“It’s the question of, ‘What do we want straight white men to do that they’re not doing? And what happens when they do that?’ It’s a very current question. Because being a straight white man is a relatively new thing, historically. For years, they got to be the default human. And now, suddenly, they’re being slapped with labels, and they hate it.”
The (Frankly Bizarre) Dominance Of Enya
“Her success so deeply contradicts accepted industry wisdom that it’s inspired a term — ‘Enya-nomics’ — to describe it. Several years ago, she was invited to Harvard Business School to discuss the subject, but, like most invitations, Enya declined. Her underexposure, after all, is at the heart of both Enya-nomics and her appeal.”
‘They Don’t Quite Take Place On Planet Earth’: Wallace Shawn On His Plays
“I don’t really write about the real world. Or let me put it in a different way. Pretty much everything I’ve written doesn’t take place in any real country. It’s always a made-up country. My plays are more like dreams that are dreamed by someone from planet Earth but they don’t quite take place on planet Earth.”
Choreographer And MacArthur Genius Kyle Abraham In Near-Perpetual Motion
“Does the 38-year-old choreographer thrive on chaos? ‘No,’ he said emphatically. ‘If you catch the light right, you’ll see my hives coming in.'”
Tod Machover’s Sprawling Symphony Of Detroit Spills Off The Stage
“The result was less a purely musical work than a sprawling, ceremonial communion. As an exercise in sincere civic engagement and community building, the project was unimpeachable.”
One Year After Crisis: Detroit Institute Of Arts Still Figuring Out Its Future
One year after the city emerged from bankruptcy, the DIA still finds itself at a crossroads.
NPR’s Audience Is Getting Smaller And Older, And All Of Public Radio is Worried About It
“Listening among Morning Edition‘s audience, for example, has declined 20 percent among people under 55 in the past five years. As audiences drift to newer on-demand audio sources such as podcasts and streaming, the bonds with local stations – and the contributions that come with them – may be fraying.”
Joseph Silverstein, 83, Longtime Boston Symphony Concertmaster And Utah Symphony Music Director
Said one longtime friend and colleague, “Above and beyond being just an incredible musician and perhaps the greatest concertmaster ever, he was a very, very humane person. … The music was never about himself, as it is with many conductors and violinists. It was always about the music. In that regard, he was very humble. He always took a backseat to the composer.”
When Radical Architects Designed Discos
“Vegetable gardens, flying carpets and Scrooge McDuck: in the late ’60s, young Italian architects ripped up the traditional nightclub and designed a new type of boogie wonderland.”
Coppersmiths Still Hammering Out Their Art In Turkey
“The patient, rhythmic tapping of hammer on metal permeates this alley of coppersmiths. Shelves are filled with gleaming pots, bowls and pitchers. In a corner of each shop, a single worker, usually an older man, patiently toils away on his latest creation — never quite identical to the ones that preceded it.”
What It’s Like To Adapt A Superhero For The Netflix Screen
“Jessica Jones” showrunner Melissa Rosenberg: “It changes quite a bit for cable. It becomes more about continuing story lines than it does about case-of-the-week. Because you’re not a slave to commercials and a week in-between each episode, you have all that real estate you normally spend recapping, going to storytelling. So you find yourself really pushing the edges even further than you might otherwise. Netflix is very much into pushing the edges. We went dark.”
The Painful, Hellish Time For (Some) Workers Inside The Sony Hack
“Sony’s rank and file had their job descriptions scrambled and their private information cast to the wind. But for many of the contractors working on the peripheries of the organization, the hack seemed to breeze through like tumbleweed.”
Philadelphia Orchestra, Still Struggling, Drops Plans For Artistic Collaborations And More
“The slip in attendance is worrisome. Philanthropy tends to spring most naturally from active listeners, and the downtick produced a drop in revenue. ‘We had a shortfall of $3 million in our ticket sales and in our recurring contributions,’ orchestra spokeswoman Katherine Blodgett said.”
Top British Theatre Awards Go To Nicole Kidman, James McAvoy
“The award for top play was picked up by Stephen Adly Guirgis’ ‘The Motherf**ker with the Hat,’ which was directed by Indhu Rubasingham. The New York-set comedy centers on a drug dealer, recently released from prison and trying to go straight, and his volatile girlfriend. The production formed part of the Rufus Norris’ first season as artistic director at the National Theater.”
Saudi Arabia Sentences Artist To Death
“While he is not widely known in Saudi Arabia or abroad, Mr. Fayadh has been an active member of Saudi Arabia’s small contemporary art scene, and his colleagues describe him as a passionate curator who has sought to link Saudi artists to the rest of the world.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs For 11.22.15
Recent Listening In Brief
Jazz is not dying. I know that because the postman, the Fed Ex driver and the UPS man keep dropping off proof that it’s alive. I can’t keep up with all of the albums they… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2015-11-22
Adieu, Sylvie, et Merci
Sylvie Guillem dances into retirement. Sylvie Guillem in Akram Khan’s TeknêPhoto: Bill Cooper Force of Nature. That’s the title of a documentary about the career of the formidable French dancer, Sylvie Guillem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMaNQBED8Q). You… … read more
Sylvie Guillem dances into retirement. Sylvie Guillem in Akram Khan’s TeknêPhoto: Bill Cooper Force of Nature. That’s the title of a documentary about the career of the formidable French dancer, Sylvie Guillem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMaNQBED8Q). You… … read more
Elena Ferrante’s Mothers Elicit A Massive, And Heartfelt, Sigh Of Recognition
“Ferrante is to women what Judy Blume was to pubescent girls in the 1970s: both a shock and a relief, writing what most don’t even admit to thinking. This is especially true regarding Ferrante’s depiction of motherhood, one filled with frustration, difficult choices, and the constant threat of the loss of identity.”
Saturday Night Live Shows That Music Is The Only Way To Soothe The Savage Family Arguments At Thanksgiving
“With debate continuing to rage over the acceptance of Syrian refugees, the gender wage gap, police brutality, and the U.S. response to ISIS, there may be only one person who can bring generations of family members together: Adele.”
How Dance Shaped America (And Vice Versa)
“[Paul] Taylor’s use of everyday steps like skipping and hopping in his choreography is not so very different — though the venues surely are — from James Brown being inspired by the audiences dancing in the aisles at his electrifying concerts. Brown incorporated their moves into his act and took them on tour, serving as ‘the Johnny Appleseed of dance,’ in one biographer’s words.”
If Jesse Eisenberg Reviewed A Movie (Ouch!)
“In sum, these are the main problems with “Paintings of Cole”: it was inconveniently shown on the Upper West Side, written by a guy I envy, screened by a cute intern whose name was too confusing to remember, based on an idea that I poorly executed in grad school, and praised by the Times, which rejected me.”