“There’s more than a little irony to the impending collapse of Barnes & Noble. The mega-retailer that drove many small, independent booksellers out of business is now being done in by the rise of Amazon. But while many book lovers may be tempted to gloat, the death of Barnes & Noble would be catastrophic—not just for publishing houses and the writers they publish, but for American culture as a whole.”
Tag: 06.23.16
Poetry As Failure (And That’s A Good Thing)
In Ben Lerner’s account, poetry is the perfect medium for failure. Even great poems, he claims, perform this failure by suggesting the transcendent in their absence. “You can only compose poems that, when read with perfect contempt, clear a place for the genuine Poem that never appears.”
Social Media Can Power Art – But There Are Landmines Everywhere
“The relationship between art and social media is a tricky one. The former is about pushing boundaries; the latter, enforcing them — in the case of Instagram, in a literal square.”
Public Radio’s Big New Opportunities
“One person’s existential crisis is another’s opportunity; a period of expanding audiences, creative disruption, and greeting the future. From where I sit, at the helm of New York Public Radio, the news is overwhelmingly positive and the terrain is open for anyone bold enough to embrace what is undoubtedly radio’s next incarnation.”
Led Zeppelin Did Not Steal Chords In ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ Rules Jury – What Will This Mean?
Scott Timberg: “At times, it looked like it was going to bend the other way. But a Los Angeles federal jury has decided unanimously that Led Zeppelin did not break copyright law in the composition of its song ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ … So what’s likely to be the effect of the judgment? This is probably a case where a process that seems to be accelerating will halt for a little while.”
Alessandra Ferri, Still Dancing (A Lot) At 53, Maintains She’s Retired
“When I retired, it was the end of my career, and that’s still true. My career is over. I have gone back to the pure joy of what I feel when I dance.”
Ralph Stanley, Bluegrass Master Known For ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, Dead At 89
“Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead once called him ‘the most perfect singer alive.’ It was a plaintive, nimble and haunting voice that blended elements of Primitive Baptist church choirs and the Grand Ole Opry, music on which Mr. Stanley was weaned in far southwestern Virginia.”
‘For The Long Haul’: Dallas Opera Extends Institute For Women Conductors For 15 More Years
“As female conductors aim their batons at cracking classical music’s glass ceiling, the Dallas Opera has invested in fueling their battle. The organization has committed to running the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors for 20 years, 15 more than initially promised, general director and CEO Keith Cerny said Tuesday.”
Mariinsky Theater’s Ballet School, World’s Second Oldest, To Open Campus 4,000 Miles Away
The Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, a school whose history goes back to 1738, has announced that it will open a branch in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East – in part to train dancers for the Mariinsky’s Vladivostok outpost, which was established at the beginning of this year.
Kennedy Center Honors For 2016 To Argerich, Eagles, Pacino, Staples, Taylor
“Actor Al Pacino, musician James Taylor, gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples, Argentine pianist Martha Argerich and rockers the Eagles will receive the 2016 Kennedy Center Honors, the arts center announced Thursday.”