“Reading about the truly insane things audiophiles will do in pursuit of the perfect sound, I can’t help reflecting back on that unfortunate period in my life when I almost fell down the same rabbit hole.”
What’s The Value Of Sacred Music In A Secular Age?
Here are answers from half a dozen contributors: conductors Peter Phillips (The Tallis Scholars) and Harry Christophers (The Sixteen, Boston Handel & Haydn Society), a documentarian, an atheist, an archbishop, and a prominent rabbi. (And no, they did not walk into a bar.)
Natalia Osipova On The Bolshoi’s Troubles
“My first five years [there] were amazing. … Then, slowly, difficulties started and I decided to leave. I didn’t want scandals: our profession is dancing, not politics. But the Bolshoi is still my home: I am from Moscow. For us, the Bolshoi was something holy. I just hope the theatre will find a way out of this.”
L.A. County Museum Of Art Is Reviving Its Art-Meets-Tech Companies Program
But they’re doing it differently this time around – and the companies involved include Google and SpaceX.
The Case For The Serial Comma, Made In One Screenshot
(Slate‘s always-lively commenters are not all convinced, however.)
Judge Tosses Booksellers’ Suit Against Publishers, Amazon Over Kindle
“Federal Judge Jed Rakoff has dismissed a lawsuit filed by independent booksellers against Amazon and the big six publishers that alleged a murky conspiracy to restrain trade.”
Hitting That Snooze Button Will Only Make It Worse, You Know
Why? Because it’s unnatural, basically. (Not to mention sleep inertia and social jetlag.)
Watch The Young Margot Fonteyn Dance
“YouTube does deliver – here with some rare shots of Margot Fonteyn. Could it be the earliest dance footage the BBC ever recorded?”
Disney Is Buying Up All Our Pop Culture
“Disney remains intent on discovering, rescuing, and rehabilitating precious pop culture artifacts so they can be found or rediscovered by audiences around the world—a modern-day Indiana Jones, indeed.”
The Problem With The “Great Man” Approach To Great Music
“Until we rid ourselves of the notion that the best music of all time was created by a handful of men who lived an ocean away from us and who all died more than a century before any of us were born, we will never have programming that truly reflects the vast array of musical creativity all around us.”
High School Principal Puts The Kibosh On “Rent” Musical (It’s Too Controversial)
It was late November when Trumbull High School’s first-year principal. Marc Guarino, (pronounced Gar-in-o) put the kibosh on the long-in-the-planning spring musical, “Rent: School Edition,” saying the show was too controversial.
Jazz Guitarist Jim Hall, 83
“His career began in the ’50s as part of the West Coast jazz scene with Jimmy Giuffre and Chico Hamilton, recorded with wealth of jazz royalty over his career, including Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins.” Despite his relatively quiet profile, he was considered one of his instrument’s most influential players in all of jazz.
More Drama In Russian Ballet World, This Time In St. Petersburg
Altynai Asylmuratova, the former star ballerina and revered artistic director of the Vaganova Ballet Academy (one of the world’s most prestigious), has resigned – and she’s decamping to a company that has become something of a refuge for Russian dancers.
Will Learning a “Logical” Language Make You Think More Logically?
If the vocabulary and grammar of our languages shape the way we think (e.g., the presence or absence of verb tenses affecting the way we perceive time), then would inventing a completely logical language require its speakers to become more logical thinkers? James Cooke Brown decided to try it.
Amy Tan On Writing “Microscopically”
“I’ve found that the way to capture the truth of a character – and beyond that, to reflect the truth of how I feel – is to write microscopically. To focus on all the tiny details that, together, make sense of character. Each person’s perspective is absolutely unique; my job is to unearth all the specific events and associations that form an individual consciousness.”
Of Course There’s A Point To Small-Room Opera! (Says A Pub-Opera Company Director)
Robin Norton-Hale of OperaUpClose: “Theatre critics don’t tie themselves in knots trying to find a way to compare a production at the (rightly) well-funded RSC or National Theatre to one at … the Edinburgh Fringe. Each performance is judged on its own merits. … Far from being a poorer experience, I would argue that seeing a smaller-scale opera is simply a different one.”
I Will Not Be Ashamed of Loving “Love, Actually”
Emma Green counterattacks in the Love, Actually wars at The Atlantic: “I admire the bravery that’s needed to declare oneself the enemy of Christmas, Colin Firth, and crushes nurtured by 11-year-old kids, and it would be cowardly to hide behind the movie’s cute-factor in mounting my defense.”
Kennedy Center Names Deborah Rutter As Its New President, To Succeed Michael Kaiser
“Rutter, 57, will succeed Michael M. Kaiser, who has led the Kennedy Center since 2001. As president, she will serve as both artistic and administrative director of the Kennedy Center’s theater, dance, chamber music, jazz programming and education initiatives, while overseeing the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.”
Forbes Ranks Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actors
“Looking at pay, movie budgets and expenses, we calculated a return on investment number for each star and then averaged those numbers to get an overall return.”
500 Writers From 100 Countries Protest Mass Surveillance
“The global initiative, called ‘writers against surveillance’ is calling on all states and corporations across the globe to respect the rights of people to determine the extent to which their personal data may be collected, stored and processed. The group are also calling on the UN to create an International Bill of Digital Rights.”
The Practical Absurdity Of Selling Detroit’s DIA Art
“Michiganders might remember that in the 1920s and ’30s, the cash-hungry Soviet government sold off Russia’s art treasures, dispersing them to other countries. Today, that episode is viewed as a national tragedy.”
LA Scala Names New Director To Succeed Barenboim
“La Scala said in an email Tuesday that Riccardo Chailly, a 60-year-old Milan-born conductor, will be La Scala’s principal conductor from 2015 before becoming musical director in 2017.”
Museums As Community Centers? C’Mon. They Shouldn’t Be Daycares
“I like an ace café and the lattes on sale as much as the next girl. But there is a seemingly relentless drive to make them more like a nursery and less like a palace of knowledge.”