurber Prize For American Humor on Monday night, taking the prize for her epistolary novel Dear Committee Members. It was destined to be a historic night for the nearly 20-year-old award; all three of this year’s finalists were women.”
Why Have There Been No Great Women Bad-Boy Artists? There Have Been, Of Course. Says Jerry Saltz, But The Art World Has Refused To Recognize Them
“Dana Schutz and Katherine Bernhardt are among the liveliest American painters to emerge in this country in 15 years, and both opened big new shows over two nights a few weeks ago. Before we get to the exhibitions, a little history to help explain why the reputations of these two painters have careened so much over that time – they’ve been celebrated, passed over for big shows, and become dark horses, all while helping to shape the current charismatic painting moment.”
Nonesuch Records Chief Robert Hurwitz To Retire After 32 Years
“When executives at big record companies leave their jobs, there is usually a quick announcement and a scramble behind the scenes to install a new regime. Not so with the long sunset for Robert Hurwitz of Nonesuch Records, the prestigious Warner Music imprint that is home to acts as varied as Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson and the Black Keys.”
Is Nefertiti Buried In Tutankhamun’s Tomb? This Archaeologist Thinks So
“With the help of a sophisticated radar, [Nicholas] Reeves aims to prove Nefertiti is buried there in a hidden chamber of the young pharaoh’s underground tomb that long hid the most fabulous treasure ever discovered in Egypt.”
Chicago Symphony Musicians, Board Ratify Three-Year Contract
“Following one of the longest and hardest-fought series of collective bargaining sessions in recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra history, the musicians finally have a new labor contract.” The agreement includes small raises each year and no change in health care benefits.
‘I Just Knew I Would Never Stop Tap Dancing’ – New MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance
“I knew it was possible because our masters die with their shoes on. … You dance until your 90s. … To be able to be a dancer and a musician at the same time, there’s nothing like it.” (audio)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.29.15
Phil Woods, 1931-2015
Phil Woods died today, less than a month after he announced his retirement from playing. He was 83. Woods’ longtime drummer Bill Goodwin told me this afternoon that the veteran alto saxophonist “went out on his own terms,” … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-09-29
Girls Growing Up Black
How fast their feet are! Skittering, stepping, bouncing up and down, kicking out those feet, six women dance as if the ground itself is both untrustworthy territory and something that needs mastering. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-09-29
Postminimalism Takes Finland
The Fifth International Conference of Minimalist Music, in Turku and Helsinki (harbor above), Finland, was a smashing success. I ate sautéed reindeer and plenty of herring. We ended up Sunday night with only a few people left in the upstairs bar at the Torni Hotel, … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2015-09-29
Monday Recommendation: Playboy Swings
For sixty years, Hugh Hefner and his Playboy magazine have been easy targets for lampoon and parody. With their fixation on the care and feeding of the male libido, they have attracted plenty of both. But there has always been more to Playboy than preoccupation with sex. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-09-28
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Vivendi To Build 10 New Theatres Across Africa
“The foundation stone of the first hall in Guinea’s capital Conakry has already been laid. The other cities where the theatres will be built include Benin’s main city Cotonou, the Congo capital Brazzaville and the Senegalese capital Dakar.”
MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Winners For 2015 Include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michelle Dorrance, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nicole Eisenman, Basil Twist
“When puppeteer Basil Twist got the call in the middle of rehearsal for his new show, he bristled. ‘I was like, ‘Who is this, a bill collector?””