“[Isabella’s] willingness to be a martyr for chastity – and Angelo’s moral crackdown, backed by capital punishment – would seem less quaint to the Tea Party wing of the Republicans, at the Vatican, or in countries and cultures subject to Islamic sharia law. And so the conflict in the Vienna of the play between sexual licentiousness and censoriousness has an obvious contemporary topicality, while the play’s broader exploration of the nature of justice is perennially relevant: at the Globe, the production is part of a season under the umbrella theme of ‘Justice & Mercy’.”
Stop Hating On Puns: They’re Useful, They’re Ubiquitous, They’re More Complex Than You Think, And They Deserve Respect (As Long As They’re Clever)
“The fact is, quite a lot of ordinary people enjoy puns. So why is the pun looked down upon? Is its reputation as an inferior form of wordplay really deserved? … It turns out puns are pretty weird, linguistically speaking, given what we think we know about words and what they signify.”
In Wisconsin: Arts Helping Lead Rural Economies?
The arts are playing an increasingly important role in stimulating the local economies of small towns and rural communities throughout Wisconsin.
Roberto Minczuk’s Turbulent Tenure At Brazilian Symphony Orchestra Comes To A Sudden, Quiet End
The Rio-based orchestra gave its now-former chief conductor no formal sendoff: first his title was quietly changed to Conductor Emeritus on publicity materials, then (apparently in response to inquiries) an official statement noting that his contract had expired in August was given to the press. Minczuk’s decade with the organization saw a widely acknowledged improvement in musical standards – and conflicts over his leadership style that culminated in a player revolt in 2011 that cost him the title of artistic director. (Perhaps coincidentally, last month it was also announced that Minczuk is ending his ten-year tenure as music director of the Calgary Philharmonic this season.) (in Portuguese; click here for Google Translate version)
The Most Anticipated New Restaurant In Providence Turned Out To Be An Art Project Satirizing Foodie Culture
Lura Cafe “would be a refuge for diners in the know, serving modern takes on cafe classics – all local, all organic, all certified GMO-free. It was upscale and casual, timeless and avant-garde. … It announced itself – as all similarly accoutred restaurants must – with a social media blitz, featuring sans serif lettering, sunny high-angle shots of brunch dishes, even a breathless write-up in the New York Times. It was also totally fake.”
London’s West End Theatres Are Not ‘Fit For The 21st Century,’ Says Former National Theatre Chief
“Nick Starr has claimed the West End’s current ‘old and ageing’ playhouses are unable to accommodate [any] contemporary theatremaking … that is more innovative in form than revivals of old plays, and said new venues were needed to provide homes for theatremakers who want to create for spaces that are non-proscenium arch.”
Ai Weiwei’s True Medium Isn’t Legos, It’s Twitter And Instagram
“On Twitter, he puckishly retweets affirmations and condemnations alike, apparently more interested in sustaining debate than in simply winning the day. At such moments he seems less like a source of controversy than its stage manager.”
Using Arts Education To Create Good Citizens And Thinkers: Remembering Black Mountain College
“Democracy is about making choices, and people need to take ownership of their choices. We don’t want to vote the way someone else tells us to. We want to vote based on beliefs we have chosen for ourselves. Making art is making choices. Art-making is practice democracy. Rice did not think of art-making as therapy or self-expression. He thought of it as mental training.”
Why Are Boston Audiences Laughing Inappropriately During Serious Plays?
“Rogue laughter,” as Boston-area actress Marianna Bassham calls it, has become an occupational hazard for actors, an annoyance for audiences, and an increasingly common phenomenon on stages from Boston to Broadway and from “A Streetcar Named Desire” to last year’s New York revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Denzel Washington.
Study: Streaming Isn’t Killing Recording Industry Revenues
“When looking the top songs each week and calculating how much rights holders were paid, researchers find that streaming usage increases music-industry revenue thanks to the ability to convert those who were either downloading illegally or not listening to tracks at all. But those gains are pretty much offset by streaming’s displacement of permanent track purchases or downloads.”
Museum Says It Will Collect Legos For Ai Weiwei
“We have received many offers of donations of Lego in the past days. People have shown their generosity, creative spirit and enthusiasm to become engaged in this project, and we are pleased to be the first international collection point.
When Bar(n)-Storming Cellist Matt Haimovitz Colonized Columbia University Campus
“Students eating at Columbia University’s John Jay Dining Hall, an airy den reverberating with undergraduate chatter, were in for a surprise last Wednesday. When they walked in for dinner, they found Matt Haimovitz – the cellist who helped to start a trend by performing in places like an East Village punk club and a pizzeria in Jackson, Miss. – playing Bach.”
