“The reality is, for our generation, if you care about the life of the mind, you’re just going to have to keep doing it, and who knows where you’ll be doing it? Is it going to be as an adjunct? On a tenure track? At Gotham Writers Workshop? As a journalist? As long as you can keep it going in your own head without going mad, you’ve got something.”
Tag: 01.09.17
Portland’s Disjecta Contemporary Art Center Fires Its Founder, And The Recriminations Fly
“On New Year’s Eve, the organization’s founder and executive director, Bryan Suereth, was officially dismissed by Disjecta’s board of directors, following disputes over his leadership and an eleventh-hour attempt by supporters to keep him at the helm.” Said disputes over Suereth’s leadership are by no means over, though even he and his supporters acknowledge that he can be confrontational.
How I Learned Systematically To Adore Classical Music
“I stood like a tourist at the foot of Everest. The tower of music loomed forebodingly before me. I began with baby steps, playing piano records in the background as I went about the day, letting the tunes seep in by osmosis, not getting too close in case I scared myself off. Over the next few weeks the slow-drip method started to take and the music began to fall into place. Melodies untangled. Their logic unfurled. Basically, I listened, and listened again, until the music made sense.”
For Years No One Wanted To Make “La La Land”
“There were so many instances, in the five or six years since I wrote it, where it seemed so close to being made. It’s the typical Hollywood story — everything falls apart. Every time, I would curse myself and go, ‘Goddamn it.'”
The Strange Story Of David Bowie’s Unfinished Broadway Musical (Told By The Pulitzer Winner Bowie Asked To Write The Book)
“When novelist Michael Cunningham got a call from someone claiming to be David Bowie, he thought it was a friend pulling a prank. He didn’t know he was about to be launched into a yearlong collaboration on a musical involving space aliens, mariachi bands, and an imaginary trove of unreleased songs by Bob Dylan.”
How The New York Phil’s Top Timpanist Got Where He Is
Markus Rhoten grew up in Germany with American parents who were professional musicians themselves. (He didn’t take up his father’s instrument, the trumpet, because “I was worried it would make me a bad kisser.”)
A Fierce Debate About How Language Is Made (Why All The Passion?)
“Looking back now, it is astounding that the point that has so inflamed my academic critics was my claim that the Pirahãs lacked subordinate clauses. You would have thought I had spit on a crucifix during church. I had, of course, expected someone to point out flaws in my reasoning or to give clear examples of data that I had missed or to conduct field research to test my claims. This is the norm in academic debates. But in the first round of criticisms, lasting for five years, what came my way instead was mainly name-calling.”
The Onion Plans Takeover Of All Media (This Is A Real Story, More Or Less)
“In its first major studio pact after getting investment from Univision last January, the satirical media brand has partnered with Lionsgate for a three-film development deal that runs through 2018.” (Don’t miss the quote from the Onion Studios VP.)
The Vanishing School Librarians Of Philadelphia
“How many full-time, certified librarians would you guess one of the nation’s largest school systems – a district with 220 schools and 134,000 students – employs?” The low number is horrifying – and down by 27% from a year ago and 94% (that’s not a typo) from 2015.
Quite A Few Conservative Imprints Declined To Publish Milo Yiannopoulos – For Solid Business Reasons
They passed on the book not out of any outrage at Milo’s flamethrowing (these are the people that publish Ann Coulter), but because they decided skipping the book was a good business decision. Katy Waldman got several of them to explain why.