Meant in part as a counterpoint to New York’s wildly popular High Line, and conceived by architect and “urban archaeologist” James Ramsey, the Lowline (if it really does get built) will be a landscaped public space reclaimed out of a derelict three-block-long underground trolley terminal on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Sesame Street’s First Autistic Character Is A Big Deal, Yes – But Maybe Not For The Reasons You Think
Inclusiveness? Teaching kids to accept difference? Sesame Street has always done that. “Put simply: in 2015, everyone has heard of autism. Sesame Street did not have to do much explaining about why Julia is different (and the same), and why she was joining the cast.” This was not always the case …
John Cameron Mitchell’s Journey From Reaganite To Punk Queen
“As Hedwig prepares a national tour, its creator talks with our editors about the show’s genesis, ’90s New York, and socialist project management.”
The London Underground Is Touting What Might Be The Worst Poetry Ever Written
“Like the lingering fart of a fat dog, it is impossible to ignore the poetry on the London Underground. There is something mind-numbingly awful about the posters that sit insultingly in trains and on the walls of Tube platforms. This city deserves better poetry because it would be impossible for its current batch to be any worse.”
What Do Westerners Think Africa Looks Like? The Lagos Photo Festival May Change Everyone’s Mind
“‘There is hardly any photojournalism work this year,’ the festival curator, Cristina de Middel, said. ‘And that’s because the classical documentary approach to storytelling on the continent is exhausted.'”
Dear Smartphone Users: You Are Psychotic Scroll Jockeys
“I realize that I am swimming against the tide of history here. But if I can ask a question that we may have overlooked in our rush to take advantage of everything that’s available to us in this new world, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?”
Why City Theatre Ecologies (Like Chicago) Need Long-running, Populist Musicals
“Bus tours want to plan in advance, actors needs casts that rotate, backstage staffers need gigs they can count on
How Tony-Winning ‘Fun Home’ Changed As It Moved Up And Up In The Theatre World
When a musical upgrades, everything – from furniture to lighting and even to tossing away some musical numbers and adding more – has to change.
Novelist Anthony Marra Interviews The Comedian Behind @GuyInYourMFA
“Marra: Can you describe that moment you realized your own extraordinary talent?
“Guy: I can actually remember quite clearly. I was in fourth grade, and we were asked to write about our summer vacations. I wrote mine entirely in the second person and without punctuation.”
Yelp Reviews Of The Broad Museum Are Comedy Gold
“It is housed next to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in a funky white structure that people either love or hate (me, I’m sipping on the haterade). There’s artwork by Murakami, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michael Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein — basically, all of the T-shirt graphics at UNIQLO.”
Broadway Diversified Itself This Fall, But Will That Attract New Audiences?
“Diversity on stage will give people of different backgrounds a reason to explore forms of entertainment new to them. Audiences want to relate to characters that look and sound like them.”
Russian Love Isn’t Love Like It Is In Capitalist Countries
“The individualistic appeal of the Regime of Choice tends to cast the desire for commitment as ‘loving too much’ – that is, loving against one’s own self-interest.”
If You’re Feeling Isolated, Join A Choir (It’s What Our Ancestors Did)
“Newly published research confirms that raising voices together is an effective way to forge feelings of connection and inclusion. Moreover, it finds this effect is particularly robust for singers who are part of a sizable ensemble featuring many unfamiliar faces.”
The Rise And Fall Of Tower Records
“A new documentary film called All Things Must Pass charts the rise and fall of Tower, from its origins in a Sacramento drugstore in 1960, to its glory days of cocaine-fueled rock-and-roll excess (topping $1 billion in sales), to its stunning downfall. It features interviews and reminiscences with the store’s employees – some of whom rose from scruffy clerks to become top brass.”
A Lost Merce Cunningham Dance Solo, Found – On Film And In The Flesh
“[Merce] was by all accounts at his most personal and driven in a series of three extraordinary 1950s solos he made to music by Christian Wolff.” One of those solo’s Changeling, was rediscovered in a 1958 German TV film. Now visitors to Boston can see both the film itself and a live performance of the reconstructed dance by Silas Riener.
Margot Winspear, 83, Philanthropist Whose Name Is On Dallas’s Opera House
With her husband, Bill, who died in 2007, she was a leading supporter of the performing arts in their hometown of Edmonton, Alberta and in Dallas, to which the Winspears moved in 1975.