Bolshoi Ballet Gets New Director, Replacing Acid Atttack Victim Sergei Filin
“Bolshoi Theatre general director Vladimir Urin appointed Makhar Vaziev, who has led La Scala Ballet for seven years and, before that, spent 13 years at the helm of the Mariinsky Ballet. Many Russians are relieved that the choice is a former dancer with leadership experience and good taste. But questions surround this appointment.”
More Female Producers And Directors Mean More Female Crew Members, Study Finds
“Data crunched by researchers … at San Diego State University found that on films with female directors, women accounted for slightly more than half of the films’ writers. On films with male directors, by contrast, women made up 8 percent of writers. The ripple effect extends to other jobs: across the board, having a female director greatly increased the number of women in editing and cinematographer positions.”
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Selects New Director
“[Peggy] Fogelman, who currently serves as the director of collections at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, has broad experience on both the curatorial and educational sides of museums – knowledge that could well position her to expand the Gardner’s audience and further its multidisciplinary programming.”
The Birth Of ‘The New Yorker Story’ As A Genre
Jonathan Franzen: “What made a story New Yorker was its carefully wrought, many-comma’d prose; its long passages of physical description, the precision and the sobriety of which created a kind of negative emotional space, a suggestion of feeling without the naming of it; its well-educated white characters, who could be found experiencing the melancholies of affluence, the doldrums of suburban marriage, or the thrill or the desolation of adultery; and, above all, its signature style of ending, which was either elegantly oblique or frustratingly coy, depending on your taste.”
ISIS Has Found A Way To Make Its Destruction Of Ancient Sites And Artifacts Even Worse
“According to reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the extremist militant group tied at least three prisoners to Roman pillars in the Syrian desert city of Palmyra, rigged the structures with dynamite, and blew them up Monday afternoon.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.27.15
Walid Raad’s Blurred Lines at MoMA: Does Truth Matter?
The Museum of Modern Art’s bewildering Walid Raad exhibition (to Jan. 31) “investigates distinctions between fact and fiction,” according to its press release. In truth, it blurs those distinctions in a ways that sometimes feel … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-10-27
Pat Graney and Colleen Thomas Explore Difference (Differently)
The 1960s weren’t all about Beatles, sit-ins, marches, pot, and communes. For many women, the post-war 1940s and the 1950s lingered on in spirit. Some of these women may have worn go-go boots and very short dresses, but they belonged to the unspoken club of wives who … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-10-27
Enough of this
This summer came a CD release which – with all respect to the major classical music forces involved – is the kind of project I wish we wouldn’t do. This was a Deutsche Grammophon recording … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-10-27
I Love Lieder, Don’t You?
It’s rare for my wife and me to feel that we are among the younger members of the audience, but this happened at the Oxford Lieder Festival 2015, “Singing Words: Poets and Their Songs.” … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2015-10-27
Lookback: could Victor Borge really play piano?
From 2005: Borge’s act resembled a straight piano recital gone wrong. He’d start to play a familiar piece like Clair de lune or the “Moonlight” Sonata, then swerve off in some improbable-sounding direction, never getting around to finishing what he started. Yet he was clearly an accomplished pianist, though few of his latter-day fans had any idea how good he’d been … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-10-27
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New Project To Use Technology To Map Inside Of Pyramids
“Among the tools used will be infrared thermography to detect temperature variations on the monuments’ exteriors, which could reveal previously unseen cavities, chambers or corridors close to the surface. With the help of drones, the team will use photogrammetry and laser scanning to make accurate 3D models of the pyramids, other monuments nearby and their general surroundings.”
Shakespeare In Translation: To Be, Or, You Know, To Kill Myself…
In the end, any new production of Shakespeare—on Broadway, TV or movies—is a kind of translation, a gambit for clarity and relevance amidst mystery. Maybe it’s the literal-mindedness of Play on! that has drawn such outrage and mockery.
Philip French, 82 – Was The Observer Film Critic For 50 Years
“During his five decades as a critic, French watched more than 2,500 movies, published several books and received an OBE for his services to film in 2013.”
Theatre Critic Frank Rizzo Takes Buyout After 30 Years At Hartford Courant
Rizzo has written for the Courant for over thirty years. He has also contributed to such publications as Variety, American Theatre magazine, the Sondheim Review and The New York Times.
Buried Treasure: 3,500-Year-Old Tomb, Complete With Gold And Precious Stones, Found Intact In Greece
“The warrior’s grave belongs to a time and place that give it special significance. He was buried around 1500 B.C., next to the site on Pylos on which, many years later, arose the palace of Nestor, a large administrative center that was destroyed in 1180 B.C., about the same time as Homer’s Troy. The palace was part of the Mycenaean civilization; from its ashes, classical Greek culture arose several centuries later.”