Last month at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, chef Jason Bond and composer Ben Houge (best known for video game music) presented Food Opera: Four Asparagus Compositions, in which Houge tried to explore in music the flavors and textures of the asparagus dishes Bond served. (No voices in this opera, though.)
Tag: 05.29.12
How Amazon.com Changed Research (And Then Made Us Into Research)
“Devices and technologies that have become second nature to us – scanners and searchable PDFs, for example – first became familiar to many through Amazon. So did disintermediation: the sudden realization that” – thanks to the Search This Book feature – “we could work our way into a subject without taking a box of file cards to a reference room, riffling through catalogs and consulting librarians.”
What Ails Classical Music
“One step therefore we might take to make classical music less boring again is simply for audiences to quit being so blasted reverential.”
Warring Theatrical Styles: Royal Shakespeare Co.’s Greeks To Battle Wooster Group’s Trojans In Troilus
In the two companies’ co-production of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, six RSC actors are rehearsing the Greek characters and scenes under the direction of Mark Ravenhill, while Liz LeCompte’s high-tech, experimental New York group prepares the Trojan parts.
Bill T. Jones To Create New Rite Of Spring
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s upcoming season, which will also include reconstructions of some of the group’s early works, will feature a new version of the Stravinsky ballet co-created with Anne Bogart’s theater company, SITI.
Iranian Customs Returns Seized Jackson Pollock Canvas To Tehran Museum
“Mural on Indian Red Ground was seized by the country’s customs service on 11 May after being on loan to Japan. The service said it confiscated the work over money owed by the Ministry of Culture,” which operates the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
Council In London Borough Has Library Stripped Bare In Dead Of Night
“Workers assisted by police officers entered Kensal Rise library” – which Brent borough council decided to close due to lack of funding – “between 2am and 3am on Tuesday, removing furniture, murals painted in the 1930s for the library … along with the books, according to campaigners [fighting the closure].”
The Challenge Of The New
“This ability to attract audience through repetition eases the process of filling seats because a limited but dedicated fan base will reliably appear multiple times to hear the same band play the same songs in the same city. Unfortunately, ensembles dedicated to experimental music cannot rely on this sort of repeat business.”
The Movies That Are Becoming Theme Parks
“In the world of extreme roller coasters where theming a ride with a few well-placed props and a color-matching paint job may do the trick, nowadays amusement parks are more likely to create entire experiences based on movie franchises.”
Why Fairy Tales Are Popular Again
“Pop culture of all kinds, it seems, is banking on fairy tales as the official Next Big Thing, raising the obvious question: How did that happen?”