“Hoping to make it easier for the city’s hardest-working musicians to make a real living, Justice for Jazz Artists (a coalition of musicians and activists with Local 802) has worked to pressure some of the city’s major clubs , like the Village Vanguard and the Iridium, to provide musicians with access to pensions later in life.”
Tag: 02.27.12
England To Create National Youth Dance Company
“A national youth dance company is to be set up, in response to a review of cultural education in England.”
The Artist As Critic – A Different Standard Of Toughness?
“Unlike critics, artists are not thought to be objective in writing about their art; that’s why newspapers see artists’ writing as a conflict of interest. But actual critical objectivity is neither possible nor desirable.”
Is Black English A Language, A Dialect, Or Something Else?
“Kathryn Stockett’s dialogue-heavy The Help, the novel that was adapted into an Oscar-winning movie, caused a stir over whether a white writer should try to depict African-American English. But wait, what is African-American English exactly and isn’t it called Ebonics?”
The World’s Best Pointe Shoes
“In a small workshop flanked by midrise apartment blocks, a no-frills sandwich café and a betting parlor, 12 shoemakers each transform satin, canvas, cardboard, burlap and leather into 40 pairs of pointe shoes each a day. Freed maintains its approximately 50% market share (the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pacific Northwest, Miami, New York City, Paris Opera and Royal ballet companies all use Freed shoes) by offering traditionally made shoes with an extremely high degree of customization — something other companies, such as Gaynor Minden, Grishko, Sansha and Capezio — simply can’t afford to do.”
Sure Times Are Tough. So Look To Artists For How To Makes Them Better
“As Europeans we should start looking at our cultural sector as a reservoir of hope, ideas and new economic growth that can lead us out of the crisis. The Europe of tomorrow is only going to be as successful and liveable as the ideas we have to make it grow. We all need master what artists are already good at – making more with less, finding fresh new perspectives and exciting new combinations. Art is not only a pleasurable icing on the cake; it is also a way of thinking and a practice of working innovatively with reality that can inspire us all to do better.”
Maurice André, Virtuoso Trumpeter, Dead At 78
“[He] was a coal miner-turned-classical trumpeter who brought style, sophistication and glamour to what had previously been a Cinderella area of performance; his combination of golden, silk-like tone and a captivating personality made him the instrument’s first big star.”
Erland Josephson, 88, Star Of Ingmar Bergman’s Films
“[He] was widely regarded as Bergman’s most frequent surrogate onscreen: a modern man in all his psychological and moral complexity – intelligent, lustful, self-centered, introspective and outwardly self-confident.”
England’s Cultural Scene Is ‘Glowing With Optimism’ (Says One International Observer)
Anne Applebaum, Washington Post/Slate foreign affairs columnist (and wife of Poland’s foreign minister): “Twice in one day, in other words, I encountered mobs of people, pushing and shoving one another, desperate to get into a London cultural event. Those who had booked well in advance clutched their ticket as if it contained a winning lottery number.”
‘Thy Breasts Are Like Two Young Roes’ – RSC To Stage The Song Of Solomon
“[The] Royal Shakespeare Company is risking fresh controversy by staging a ‘sensual and erotic’ version of the Bible’s Song of Solomon from the Old Testament.”