I’ve been e-mailed a rich, if daunting array of hour-long videos that make up Yoshiko Chuma’s Love Story, the School of Hard Knocks.There are twenty-four of them in all. Think about it. No, don’t. I’m about to try writing about just two of them. – Deborah Jowitt
Author: Matthew Westphal
Deaccession Deactivation: Fallout from Baltimore Museum’s Pullout from Sotheby’s (& other pratfalls)
The misadventures of Sotheby’s David Galperin, hyping four anticipated highlights of Sotheby’s Oct. 28 Contemporary Art sale, would be ripe for parody if the underlying issues weren’t serious. – Lee Rosenbaum
Should Rimbaud And Verlaine Be Re-Interred In The Panthéon? (A Very French Contretemps)
Adam Gopnik: “Obsessing as so many are on the small niceties of American politics — i.e., the final confrontation between the forces of light and darkness on which all of humanity’s future depends — let us spare a moment’s thought for a couple of obscure French poets and their fate.” – The New Yorker
Old Recordings Of Classical Masters Are Sounding Better Than Ever
“The most dramatic evolution in the classical recording industry has also been the quietest — partly because the most glamorous figures involved are long deceased.” David Patrick Stearns looks at labels specializing in historic recordings: the use of advanced technology on crackly old source material means that, for instance, “you [can even] hear what sounds like Furtwängler turning his score pages in the 1949 Ring Cycle at La Scala.” – WQXR (New York City)
Poland’s Hottest Rapper Walks Right Into The Culture Wars
“Taco Hemingway is a household name in Poland. One of the country’s biggest rappers, he has songs that get millions of views, and before the coronavirus hit, he filled arenas. … Over the summer, he released a track, ‘Polskie Tango’ (‘Polish Tango’), which many saw as a direct criticism of Poland’s right-wing government and [its] culture of fear. … He soon found himself under attack on social media and becoming a target for conservative journalists.” – The New York Times
Online Theater Gets More Interactive
“Several months into the pandemic, performers, designers and writers are using technology … with more ingenuity. They’re skillfully adapting some of the devices honed in live performance over the years — namely, techniques to break the fourth wall and lure spectators into the show. And in the process, theater is reclaiming for these trying times its rightful status as the most intimate of art forms.” – The Washington Post
The Art Of The Horror-Movie Scream
“Bloodcurdling from an A-lister is uncommon: Often, the screams we hear in movies and TV are created by doubles and voice actors, in Burbank studios, with specialists standing by to ghoul them up. It’s physically taxing and emotionally draining. And bizarro as a job.” (includes sound clips) – The New York Times
Even Before Buñuel, Way Back In 1908, There Was Surrealist Spanish Film
“Segundo de Chomón, a pioneering Spanish director often compared to Georges Méliès, … made bizarre trick films that experimented with color and temporality, and would eventually influence the surrealist work of filmmakers Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, making him, in many ways, the father of Spanish cinema.” – JSTOR Daily
Book Industry Starts Taking Real Steps To Become More Diverse
“Publishing houses across the industry are making senior-level hires and structural changes to try to make their companies, and the books they acquire, more diverse — racially, ethnically and even geographically. While critics, including authors and publishing insiders, have accused publishers of paying lip service to these issues, the companies are increasingly making lasting changes to the way they do business, and in some cases they are already being driven by newly hired executives of color.” – The New York Times
As COVID Carries On, How Should Live Performance Inch Back? And How Should Arts Journalists Cover It?
“As some Bay Area artists and producers take tentative steps toward reopening, The Chronicle Datebook team is wrestling with new ethical questions: Is it responsible for an in-person event to take place? How do we cover that news in responsible ways? Senior Arts and Entertainment Editor Mariecar Mendoza got to discussing this with theater critic Lily Janiak, classical music critic Joshua Kosman and pop music critic Aidin Vaziri, exploring how they approach their jobs in the coronavirus era.” – San Francisco Chronicle