Can A Big Government Push Bring The Nobel Prize In Literature To South Korea?

It irks the South Korean establishment that a nation as large and wealthy as theirs has won only one Nobel (the 2000 Peace Prize, to President Kim Dae-jung). So a huge effort is being made to translate and distribute the country’s literature to the rest of the world (including the Nobel committee). even though Koreans themselves aren’t big lit readers. (And there’s only one clear candidate.)

How Five American Indian Dancers Transformed Ballet In The 20th Century

“Yvonne Chouteau, one of the ‘Five Moons,’ as they were anointed, died this past Sunday at the age of 86. Along with Moscelyne Larkin (Shawnee, 1925–2012), Rosella Hightower (Choctaw, 1920–2008), Marjorie Tallchief (Osage, b. 1926), and, most famously, Maria Tallchief (Osage, 1925–2013), she rose in the ranks of dance when ballet was still not widely appreciated in this country.”

Abolish The (So White) Oscars, Says Danny Glover. Just Let Them Fade Into Irrelevance, Says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Who Nails The Real Problem.

Andrew O’Hehir: “So what we’re talking about here … is not so much a failure of representation as a failure of perception and vision and imagination. By invoking [Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man], Abdul-Jabbar suggests that Oscar voters literally cannot see certain kinds of non-white performers and certain kinds of films.”

Mattel Introduces ‘Curvy’ Barbie – And Little Girls’ Reactions Show Why We Need One

“‘Hello, I’m a fat person, fat, fat, fat.’ A 6-year-old girl giving voice for the first time to curvy Barbie sings in a testing room at Mattel’s headquarters. Her playmates erupt in laughter. When an adult comes into the room and asks her if she sees a difference between the dolls’ bodies, she modifies her language. ‘This one’s a little chubbier,’ she says.”

Talking to Christo About His Floating Piers

“The piers will connect the mainland to two islands in [northern Italy’s Lake Iseo]: Monte Isola, which Christo said was the tallest lake island in Italy, and the small, private Isola di San Paolo. The waters surrounding them are 300 feet deep; the 50-foot-wide piers, made of some 200,000 polyethylene cubes wrapped in yellow fabric, will barely rise above the surface.”

Fabio Luisi Is Next Music Director Of Florence’s Opera House

The Genoa-born conductor “has been named as the new music director designate of Florence’s Opera di Firenze and its annual spring festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in what appears to be something of a shakeup at the Tuscan company. The position of music director is a new one within Opera di Firenze, and an office that was reportedly created especially for Luisi.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.28.16

Getty Abducts Another Gorgeous Woman: $30.5 Million for Danaë
When it comes to major acquisitions of drop-dead gorgeous women, no museum can compete with the deep-pocketed Getty. It has just abducted Danaë from the Metropolitan Museum, where she had been on loan from … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-28

Rondeau/Chicago: Veteran Curator Promoted to Art Institute’s Directorship
Once again, the Art Institute of Chicago has looked it its own staff to find its new president and director: James Rondeau, chair and curator of modern and contemporary art (departments that merged under his … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-28

Horace Silver In Antibes
Saxophonist Gary Foster sent a link to video from a Facebook post of a seldom seen or heard performance by Horace Silver. At the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan les Pins, France, Silver … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-28

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