Boomers will remember the board as either a popular sort-of-board-game or the means by which the demon possessed Regan in The Exorcist. But its history goes all the way back to 19th-century Spiritualism; it was condemned by a Pope and denounced by a professor as “a serious national menace.”
‘After Orlando’: Dozens Of Micro-Plays Respond To The Pulse Shooting
“The only criterion was that the plays should be around 3 to 5 minutes. By mid-August, 70 short plays had come in from the likes of Lindsey Ferrentino, Neil LaBute, Mia Chung, and Nathan Alan Davis. The plays will be presented in readings around the country … So far more than 40 theatrical institutions and universities nationwide and abroad have signed on.”
‘The Every 28 Hours Plays’ – A Theatrical Response To Ferguson, In Missouri And Nationwide
“[The projects’ founders] began reaching out to playwrights around the U.S. to see if they would write new short plays to add into the mix, and received dozens, including works from Neil LaBute, Dominique Morisseau, and Lynn Nottage. When [they] decided to put the idea on its feet in Missouri, they found that theatremakers from across the nation were interested in joining in.”
Books Stranded At Sea: Publishers’ Latest Headache Is A Bankrupt Shipping Company
“The Hanjin Shipping Company, which filed for bankruptcy in August, has seen dozens of its ships – some carrying significant orders from trade houses – stranded at sea or seized by creditors. Affected publishers range from St. Martin’s Press to W.W. Norton to Lee & Low.”
On Moral Issues, Liberals Ponder And Conservatives Pounce
“Newly published research suggests … that conservatives decide ethical issues in an intuitive, automatic way [while] liberals are more likely to give such questions serious thought before arriving at an opinion. This difference between snap judgments and reason-based conclusions ‘may be a fundamental aspect of left-right political orientation’.”
Why Do People In Old Movies Talk Funny?
As you probably noticed for the first time while watching TV late at night, actors in the Hollywood films of the ’30s and ’40s did not speak the way actors do now. That wasn’t because you were stoned; the elocution style really was different – for public figures in real life as well as in fiction films. (Think of FDR’s speeches.) Linguist John McWhorter explains why. (podcast)
Nude Hillary Clinton Statue (It Had To Happen Eventually) Appears Briefly In New York
Two months after guerrilla artists put up nude statues of Donald Trump in five US cities, “the grotesque caricature of the Democratic candidate appeared outside the Bowling Green station during morning rush hour on Tuesday [showing] Clinton with hoofed feet and a Wall Street banker resting his head on her bare breasts. The statue was up for less than three hours before an enraged woman toppled it over and started yelling at the statue’s creator.” (includes video)
Arts And Culture Make Cities Safer And Stronger, Says UNESCO Report
“According to the report’s findings, the best measure to prevent such negative effects” of rapid urbanization as social inequality, lack of parks and public spaces, the growth of slums, and even violence “is to fully integrate cultural components into urban strategies from the start.”
Are Your Paints Killing You?
“The warning labels on art supplies do not display a skull and crossbones, but alerts about carcinogens and diseases frighten artists, leading art supply stores and paint manufacturers to discontinue certain products and stock the alternative hues.”
Has Advertising Wrecked Our Access To Quality?
“There is a strange business model called advertising-supported media that was once restricted to a small area of our life, like newspapers, but now it is taking over every area of our life. I wanted to understand the history of advertising, because it didn’t simply always exist this way. You typically would just pay for stuff, like newspapers or movies. The idea of selling a captive audience had to be invented. And the normative question is: What are the costs of everything being free? Are we paying in other ways? There is a covenant that, in exchange for free stuff, we expose ourselves to advertising. But is that covenant broken?”
Consequentialism – The Philosophy That Guarantees You’ll Never Stop Feeling Guilty
“I didn’t do enough,” says Oskar Schindler at the end of Schindler’s List. “Is he right?,” asks Michael Mitchell. “According to consequentialism, it’s true: he didn’t do enough. Consequentialism is the moral theory that we are obligated to do whatever would have the best consequences. If that entails great sacrifice, then great sacrifice is what consequentialism demands we undertake. Since Schindler could have done more, he should have.”
First Look: Dramatic New Orchestra Hall For Beijing
The concert hall was designed by MAD Architects in collaboration with acoustic expert Yasuhisa Toyota, who has worked on the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Philharmonie de Paris, and the Suntory Hall in Japan. Its main auditorium will seat 1,600 people on “vineyard style” terraces surrounding the stage area.
Should The Smithsonian Be Running A Kickstarter Campaign To Preserve Wizard Of Oz Ruby Slippers?
“This campaign would keep the shoes’ color from deteriorating, and the money will go toward a technologically advanced display case to preserve them for future generations. Even though the Smithsonian’s museums are federally funded, the institution still solicits private and corporate contributions for major projects if it isn’t covered by their budget. In fact, this is the Smithsonian’s second Kickstarter campaign; in 2015, the National Air and Space Museum raised $700,000 to preserve the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore when he walked on the moon.”
Russian City Cancels ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ After Protests By Orthodox Christian Group
“The show, [in a staging] by a troupe from St. Petersburg, was to have been staged Nov. 1 in Omsk, Russia’s seventh-most-populous city. But a local group called ‘Family, Love, and Fatherland’ filed a complaint that the musical mocked religious faith.”