Marty Ingels, Actor/Comedian/Voice-Over Artist, Dead At 79
“A raspy-voiced Brooklynite who co-starred with John Astin in the early-1960s sitcom I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster,” Ingels appeared on sitcoms like The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Addams Family and in such films as The Horizontal Lieutenant and Wild and Wonderful; among his many voice roles was Pac-Man. “But he was best known as half of what many thought to be one of Hollywood’s oddest couples.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.22.15
Sit Back & Enjoy the Ride: The Roller Coaster Career Plan
When I was younger, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: Theatre Director. But after a few years in that world, I didn’t … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-22
The Career Path of a Nonprofit Generalist
About a year ago, I was accepted into the Chief Executive Program at National Arts Strategies. This particular cohort is focused on leaders using cultural organizations to change/alter/improve community. Unlike … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-22
What Do We See and How Do We See It?
Leaving St. Mark’s Church after seeing Danspace Project’s presentation of Moriah Evans’s Social Dance 9-12: Encounter, I had a surprising thought about the experience: “This is so non-interesting that it’s interesting.” Then I spent the bus trip home wondering what I meant by that. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-10-22
Suffering Suffragettes: Save Tenafly’s Feminist Landmark (aka Charlie Brown’s)!
I ate at Charlie Brown’s while it was there for 25 years, and I never felt a connection with Elizabeth Cady Stanton while eating there. So said Mayor Peter Rustin of Tenafly, NJ, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-10-22
“Danaë” Downpour: Metropolitan Museum & Yale University Shower Dealer Richard Feigen with Gold
Dealer Richard Feigen has once again used the imprimatur of the Metropolitan Museum to add luster to a work transferred from the Met’s galleries to an auction house’s premises. It now appears that Danaë’s golden … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-10-22
BlogBack: Curator Jonathan Stuhlman on the Met-to-Sotheby’s “Danaë”
As suggested in the BlogBack below, a few CultureGrrl readers and tweeters have interpreted my previous post – “Danaë” Downpour: Metropolitan Museum & Yale University Shower Dealer Richard Feigen With Gold – as criticizing the Metropolitan Museum’s curators for … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-10-22
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All The Meanings Of Bartleby
“Melville, despite his struggles, was a hopeful person. ‘Bartleby’ is the freewheeling dream of a bibliophile, the mock epic of a dusty office, the shards of a lifetime of thought. One hundred sixty-two years of scholarship have failed to solve its mysteries—or diminish its pleasures.”
The New Old Way To Hear (And Spread) Poetry
“‘I think being in a home environment is so much more comfortable for people,’ Ratzabi said. ‘It establishes this automatic comfort level. There’s something comforting about food, about sitting around a couch in a safe space where we’re here to support and critique each other.'”
So It Turns Out That Hitler Fans Helped Smuggle Nazi Art To West Germany
“The businessman handed him a bundle of cash that he referred to as ‘venture capital’ — and it was clear to both men that this was intended as bribe money to pave the way for the sculptures to come to the West. The dealer says that he no longer remembers the exact amount, but he insists that Wolf regularly sent him large sums of money, usually in padded envelopes and personally delivered by his driver.”
The Author Of The ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Books Gets A Philosophy Prize For Them
“Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon books, about the adventures of the Viking Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, ‘stand out not only for their humour, excitement, and startlingly vivid descriptive language, but also, more surprisingly, for their profound meditations on complex political, historical, emotional and moral themes,’ said Philosophy Now, announcing Cowell’s win.”
What Does Selling Out Even Mean Anymore?
“Yeah, so the movie’s on iTunes. It was shot over a period of twenty-five days in 4K digital in a 2.35 aspect ratio and has a 5.1 Dolby Surround mix, and now you can watch it on your fucking phone. I am somewhat ambivalent about your ease of access, dear consumer.”
Look, There’s Just No Need To Play The National Anthem Before A Symphony Concert
“It’s an odd, and frankly inappropriate, custom. In a performance that celebrates global artistry, this is no place for perfunctory patriotism. The pomp and circumstance of a national anthem mercilessly clashes with the complex creativity of classical composers.”
Did They Just Find A Lost Donatello?
“Andrew Butterfield, an art dealer and Renaissance scholar, had seen the two-and-a-half-foot tall wooden sculpture several years before, in a photograph, and thought it was ‘really fantastic.'”