Alice Coote: “Having been stepping into male eyes for two decades now for around 70% of my working life I, by necessity, have had to dwell in a place where my mind feels increasingly separate from my sexual body. It has made it complex for me to return to daily life as a woman: I feel in sharp relief the way a … woman’s personal and public relationship power is utterly unlike that of a … male’s expectations and power relationship to the world. Cross-dressing on the stage reveals less to me about gender than it does power.”
Tag: 05.13.15
Facebook’s ‘Instant’ Goes Live, And Media Immediately Post The Longest Form Longform Articles Possible
“In the beginning, having access to Instant will provide a huge advantage over publications that don’t. Eventually, publishers’ numbers will even out as competition increases. Easy traffic will be harder to come by, and certain tricks — as on the web — will wear out and become useless. This will be good in that it will prevent lazy behavior.”
Inheriting A Kindle Library And Realizing The Value Of Print
“While my younger sister was going through our mother’s personal belongings, she came across something she thought I might like. ‘Do you want mum’s Kindle?’ she asked via text message. I stared at the message and thought about the irony of the endless debates I had with my mother. Now that she was gone, all I cared about were her physical books.”
What Difference Does It Make Who The Next Berlin Philharmonic Conductor Is? Not That Much, Says Alex Ross
“The Berlin Philharmonic is unquestionably a magnificent organism … but the idea that its chief conductor is the Pope of classical music is a relic of the Karajan cult. … Not the least of the challenges that classical music faces is the increasingly unworkable celebrity-maestro model – a twentieth-century mutation.”
Gregor Samsa Metamorphoses Into Different Creatures In Different Translations
Did he awake from troubled dreams to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect, a giant verminous bug, a gigantic cockroach, or an enormous bedbug?
William Zinsser, Author Of The Classic Guide ‘On Writing Well,’ Dead At 92
“[The] perennially popular book … became an indispensable classroom and newsroom guide, making its author one of the most influential writing teachers of the past half century.”
Ha – TV News Broadcast Blurred Out Abstract Breasts In Picasso Painting While Reporting Its Sale
When a Fox news station reported on the record-breaking $179 million sale of Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O) at a Christie’s auction, it outdid itself by blurring out the abstract breasts in the painting.
Claim: Altering A New York Cultural Landmark Is Sure To Ruin It
“It is our obligation to preserve for future generations the essential experience of the Four Seasons that its creators originally intended. Simply put, our obligation and that of the Landmarks Preservation Commission is to treat the Four Seasons like the world-class landmark it most certainly is.”
The Art World’s First Billion-Dollar Auction Week
“On Wednesday, Christie’s said it sold $658.5 million worth of work at its postwar and contemporary art auction, added to the $705.9 million for 20th-century works auctioned off on Monday. The billion-dollar threshold was a symbolic coup for Christie’s and seemed to widen the divide with its rival Sotheby’s, even if actual profits were unclear.”
Last Of The Rock Stars (And What Does That Mean, Anyway?)
“What defines a rock star in 2015? We could very well be at the point where genre transcends the very term. Do rappers count as rock stars? Kanye West and Jay-Z have a rock swagger, to some, as do both Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Most modern country acts like you would see at RodeoHouston are more about sparkly jeans than starched Wranglers, trying to strike a rock pose all their own. That’s something rock purists shudder to think about.”