The Intense – And Rapidly Growing – World Of Fanfiction

“It’s only a matter of time before a writer that the literary-fiction crowd acknowledges as one of its own emerges from such fertile ground. In fact, given that most fic writers are pseudonymous, it’s quite possible that one already has and that the talent responsible for a first novel well reviewed by the New York Times is also tinkering with Sherlock ‘shipping.'”

What A Reality TV Series Did For Ballet West

“Despite the worries and righteous indignation at the company’s supposed lowbrow treatment of ballet, Ballet West seems to have emerged from the experience in fine shape and with an undeniably more prominent profile. Though there is no definitive correlation, ticket sales in the last two years have risen by more than 20 percent, and Ballet West’s touring schedule is busier than ever.”

What’s The Purpose Of Dance School Again?

“The purpose of the university dance program is to offer students the opportunity to participate in a deep and profound process of creating, performing, responding to, and connecting from the practice of an art form. Dance takes them into the life of arts-informed human beings; people who live not at the margins of the world, but lead the way, by example, to full, proactive, creative, disciplined, empathic, and imaginative lives.”

How Our Attention Is Being Stolen From Us

“Attention is a resource; a person has only so much of it. And yet we’ve auctioned off more and more of our public space to private commercial interests, with their constant demands on us to look at the products on display or simply absorb some bit of corporate messaging. Lately, our self-appointed disrupters have opened up a new frontier of capitalism, complete with its own frontier ethic: to boldly dig up and monetize every bit of private head space by appropriating our collective attention.”