“The reason so much average or absolutely awful art gets promoted is that no one seems to understand what criticism is; if nothing is properly criticised, mediocrity triumphs. A critic is basically an arrogant bastard who says “this is good, this is bad” without necessarily being able to explain why. At least, not instantly.”
Tag: 06.25.09
Weak Auctions Despite American Museums’ Willingness To Sell
“For decades American museums sold very little American art. They felt required to hold on to everything they were given. There has been a cultural change and museums recognise you don’t have to keep everything in the basement. Scholarship has made the process much easier and the art is much more valuable.”
Does The Kindle Help You Concentrate?
“Much has been made already of the Kindle’s significance for publishers. By creating a payment infrastructure for digital reading matter, the Kindle is helping prod many to reconsider charging for their wares instead of relying on advertising revenue. Less discussed has been the Kindle’s tendency toward unitasking–but it’s clearly part of the device’s appeal, and it, too, offers lessons for publishers.”
Oldest Musical Instrument, A 35,000-Year-Old Flute, Found In Germany
“Archaeologists Wednesday reported the discovery last fall of a bone flute and two fragments of ivory flutes that they said represented the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture.” The instrument “was uncovered in sediments a few feet away from the carved figurine of a busty, nude woman, also around 35,000 years old.”
Michael Jackson Dies Of Cardiac Arrest At 50
“[A] child Motown sensation who grew into a moonwalking megastar … the entertainer sold millions of records, earning worldwide adoration in the 1980s. […] For all his many successes as a child and young man, Jackson’s later life devolved into a series of tabloid headlines, bizarre plastic surgeries, and more courtroom appearances than hit songs.”
‘The Boy Who Knew Too Much’ – Michael Jackson’s Breaching Of Boundaries
Ann Powers: “He always seemed to defy gravity, as a dancer whose signature move was so incomprehensibly graceful that it earned the extraterrestrial title ‘the Moonwalk,’ a singer whose tenor was high but strong, a rhythmic instrument that went as sweet and tender as a clarinet on the long notes – and as a man whose physical presence was first androgynous and then seemingly cyborgian, forcing his astounded public to puzzle over their assumptions about race, gender and age.”
‘What’s A Poor Newscaster To Do?’ The Problems Of Eulogizing Michael Jackson On Television
“How does one eulogize a superstar who, even without the various accusations of pedophilia, was something of a freak? Or was, as several talking heads put it, ‘a troubled individual.’ … It all made the standard news loop eulogy a little … complicated.”
NY Public Library Goes Backstage At The Ballets Russes
“While visitors to the NYPL [exhibit] will not see Nijinsky dance, they can see the famous diary he kept as he was going mad. Brilliant set and costume designs by Leon Bakst and Natalia Goncharova, plus photographs, musical manuscripts and old BBC films, place the Ballets Russes’ achievement in context, supplying a perspective that the theatergoers who flocked to its productions never had.”
BBC To Reveal Pay And Expenses Of 100 Top Execs
Presumably in response to the MP expenses scandal, “The BBC is to … publish an exact breakdown of pay, by name, of the top 50 earners in BBC management and the [50] top decision makers – a group that he said has yet to be defined precisely – within the organisation.”
Farrah’s Power Over A Generation Of Pubescent Boys
“No matter what anyone might try and claim today, Charlie’s Angels was an abysmal way to kill an hour. … The show, though, wasn’t the point. (At least that, I suspect, today’s youth would understand.) Watching Charlie’s Angels, having the FFM poster on your wall, clipping magazine pictures of the Angels in their bikinis and hanging them on the inside of your locker – these were more like badges, a way of participating in pop culture with as much sexual knowing as you could muster.”