“Musical systems around the world and across historical eras have been diverse, but octaves are commonly a feature of them. The acoustic structure of octaves is always the same: The frequency of a note in one octave is half the frequency of the same note in the octave above,” and that fact of physics has led to the general assumption that “octave equivalence” is universal. But research with an indigenous Bolivian ethnic group that has limited outside contact indicates otherwise. – Quanta Magazine
Singer wants to ‘un-whitewash’ classical music history with free Boston concerts
“‘The [Every Voice] project, in a way, seeks to kind of un-straightwash and un-whitewash music history, especially in the classical sphere,’ said [countertenor Reginald] Mobley, a native of Florida for whom activism and music frequently mix. … Each concert focuses on a few groups within the community; this year, music by black and Jewish composers will be performed by members of the [Handel & Haydn Society] Orchestra and Chorus and a youth chorus from the H&H Vocal Arts Program.” – The Boston Globe
How this dance studio connects adopted children to their native roots
“Every year, families from across the country gather for a heritage camp where adopted Indian and Nepalese children come to learn about their roots. Mudra Dance Studio has been part of the annual camp for over 20 years. Founder Namita Khanna Nariani said the mission of the studio is to ‘celebrate diversity through the universal language of dance and music and to expose the world to the beautiful cultural fabric that India brings to our culture here [in the United States].'” – PBS NewsHour
Is There a Black Acting Method? A Symposium Makes the Case
“A gathering last month in Georgia lifted up the work of Sharrell D. Luckett and Tia M. Shaffer, and their mentor, Freddie Hendricks, in developing empowering approaches for Black actors.” – American Theatre
Why Such A Glut Of Movies About Christmas?
It’s probably no surprise that Hallmark channels have increased their annual Christmas movie count by 20 percent since 2017, but Lifetime has more than quadrupled its output in the last two years and Netflix has doubled its in that same time. – The New York Times
We’re In A Golden Age Of Invented Languages, And We’re Learning A Lot From Them
“Conlangs” (constructed languages) are hardly new: Esperanto and Volapük were created in the 19th century; Tolkien claimed he wrote his Middle Earth books so that someone would speak the Elvish tongues he invented; Klingon was completed in the 1980s. But over the past 30 years, conlangs have exploded (aided greatly by the Internet connecting the nerds who do the constructing). Some of these languages are being used in neurolinguistic research, and one has been developed as a useful lingua franca for Slavs. – Slate
Lara St. John: I’m Disappointed With Curtis Institute’s Response To My Abuse Charges
St. John writes a letter to Roberto Diaz, president of the school: “You and the Board have failed both this venerable institution and the Curtis community.” – Lara St. John
Why We Need To Rethink The Nonprofit Model
The nonprofit sector started out as a vehicle for voluntary civic engagement. Nonprofit organizations are organized to advance the public, rather than private, good. But as the sector grew and professionalized, the focus quickly shifted from the people, or civil society, to the organizations themselves as the key constituents of the sector. So, when we talk about infrastructure for the sector, is the infrastructure there to support civic engagement, or nonprofit and philanthropic organizations? This tension has been there from the beginning. – NonProfit Quarterly
Better Than The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule begins with imagining oneself as selfish, but try Mengzi instead. “Mengzian extension starts from the assumption that you are already concerned about nearby others, and takes the challenge to be extending that concern beyond a narrow circle.” – Aeon
‘The Game’: The Game — In Which The Dangers You Dodge Are Pick-Up Artists
Artist Angela Washko spent four years studying Neil Strauss’s notorious womanizing instruction manual The Game, along with other materials of its kind, to develop The Game: The Game, a video pastime in which the player is a young woman in a dive bar being hit on by a series of men on the hunt. Each line of dialogue and “seduction technique” is taken directly from PUA (pick-up artist) books and how-to videos. – The Nation
This 19th-Century French Poet Was The Ancestor Of Today’s Goth Kids
Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) wore black, dyed his hair green, broke with his family, refused to get a regular job, did absinthe and opium, had too much illicit sex, and, of course, died young. Better, “his first collections of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857), was prosecuted for offending public morals, challenging its audiences with its startling treatments of sex, Satanism, vampirism and decay. No wonder his words would one day be set to music by The Cure.” – The Conversation
How King Tut Exhibitions Grew To Become A Multimillion-Dollar International Industry
“The first major touring exhibition of artifacts from King Tut’s tomb was a product of financial necessity. In 1961, archaeological sites in Egypt were in danger of flooding and the country needed funds to protect them. Over the next 5 years, more than 30 objects from Tut’s tomb toured 18 cities across the United States and Canada. A slightly enlarged show opened in Japan in 1965. Through 1981, Tut artifacts were nearly always on the road, touring from Moscow to London, from Paris to Berlin.” – Artsy
Dead Musicians Are Touring As Holograms (Really)
“Was it really okay, I wondered, to let holograms stand in for once-vital, important artists and carry out new performances? Was this an inevitable development in the interweaving of high tech and art — or did it possibly speak to something darker about our 21st-century morals and our endless quest to be entertained? What did this phenomenon say about, well, us?” – Washington Post
AI Is Getting Very Good At Writing Prose
When the creators of GPT-2 gave the AI model a single sentence referencing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, the machine generated a few paragraphs of Tolkien-esque prose—capturing a measure of the author’s unique world and sensibility. – Publishers Weekly
LA’s New George Lucas Museum Names A Director
On Wednesday the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced Sandra Jackson-Dumont as its new director and chief executive officer. She comes to L.A. from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where since 2014 she has headed education and public programs. – Los Angeles Times
Overworked, Underpaid Young Architects In UK Start Drive To Unionise
“Unpaid overtime, precarious contracts, working hours so antisocial your only friends are people who do the same job … after a minimum of seven years’ education and professional training, the reality of working as an architect can be a bleak prospect. It’s not hard to see why so many of them wear black, as if in permanent mourning for the lives they once had.” – The Guardian
If You Replace The Choreography In “A Chorus Line” Is It Still “A Chorus Line”?
