Tag: 07.31.19

You Probably Haven’t Heard *Of* This Tune, But You’ve Almost Certainly Heard It. Is It History’s Most Enduring Melody?

“La Folia” seems to have appeared first as a folk-dance tune in late medieval Portugal. Over the next century, it spread to Spain and Italy and composers started adapting it; in the 17th and 18th centuries, “La Folia” and variations on it were all over the place (even colonial Latin America). Today some of those old pieces are being heard in concert again, while the melody turns up in pop songs and The Addams Family‘s theme, often without contemporary musicians knowing where it came from. – BBC

‘I Have Never Seen Such Chaos’: Mona Lisa’s First Days In New Room At Louvre Have Been Rather Messy

That quote comes from a longstanding guide at the museum, who added, “I did not think it was possible to show such amateurism.” Paris’s most visited painting has been moved while its usual room, the Salle des Etats, is being renovated. But the Louvre’s management seems not to have thought through traffic flow and crowd control issues. – Artnet

What Do The Original ‘Lion King’ Animators Think Of The New, Heavily CGI Version?

One animator said, “I will only get myself in trouble if I comment on the ‘other’ version,” so there’s that point of view. Another: “I think some of my colleagues forget that when you work on a Disney movie, you don’t own it. They own it. You get paid to work there, which is a great privilege. It’s an amazing company. You get to work on this great stuff. But when you walk away, it’s their movie and they can do what they want with it.” – HuffPost

Lessons From The Whitney Biennial Debacle

Andrea Scott: “Of course, the major power dynamic at play in this story is the one between art and money. For too long, patronage of the arts has come with patronizing attitudes toward artists—that they should be grateful for funding, no matter its source. The obscenely inflated contemporary art market—whose metrics are based on auction results, from which artists don’t see a penny—has created the impression of art as a playground for the wealthy. But the delusion that art is an oasis in which beauty is truth and politics are irrelevant is more risible than it ever has been. Art isn’t made in a vacuum, and neither is money.” – The New Yorker

Corbin Gwaltney, Co-Founder Of Chronicle Of Higher Education, Dead At 97

The Chronicle struggled in the first few years after Gwaltney and John A. Crowl established it in 1966, but became widely-read and influential for its coverage of unrest and social issues on college campuses in the weeks and years following the Kent State shootings in 1970. And in 1988, Gwaltney and Crowl founded The Chronicle of Philanthropy. – The Washington Post

Tel Aviv’s Grotty Central Bus Station Is Becoming A Hotbed Of Experimental Art And Theatre

It’s a seven-story, five-block-long concrete hulk with cheap clothing and electronics stores and hair salons, along with lots of abandoned space and a colony of bats. But in the past few years, artists have made their move on the place: there’s colorful graffiti on the 7th floor, installations on the 5th, an architecture exhibit on the 4th, and a theatre company that uses all seven levels for immersive productions. – The Washington Post

This Biophysicist’s Study Of Ballet Movement Could Help Both Neurology Patients And Robots

“[Dagmar Sternad] began working with dance artists … to discover the scientific roots of human balance and coordination. But over the years, she realized that her research could have broader applications, like helping stroke victims relearn and recover skills they might have lost. And, increasingly, she’s been investigating her work’s connection to robotics.” (includes video) – Dance Spirit