Apart from his tombstone and the old stone buildings, every Kafka attraction I visited was built in the 21st century. Czechoslovakia’s uneasy leaders had tried to scrub Kafka from Prague’s history; now, the city welcomes his lucrative presence every day. – LitHub
Tag: 06.20.19
Report: Classical Music’s Future As A Streaming Service
This vicious circle of song optimization / playlist optimization may be the path of least resistance but it can ultimately lead to an unsatisfying overall music experience. Classical music provides an antidote to the algorithm-defined mainstream, and of the status update driven chaotic maelstrom that is digital life. Now we are starting to see the signs of a new generation of Classical music fans searching for a refreshing, reassuring alternative to the tumult and homogeneity of mainstream. – Music Industry Blog
You Can’t Think Your Way To Being Creative. Here’s What To Do Instead
Some of the earliest scientific studies of creativity focused on personality. And some evidence suggests that innovation comes easier to people with certain personality types. A 1998 review of dozens of creativity studies found that overall, creative people tend to be more driven, impulsive, and self-confident. They also tend to be less conventional and conscientious. – Nautilus
Sviatoslav Richter Was One Of The World’s Great Pianists. But Then He Met A Lobster
“I’ve known periods of chronic depression, the most serious of which was in 1974. It was impossible for me to live without a plastic lobster that I took with me everywhere, leaving it behind only at the very moment I went on stage.” – The New York Times
Trying To Make It From Poverty In Congo To The Catwalks Of New York And Milan
The fashion industry in Africa is on the rise, especially in cities like Kinshasa and Capetown. But while fashion designers might get noticed in Paris and New York, models have a different story. As Naomi Campbell noted in 2013, “Top designers often shun black models completely or opted to include just one in their shows.” – Der Spiegel
The Deal With MFA Groupthink
Author Mona Awad: “Iwas definitely interested in leaning into that and the horror of it, the scariness of that kind of groupthink. It is scary. I guess it’s one of the risks you take when you go into one of these programs: that fear that you’ll start all speaking the same language, and then you’re not an individual artist anymore with your own imagination.” – LitHub
Box Office Is Dead This Summer; Long Live Netflix?
Star power – even stars like Thor and Valkyrie, er, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thomson; even Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, for heck’s sake – is crashing and burning on the big screen this summer. But movie stars on Netflix are doing just fine (or so Netflix says). Can Netflix save the movie star? – The Guardian (UK)
The Day The Music Stopped
Jacobin Magazine’s take on the Baltimore Symphony musicians’ lockout emphasizes worker solidarity, even for elite musicians. “A lockout is probably the nastiest of tactics used by orchestra management to force union musicians to sign lackluster contracts. Lockouts take the power of withholding their labor out of the musician’s hands. Management does this for good reason, since orchestras with strong unions, aided — crucially — by community and audience support, have repeatedly used militant tactics to their advantage.” – Jacobin Magazine
‘125th And Freedom’: A Marathon Dance Piece Stretching Across Harlem’s Main Thoroughfare
“Stopping at sites including the Harriet Tubman Memorial and the former Lenox Lounge — now a Wells Fargo — the 16-part ritual tells the story of a tribe fighting for its freedom with the help of Libra, a time-traveling descendant of Tubman who flies in from the future. As it progresses, the work grows more interactive; at Amsterdam Avenue, for instance, audience members write their hopes on slips of fabric and attach them to a sprawling ‘dream net.'” – The New York Times
‘The Central Park Five’ — Composer Anthony Davis On Writing An Opera With A Quintet In The Title Role
“I had never done an opera with five protagonists before. I had to figure out how to do that. I was fascinated by group singing. Then I began thinking about that period in time, Take 6 and a lot of the boy groups that were popular in that time. I started looking at what I could do with close harmony for five voices.” – The Washington Post