Magnificent Century, a television drama about the great Ottoman sultan that is “replete with scenes from the royal baths and the harem,” has attracted hundreds of complaints from appalled nationalists and Islamists, a warning from the state broadcasting authority – and millions of viewers.
Tag: 01.27.11
A/B Testing Reviews – What Should We Expect From Critics?
“When reviewers do not for whatever reason offer some insights into what they are writing about, it devalues the art form by implying that it isn’t important enough to warrant an opinion.”
In American Museums, The Deaccessioning Wars Rage On
Until recently, a museum occasionally culling and selling items from its permanent collection was thought unremarkable. “Yet deaccessioning – the art world term for selling pieces from a museum’s collection – has become a dirty word and the focus of increasingly intense attention” – even when the proceeds are reserved for new acquisitions.
Should Theaters Offer Babysitting?
New York’s Playwrights Horizons is trying it. Says the theater’s managing director, “The combined cost of theatre tickets and childcare is the factor most often cited by people with young children as the reason they rarely attend the theatre.”
Cellist Truls Mork Back Onstage After Beating Encephalitis
“The 49-year-old has only recently begun performing again after recovering from a rare form of encephalitis. The debilitating illness, which led to paralysis of his left shoulder muscles, kept him away from the concert platform for 18 months.”
Peter Oundjian to Play Violin Again (Well, Just This Once)
The current music director of the Toronto Symphony spent 14 years as first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet – until he developed focal dystonia in his left hand and had to give up his instrument. But for one concert in April 2012, Oundjian and his old teacher Itzhak Perlman will play Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with the Toronto Symphony.
Beirut’s Historic Buildings, Having Survived All the Bombs and Wars, Now Under Threat From Developers
The Lebanese capital’s “oldest districts – once home to traditional Lebanese and Ottoman structures, some characterized by their red-tile roofs and colonnaded halls – are increasingly the site of the construction of luxury business and residential blocks.”
Argument: Line Between Non-Profit and For-Profit Culture Is Blurring
“The discussion paper Arts and Creative Industries argues there is no longer a division between the subsidised, popular and commercial arts, and government policy should be shaped accordingly.”
How To Build Better Spies? Video Games
“A Serious Game could provide an effective mechanism for exposing and mitigating cognitive bias,” the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency announced Tuesday.
Poetry Is Popular. It Just Doesn’t Sell
“Despite all the prizes and the publicity, there is a sense that poetry is losing its way; that it has not quite found the audience today that, surely, it deserves. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that poetry today never, or almost never, sells at all.”