Yep: “What instantly sets ‘MusicHeads’ apart from other jazz shows is the format: Barber converses with fellow musicians before asking them to perform musical examples solo and alongside her. In effect, we in the radio audience are eavesdropping on a dialogue among peers.”
Tag: 01.13.15
Literary America Is Still Kind Of Obsessed With ‘The Great American Novel’
“Our obsession with the Great American Novel is perhaps evidence of the even greater truth that it’s impossible for one to exist.”
One Dancer’s Realization That His Art Was Killing The Planet
I was realizing more and more that my artistic journey was creating dramatic and lasting effects, not only on the generations to come, but on all living beings and I refused to continue down that path. I thought: “This is going exactly against the very nature of dance, which is to be ephemeral.”
Wendy Whelan Is Ready To Dance For Herself
“Being 47 years old, what can I still do, and feel potent and active and alive and challenged?” says the recently retired NY City Ballet principal. “There’s plenty out there, it’s just a matter of making it happen.”
Houston’s Museum Of Fine Arts Plans $450M Expansion
Steven Holl Architects “has re-imagined the campus’ north side as a pedestrian-friendly cultural hub with a lively landscape, two distinctive new buildings, ample underground parking and smooth circulation patterns for vehicles and people.”
Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center Gets Another Multimillion-Dollar Gift
“Having scored a $38 million Robert W. Woodruff Foundation grant in December, the Woodruff Arts Center announced Tuesday that it has a received a $6.6 million grant … [to fund] a new three-year program designed to better connect families and students with the arts center’s art and arts education offerings.”
The Audiobook Business Is Booming
“What used to be an inconvenient niche industry for the gung-ho (a six-CD jewel-case monstrosity, or worse, a giant box of cassettes!) has performed death-defying backflips around its wilting print counterparts in recent years. And it’s only getting better.”
Why Would Publishers Be Interested In A “Netflix For Books”?
“Movie and TV studios can count on ticket sales and advertising dollars even as they offer their content on Netflix. Musicians can still sell concert tickets even if streaming services like Spotify cannibalize CD sales. But for book publishers and authors, the main source of revenue is still selling books. So why would they agree to participate in what amounts to an always-accessible lending library with an infinite number of copies?”
The Trouble With Oscar-Bait Performances (And The Movies Surrounding Them)
Richard Brody, on Julianne Moore in Still Alice and Jennifer Aniston in Cake: “They’re virtuosi who are here misdirected to turn ballades and fantasies into drawing-room miniatures. … They play each scene with restrained and unambiguous precision, as if filling out each moment of screen time by clicking out cinemoticons. Neither actor – and neither movie – ever comes close to letting go. I don’t blame Aniston or Moore, but, rather, the Pavlovian reward system – based on false critical values – that makes such self-denying work pay off.”
When “Mein Kampf” Goes Into Public Domain, Will It Become The World’s Most Dangerous Book?
“At the end of World War Two, when the US Army seized the Nazis’ publisher Eher Verlag, rights for Mein Kampf passed to the Bavarian authorities. They ensured the book was only reprinted in Germany under special [and controlled] circumstances – but the expiration of its copyright in December 2015 has prompted fierce debate on how to curb a publishing free-for-all.”