The island of Amami Oshima is renowned for its unique mud-dyed silk. The BBC documentary series Handmade in Japan follows the island’s artisans through the complex, meticulous steps required to produce the subtly patterned fabric and tailor it into a kimono. (text and video)
Tag: 06.16.17
Is Square Dancing The World’s Whitest Dance Form? Actually, No
As early Americans adapted the country dances of Europe, African-Americans (often enslaved, alas) were right there – first as musicians, then as callers. Erin Blakemore gives us the history.
Does A Playwright Really Have The Right To Control Discussion Of A Play?
It is a well-established, incontestable fact that playwrights may exert veto power over both casting and creative teams, too, for unlike film and TV, playwrights hold all the cards in the theater. I use the word “incontestable” very much on purpose, for the playwright, indeed, has a legal basis for that level of control, even if — as with those now accusing the estate of Edward Albee of being raging racists — we dislike the result. The question is to what degree the “scope” of a dramatic work legally extends beyond the experience and performance of the play.
A Dance Critic Gets To Dance (For Seven Seconds) In An Yvonne Rainer Work
Siobhan Burke: “‘Greetings, folks,’ the email began, addressing a BCC-ed list of recipients to which I was sure I had been added by mistake. I read it twice, three times, refreshed the page. Because it’s not every day that you hear from Yvonne Rainer – the choreographer, dancer, writer, filmmaker and game-changing force in dance history – with an invitation to dance in her work.”
Fort Worth Symphony Hires ‘Mr. Fix-It’ As Interim President
Just a month after the CEO who led management through last fall’s bitter strike, Amy Adkins, resigned, the orchestra’s board has engaged David Hyslop, whom Michael Granberry describes as “the Mr. Fix-It of troubled arts organizations. He swoops in to clean up the mess and then goes back home to Minnesota.”
$12 Million Worth Of Art Stolen From Storage Locker In Queens
“The stolen artwork included masterpieces from minimalist painter Frank Stella and French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, owner William Pordy told police.” (Yes, he kept a Toulouse-Lautrec and a Stella in a garden-variety storage unit.) The thief did leave behind five paintings, evidently on purpose.
Musicologist Richard Taruskin Wins $450K Kyoto Prize
“The [¥50 million] Kyoto Prize, given annually since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, recognizes three winners in a rotating array of subcategories under the headings of Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy.” Taruskin is the first musicologist (as opposed to composer or performer) to win the award.
Should Canadian Culture Be Supported With An Internet Tax?
“So why shouldn’t a small levy – say 3 or 4 per cent to recognize the other uses – help update our support for Canadian culture? Politicians clearly see anything that can be characterized as an Internet tax as the third rail, but public reactions seemed based more on the ideological instinct that the Internet is beyond the reach of regulation than on any full examination of what the benefits might be.”
American Quilting Has Been Dragged Into A Political Muck-Fest
“The traditional American hobby has – like knitting, baking and other skills – been given a new lease of life by social media, through Reddit discussions, online commerce and the ease of spreading tips and knowledge via digital videos. But in recent weeks, online communities and bloggers have been discussing a series of screenshots which appear to show socially conservative quilters organising campaigns and hurling insults about other enthusiasts who don’t share their political beliefs.”
Here’s The Reason The Roxane Gay-Written Marvel Comic Was Canceled
And no, it wasn’t “diversity.” Nope – it’s a system of how comic books are sold, “a system that rewards the status quo, instead of taking risks and breaking new ground.”