“A Chorus Line” is the ultimate ensemble musical, a compilation of autobiographical material about the emotional travails and aspirations of Broadway dancers, as they audition for spots in the singing and dancing chorus of a new musical. – Washington Post
John Witherspoon, One Of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Black Actors, Dead At 77
“[He spent] a long career of playing crotchety yet lovable men whose working-class roots mirrored his own. The actor, who worked until the day before his death, had a remarkable fluency with the hardships his characters faced and the humor they derived from those situations. … [His] ability to convey paternal irritation with comedic flair became a hallmark of nearly all his performances.” – The Atlantic
School Reading Scores Declined In Half Of American States This Year
“Eighth graders at the bottom 10th percentile of reading achievement lost six points on the exam compared with similar students two years ago, while students at the 50th percentile lost 3 points and students at the 90th percentile — top achievers — lost only 1 point.” – The New York Times
Who Gave You The Right To Tell That Story? Ten Authors On Writing Fiction About Identities Other Than Their Own
“The conversation is often depicted in the media as a binary: On one side are those who argue that only writers from marginalized backgrounds should tell stories about people who share their cultural histories — a course correction for an industry that is overwhelmingly white — while on the other are those who say this wish amounts to censorship. For those following closely, it can feel as though the debate has gotten stuck in a rut.” Here, a group of writers including Jennifer Weiner, N. K. Jemisin, Victor LaValle, Laila Lalami, Monique Truong, and Sarah Schulman discuss why they write outside their identities. – New York Magazine
Culture Will Be Key To Rebuilding Iraq, Say Experts
Officials ranging from the country’s minister of culture to UNESCO executives say that restoring museums, ancient churches and mosques will not only provide employment and (eventually) revenue from tourism, they will help build “social cohesion through shared national heritage and history.” – The Art Newspaper
After 25 Years Of Vagabondage, Smuin Ballet Finally Has A Home Of Its Own
Ever since Michael Smuin founded Smuin Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco in 1994, the company has had to scrounge rented studio space as it could, sometimes even ending rehearsals so that children’s classes could use the space. Now, at last, they own their own building — in a former ballroom that was spotted by a former company dancer who became a real estate agent. – The San Francisco Chronicle
Russia’s Richest Oligarch Sets Opening Date For His New Moscow Arts Center
GES-2, a center for contemporary art(s) designed by Renzo Piano and constructed inside a disused 1907 power station, will open next September. Leonid Mikhelson, the billionaire funding the project, insists that GES-2 “is not a museum”; it will have a 420-seat concert hall/theatre and an on-site workshop as well as exhibition spaces, outdoor event space, and a birch grove. (What Mikhelson won’t say is how much it all costs.) – The Art Newspaper
Catholic Group Tries To Shut Down Brussels Opera Production With Nude Joan Of Arc
The Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Belgium’s national opera house, is presenting a staging of Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) by provocative director Romeo Castellucci in which the Maid of Orléans is shown, in extremis, unclothed. A group called the Pro Europa Christiana Federation has petitioned both La Monnaie’s director and Belgium’s minister of culture to close the show, arguing that the production, in which “Saint Joan of Arc is again the target of a pornographic representation, … [is] obscene and hurt[s] Christians.” (The Monnaie’s director is unmoved.) – Yahoo! (AP)
How To Write About Those Outside Your Own Experience?
“Given all the excellent writing about the challenges of rendering otherness, someone who asks this question in 2019 probably has not done the reading. But the question is a Trojan horse, posing as reasonable artistic discourse when, in fact, many writers are not really asking for advice — they are asking if it is okay to find a way to continue as they have. They don’t want an answer; they want permission.” – New York Magazine