“[She] was among the last political prisoners of the Brezhnev era, and among the first to be released under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.” (He freed her immediately before the 1986 Reykjavik summit.) “Her three years in [a labor] camp … nearly killed her, but resulted in an acclaimed memoir, Grey Is the Colour of Hope (1988), and more than 250 poems that bore witness to an undiminished optimism.”
Tag: 07.09.17
Taking Papyrus Off The Faces Of Mummies: More Concerns About The Hobby Lobby/Museum Of The Bible’s Purchase Of Antiquities
Last week the company was fined $3 million for having purchased cuneiform tablets and other ancient items (which will be returned) apparently looted from Iraq for the museum’s collection. Here, Noah Charney writes about different allegations: that the Green family (Hobby Lobby’s owners) acquired papyrus fragments used to bind Egyptian mummies that had been removed from the bodies in order to get at early Scriptural texts written on the fragments.
The Arts: Resistance Or Refuge?
“Does an organization elect to present art that more obviously than not seeks to provide either refuge or encourage resistance to its audience? Does the organization present art that does one or the other, but consciously choose not to emphasize or highlight that aspect? Some performances and some art will be more provocative and elicit more strident supporters or detractors. And in a no win situation, the decision not to make that decision is itself subject to criticism in some quarters as a sell-out.”
What Did Beethoven’s Ninth Mean To World Leaders, And The U.S. President, At The G20 Summit?
Music actually isn’t universal – or at least its meanings aren’t. “Beethoven’s Ninth is an especially slippery reference point, and may have triggered very different associations among guests at the summit. The message Ms. Merkel probably intended to send — promoting a culture of tolerance and brotherhood — may have been garbled.”
A New Use For Virtual Reality: Dance Lessons
Whoa. “Creative developers are proving that Apple’s AR tech can actually be useful, too. The latest: two salsa-dancing programmers are putting Apple’s ARKit to a clever new use with augmented reality dance lessons.”
The Many Attempts It Took To Get A Totally Free Theatre Ed Program For Young Women Into Gear
Why was it so hard? Teachers are busy, the offer sounded too good to be true, students are overscheduled … and maybe uninterested. “We as artists want students to be exposed to art, but do students want to be exposed to art? I think sometimes, yes. As a high schooler at a school that offered no drama classes, I would have stabbed someone for an after-school improv club. But would I have showed up alone to meet a lady I didn’t know so she could make me pretend to be a chicken or something? Probably not.”
The Live Music Scene In Hong Kong Could Be Superb – If The Rules Didn’t Get In The Way
The regulations are a problem, stifling creative growth, but so is expensive real estate. “Hong Kong’s indie bands are forever searching for places to perform — a further indignity for working-class musicians and fans in a financial hub where the night life caters largely to people on corporate salaries..”
Top AJBlogs Posts From The Weekend Of 07.09.17
Stop Talking: More on Deleting the Formal
On the day of the Comey hearing, we sat in a bar in Paris watching CNN. Lordy, that was a lot of talking. As if to balance that experience, we went to a piano … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-07-09
Other Matters: Mount Adams And The Moon
With the abeyance of certain physical annoyances, cycling is back in more or less full swing. Glorious weather makes it a pleasure to be on the road again, but only if the … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-07-09
Consistency within Variety
Jessica Lang Dance performs at Jacob’s Pillow July 5 through 9. Jammie Walker and members of Jessica Lang Dance in Lang’s Lyric Pieces. Photo: Christopher Duggan Jessica Lang graduated from the Juilliard School and danced … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-07-08
Followup: Gunnarsson Quartet Seen And Heard
Moments after I posted yesterday’s Riftides review of Fanny Gunnarsson’s Mirrors, I came across a video of the pianist and singer with her quartet performing a piece from the album. Again, the … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-07-07
Where Have All Of Ukraine’s Lenin Statues Gone?
Two years ago, the statues were banned by governmental decree. Since then, “some statues have been turned into public works of art, some have simply ended up in shop windows and one has even been remade into an effigy of Darth Vader.”
The Two ‘Brown Girls’ TV Shows Being Developed Say Something About Two Futures For The United States
“Americans are preparing for different eventualities. The president is promising a border wall, even as the nation’s biggest networks pour cash into Telemundo and Univision. This year and last, Atlanta and Insecure and Moonlight and Moana moved the spotlight away from white characters and writers, and eyes and hearts and wallets moved, too. … The nation’s heartbeat holds the quick pulses of those brown girls and black boys, and executives tried to match fare to that pace. Others, famously, could not keep up.”