Category: AJBlogs

Our Thanksgiving team of William S. Burroughs and Norman O. Mustill has been a longtime happy pairing. It still is. So here they are again, sweetened by Heathcote Williams’s words in a narration-cum-montage by Alan Cox. – Jan Herman

How do you capture the scale, the struggle, the elemental extremity of mountain climbing? In the theatre? It’s simpler than you think. After all, they both use the same kit. – David Jays

Some major organizations have been trying to figure out how to help communities use the arts and culture to create strong, shared values. – Margy Waller

At Bloomberg, Tyler Cowen has a short post on some unintended consequences of a wealth tax, and his is (let’s say) an unusual take. – Michael Rushton

For me, the most jaw-dropping instance of curatorial (and directorial) trend-chasing was the Met’s announcement that the Canadian Cree artist Kent Monkman had been commissioned by the museum to create two monumental paintings for the museum’s Great Hall. – Lee Rosenbaum

My work in the Pennsylvania city came in the middle of a long-term project of commissioning murals for the city. In October one was completed that impressed me so much I had to share it here. – Doug Borwick

Dozens of records, stacked and ready for selection. Before the walkman, spotify and sodcasting, they let you decide your own mood music. Public yet personal, sweetly selfish – the jukebox flourished in the 1950s, the decade in which Master Harold … and the boys is set. A box of delights, a cabinet of chrome and light and your favourite melodies. – David Jays

David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Interaction (Origin)
“From the Portland, Oregon, sinecure in which he thrives when he’s not touring the world, bassist Friesen has been performing at home and abroad with his Circle 3 Trio.” – Doug Ramsey

Today’s announcement by the Metropolitan Museum about the “exceptional bequest” by trustee emerita Jayne Wrightsman (who died in April at 99) omits mention of a crucial way in which this windfall of some 375 objects, along with “substantial [but unspecified] additional funding,” is indeed “exceptional”. – Lee Rosenbaum

At last week’s very sparsely attended press preview for this week’s major auctions, I got a chance to chat about Sotheby’s era of uncertainty with four of the company’s principals. – Lee Rosenbaum