Shrewd And Wealthy Commodities Trader Says Art Professor At Tiny College Sold Him Forgeries
“When [Andrew J.] Hall set out last year to stage an exhibition of [Leon] Golub’s art at the private rural museum he operates in [a Vermont] village, he found out to his surprise that more than a third of the Golubs he had bought were forgeries, according to a lawsuit he filed last month. And the people he says hoodwinked him … seem to have disappeared.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Adopts *Some* Recommendations From The Michael Kaiser Report
“The Philadelphia Orchestra will program musicals. It will set up new philanthropic councils made up from donors with special interests and, starting in 2018, from outside the city. The orchestra is starting a series of master classes with guest artists. And it will develop more ways to lure and keep younger donors.”
Michael Bloomberg Gives $50 Million To The Museum That Changed His Life
“Everyone around here knows Michael Bloomberg … built a multibillion-dollar company and served as a three-term mayor of New York. But what people might not know is that Bloomberg credits the Museum of Science for helping to shape who he became. ‘I went every Saturday, and it changed my life,’ recalled Bloomberg, 74, who attended classes there starting when he was about 10 and through his high school years.”
The Double-Bass? For Weaklings. Check Out The Octobass
It’s almost 12 feet tall, weighs 289 pounds, sounds four octaves lower than a double-bass, and the player has to use levers for fingering because there’s just no hope of reaching the fingerboard. The octobass was invented in 1849, and the Montreal Symphony is now the first orchestra in the world to have one. (includes video)
Cuba’s National Ballet School Enrolls Its First American Student
“Communist-led Cuba is renowned for its rigorous, state-subsidized ballet education and has produced an outsized share of dance stars, such as Carlos Acosta and José Manuel Carreño, for a small island of 11 million inhabitants. Cuba’s National Ballet School, which claims to be the world’s largest with 3,000 students, has long trained many foreign dancers. But no American had joined its full-time program during the half-century long conflict between Cuba and United States.” Until now.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.18.16
Big Stakes For This Art Week
Tempus fugit! I’ve been meaning to write more about The European Fine Art Fair’s arrival in New York later this week, but have not had the time. But you can bet that I will be there, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-10-18
Artistic Excellence and Mutual Self-Interests
This post is part of a series in conjunction with TRG Arts on developing relationships with both new communities and existing stakeholders through artistic programming, marketing and fundraising, community engagement and public policy. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-10-18
“Capital Overhaul”: My WSJ Review of National Gallery’s Reinvented East & Strengthened West
Here’s the cast of curators who reshuffled the deck with provocative pairings and strengthened representation of key artists, aided by the influx of some 8,766 works (219 now on display), acquired from the venerable (now defunct) Corcoran Gallery of Art. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-10-18
The bizarre wonder of The Iceland Concert
About a week ago I went to see a cryptically named sort-of opera called The Iceland Concert at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater. … I got a bit lost in the storytelling — probably my fault, not the production’s — but the music and setting could hardly have been bettered. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2016-10-18
Ten years after: is music sexy?
From 2006: Love-hungry bachelors of the Fifties and early Sixties were notorious for using jazz and romantic ballads to grease the skids. Frank Sinatra, I’m told, was their artist of choice, though … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-10-18
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Yuja Wang Named Musical America Artist Of The Year
Andrew Norman was named composer of the year; the bass-baritone Eric Owens, vocalist of the year; and Eighth Blackbird, the new-music sextet currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, ensemble of the year.
He Stumbled On Grandpa’s Old Reel-To-Reel Tapes – And Found A Motherlode Of His Country’s Endangered Folk Music
“When Daniel Lofredo Rota began clearing out the apartment of his dead grandfather here in April 2014, he found several tons of newspaper, stacks of letters, broken typewriters and about 300 magnetic reel-to-reel tapes, almost perfectly preserved after 45 years in a cool, dry place. … It was a cultural time capsule carrying a vital chapter of Ecuador’s musical history.”
MoMA Gets A Collection, And A Research Institute, Of Latin American Art
“Before Lygia Clark was getting major museum retrospectives; before Adriana Varejão was represented by leading galleries; before Beatriz Milhazes was achieving high prices at auction, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros was collecting Latin American art … Over the last 16 years, Ms. Cisneros and her husband, Gustavo A. Cisneros, have donated 40 of these pieces to the Museum of Modern Art, where she has served on the board since 1992. Now, they are giving 102 more and establishing a research institute at the museum for the study of Latin American art.”
Pittsburgh Symphony Cancels Yet More Concerts; No Negotiations With Striking Musicians Scheduled
“The Pittsburgh Symphony canceled all orchestra events through Nov. 18 in the wake of the musicians’ strike, the organization announced Monday. … As a result, at least four of the 20 core classical concert weekends and two of the orchestra’s seven pops programs scheduled for this season will not take place.”
Columbia’s New Doctoral Program In Dance Education Will Train Teachers Of Teachers
“As the decline of arts education in recent decades has increasingly alarmed cultural institutions, a new $4.36 million gift aims to bolster dance education by taking a different approach. The gift, from Jody Gottfried Arnhold and her husband, John, will allow Teachers College at Columbia University to establish a new doctoral program to train those who train dance teachers.”