“The 250-year history of circus would have been very different if a man from Newcastle-under-Lyme had got on better with his father, and been happy to become an apprentice cabinet maker. … Philip Astley … in 1768 drew a 13 metre (42ft) diameter ring on the ground and filled it with men and women standing on the backs of cantering horses plus clowns, jugglers and other marvels – [and thus] the modern circus was born.
Tag: 04.01.18
He Gave Up A Strad For A 27-Year-Old Violin, And He’s Very Happy About It
“There are violinists who talk about Strads, which are old, and Zygs, which are less old. The violinist Chad Hoopes, who used to play a Strad, now plays the other. The word ‘newer’ would have been tidier in that first sentence. But ‘less old’ seemed appropriate after Mr. Hoopes, who went from playing a Strad made in 1713 to playing a Zyg made in 1991, said that the Zyg is ‘not a new violin.’
‘It’s older than I am,’ he added, quickly.”
Michael Tree, Founding Violist Of Guarneri Quartet, Dead At 84
“‘Michael set a new standard for the viola,’ [violinist Arnold] Steinhardt, [Tree’s Guarneri colleague,] said. ‘Now orchestras are not filled with failed violinists playing the viola, but with sensational violists,’ performers whom Mr. Tree encouraged to treat the viola as an integral part of an ensemble, rather than a backing voice supporting a violin’s melody or cello’s ostinato.”
Lost Verdi Opera Found In Berlin Basement
Verdi set the opera, entitled Die Macht des Schicksas, to a German-language libretto by Bläuel Wittling, a poet who ran a women-only writers commune on the banks of the Spree river north of Berlin. Verdi seems to have composed this music around 1882, making it an important missing link is his late career: He wrote Aïda (1871) and the Requiem (1874), but then it was thought he turned away from composing until Arrigo Boito inspired him to write Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). [Note the date of the story before believing]
Steven Bochco, Creator Of ‘Hill Street Blues’ And Perhaps Modern TV Itself, Has Died At 74
Bochco also created “LA Law” and “NYPD Blue.” His “boundary-pushing methods as a producer could make some network executives skittish. But they often deferred to him and were ultimately rewarded with strong ratings and critical kudos, a combination that was less common in the pre-Peak TV era of the 1980s and ’90s.”
Instagram Has Become A Playground For Artists Like Cindy Sherman And Damien Hirst
But what does that mean for their art – and who owns it? “Astute artists are using Instagram to connect with their fanbase in ways they couldn’t before. Earlier this year, it became clear that Damien Hirst’s people were no longer writing his Instagram posts, but rather the artist was. Suddenly it became worth following – Hirst was disarmingly explaining how he got the diamonds for his skull, why he was wrong about minimalism, and how sausages are ‘stupid.'”
Elizabeth Ebert, ‘Grande Dame Of Cowboy Poetry,’ Has Died At 93
The poet, who wrote for many years in obscurity, “kept small stacks of paper in every room of the farmhouse — just in case. She wrote whenever the rhymes blossomed: sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes at the chirp of dawn, sometimes in the summer fallow tractor, where she’d draw a finger across the dusty windshield. She started with a single line, a single rhyme, and ‘then you have to fill in all this other garbage,’ she once said, with the sort of dry, self-deprecating humor that often infused her verse.”
Has Drawing Made A Return?
The British Museum is planning to offer pencils and sketchpads to those who come to the new blockbuster Rodin exhibit. “Curators hope to encourage the visiting public to look more closely at its objects, swapping a quick photograph, often uploaded onto social media, with the time it takes to sketch by hand.”
An Andrew Lloyd Webber Show About Coney Island Leaves Out The Disabled ‘Freaks’ Who Started It All
A disabled theatre critic is none too happy with Webber and his touring show. “Love Never Dies takes place in 1907, three years into the freakshow’s East Coast rise in popularity. For a musical owing its location to the disabled community, Love Never Dies is decidedly remiss in incorporating the community. We are offered mere tokens: a few musical numbers briefly mention oddities, and only ‘The Beauty Underneath’ uses freak attractions in its staging.”
How Good Can The Job Of Ambassador For Hollywood Be Right Now, Considering?
Charles Rivkin, former Ambassador to France and assistant Secretary of State, is the new chair of the Motion Picture Association of America (and the representative for the six “old-line” studios). He has to deal with being the ratings guru and championing movie theaters in an era where Netflix and other streaming services are stomping the movies. But hey, he’s into it: “Reinvigorated at every level,” he says about his plans for the MPAA. (Um, can he fix the sex bad, violence fine ratings issue too?)