Reports this week said that conductor Michael Tilson Thomas stopped a New World Symphony performance in Miami last Friday and asked a mother and her fidgeting child in the front row to leave. But MTT has come forward to say that that’s not quite the way things went down. (Social media posts from other audience members have backed him up.) (includes audio)
Walk Like A Happier Person, Feel Like A Happier Person
Yes, it sounds like the sort of bromide your Sunday school teacher might have dished out. But some experimental psychologists are finding that this particular “act-as-if” trick can actually work.
Shameless Plug: An Analysis Of The (Now-Deflated) “Tree” In Paris
“What, I ask you, should one expect if one asks artist Paul McCarthy to create a Christmas tree for the place of honor at a renowned, must-attend art fair?” Cat Weaver gives us the bottom line.
Piracy May Not Be Entirely Bad For Television
“Illegal downloading and sharing of film and TV content is a major crime. Media piracy has even become fertile new territory for organised crime rings … But the reasons why ordinary people watch pirated programmes are complex – and the effect on a media brand’s content creators may not be so simple.” (video)
When High Fashion Sparked A Preservation Movement
“At the turn of the 19th century in the U.S. and Europe, it became wildly popular – and that’s an understatement – for ladies to wear feathers and whole taxidermied birds on their hats. … Ornithologists started to sit up and take notice. One estimated that 67 types of birds – often including all of their sub-species – were at risk for extinction.”
Why Are Scary Clowns Stalking Around Britain and France?
“From city to city, people dressed up like circus escapees have been roaming the streets, getting into mischief, and generally scaring the bejeesus out of passers-by. Apart from young children and acute coulrophobics, the spooky-clown epidemic has been taken more or less in a spirit of fun. Until last week, that is.”
“Goodfellas” Actor Sues “The Simpsons” For $250M
“Frank Sivero says that The Simpsons ripped off the Frankie Carbone character he played in 1990’s Goodfellas and he wants to be paid for it. In a lawsuit filed today, the actor says he wants to be paid a lot – $250 million and more for the Springfield Mafia’s Louie.”
All About Douchebags – Where The Epithet Came From, And Who Qualifies
“They are at least preferable to their nearest equivalent, the arsehole, who is petty and spiteful and astringent and actively gets off on other people’s misery. The douchebag just blunders around in his obnoxious pool sliders, naively wondering why nobody’s having as much fun as he is. Boris Johnson? Total douchebag.”
Why Is Getting Data On Artists So Difficult?
“Because almost everything about the ways that artists work seems to defy typical practices for collecting labor and earnings statistics, which may also speak to the larger problems with the ways we collect labor statistics in this country in general, but that’s a discussion for another day.”
What The Success Of John Coltrane’s New Recording Says About Today’s Music Business
“When an album released solely within a physical framework holds its own against major label competitors with digital backing (one thinks of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett again), what does it say about the state of music sales in 2014?”
Why Jazz Don’t Get No Respect
“Jazz fans are hip; editors and writers at these publications are revanchist, in love with a non-existent, prelapsarian golden-age that is different for each.”
Dancing American Priests Become Internet Sensation
“A video of a pair of dueling, dancing American priests studying in Rome has gone viral, following in the footsteps of a now-famous Italian nun whose Alicia Keyes-esque voice won her a singing contest and a record contract.”
Swedish Law Says Artists Get Paid For Being Shown In Museums (But It Doesn’t Work That Way)
“According to a survey conducted by the Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis, around 60% of artists who showed their work in smaller state museums either failed to get paid or received less than the law dictates.”
Why We Need Art That Examines Terrorism
Protesters of “The Death of Klinghoffer” are upset by the way terrorists are portrayed. “Apparently, the Achille Lauro hijackers are only to be represented as the cackling villains of fairy tale – evil just because they are evil. Yet if we take the position that terrorism cannot ever be understood, we are unlikely ever to defeat it. Surely the rise of homegrown terrorists is proof of that.”
Detroit Institute Of Arts Collection Has Been Saved (Or Just About): Report
“The [museum] has cleared its biggest remaining hurdle to secure its art collection. Last week, the city of Detroit reached a settlement with its largest holdout creditor, the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC). As Detroit’s 16-month-long bankruptcy trial comes to a close this week, the 11th-hour deal all but guarantees that the DIA’s collection will not be sold to pay down the city’s debt.”
People Are Faking Disabilities To Get Free Theatre Tickets
“Belfast’s Grand Opera House is to review an access scheme for disabled customers, following evidence that it is being abused by people pretending to have disabilities.”
What Ellen Burstyn Survived
“When [she] was 18, she got on a Greyhound bus going from Detroit to Dallas. She had 50 cents in her pocket … She’d already gotten pregnant and had an illegal abortion. By her mid-20s, determined not to just get by on her looks, she left Hollywood to study acting with Lee Strasberg. In her mid-40s, after leaving an abusive marriage, she starred as a newly single mom in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The role was based in part on her own life, and it won her an Oscar.” (audio podcast; includes transcript)
Can There Be Such A Thing As A Bad Children’s Book? (Hey, It’s Getting Kids To Read, Right?)
Rebecca Mead: “[The] view that any book that is avidly embraced can serve as a gateway to an enduring love of reading is surely true … But the metaphor of the gateway should prompt caution, too, since one can go through a gate in two directions.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.22.14
Stop Working For Free
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-10-22
Fear of Learning
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2014-10-22
A Very Ambitious, Private, New Museum For Miami
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-10-22
Rembrandt Late Style: the Greatest Show on Earth?
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2014-10-22
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This Week In Controversial Opera: Wikileaks
“Directed by Daniel Fish, “The Source” seeks to create a nuanced portrait of Pfc. Manning while engaging with troves of military documents. The work’s text comes from primary-source material: Manning’s chat logs and the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs that were eventually published by WikiLeaks.”
Roundup Of “Klinghoffer” Reviews
Links to reviews of fourteen major critics who reviewed the Metropolitan Opera production of “The Death of Klinghoffer” this week.
Big Jump In TV Production In LA As Movie Production Shrinks
“Even as local feature film production continued to fall, shoots for television programs jumped 31% in the third quarter compared to the same time a year ago, generating 5,363 production days, according to newly-released figures from FilmL.A. Inc.”
Creator Of PBS’ Art21 Dies
“Susan Sollins, the co-founder of Independent Curators International (ICI) and founder and executive director of Art21 — the non-profit organization that produces an artist documentary series with PBS — passed away on October 13 of unknown causes.”
Art Saved His Life, And Now He’s Using Art To Help Save Other Homeless People
“If art comes from pain, then James Webster is Michelangelo. He’s suffered from depression, alcoholism, and stroke. He’s been arrested for assault, divorced by two women, and beaten with bats by gangs, and he lived homeless in North Philadelphia for a year. … These days, Webster helps teach art to homeless people at Project HOME, the nationally known Philadelphia nonprofit.”