Andy Serkis, Star Of A Movie Medium That’s Anti-Star By Its Very Nature

“Serkis, whose resume includes playing some of the least likely critical favorites of all time – Gollum, King Kong, and Godzilla – seems like an ideal spokesman for motion-capture if it wants high-brow cred. … [Yet] the singular focus on him in some ways clashes with the collaborative, chameleonic spirit of motion-capture, a field that has a long and glorious tradition of eschewing thespian concerns entirely.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.24.14

Big Questions Re: Museum of African Art’s New Dream
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-07-25

Celebrating the Power of SLAKE
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-07-24

Koons, Whitney, Wynn and My “Greater Fool” Theory of Trophy Art
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-07-24

Managing expectations
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-07-24

Survivor stories
AJBlog: Performance Monkey | Published 2014-07-24

What is Creative Placemaking?
AJBlog: Field Notes | Published 2014-07-25

 

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When Manhattan Became The Capital Of The World (In The 1920s)

“Beginning with the reconstruction of Park Avenue in the early 1920s, Midtown became a destination neighborhood for the city’s ultrarich, eager to abandon their stand-alone Fifth Avenue palaces in favor of contemporary “mansions in the sky.” Alongside the real estate boom came a decadent new night life and a host of more serious cultural diversions, all of them fueled, in Miller’s telling, by a steady supply of ambition, energy and illicit booze.”

New York City Is Introducing A New ID Card (And It Wants Cultural Groups To Help)

“To broaden the appeal of a card that will be available to all New Yorkers early next year but is designed to help those who do not have a driver’s license or other official identification, the administration has asked some of the city’s most prominent cultural institutions to offer benefits, like memberships or discounted tickets, to cardholders.”

How Popular Culture Of The 1920s Became Obsessed With King Tut

“The tomb’s discovery, at the start of the Roaring Twenties, followed the global upheavals of World War One. Mass media was able to bring news of objects being carried out of the tomb to a wider audience, faster than ever before. America, in particular, became obsessed by “King Tut” – as he became known. Even US President Herbert Hoover used the name for his pet dog.”