“We love reading about nature for the same reason naturalists love being ankle-deep in marshes: Nature provides enough order to soothe and enough entropy to surprise. It’s also why so many involve a person in the landscape; understanding our place in the world is as important as understanding the world itself.”
Tag: 08.02.16
TV Pilot Production Down 13 Percent In LA This Year
“Out of 201 pilots, 79 projects (25 dramas and 54 comedies) were filmed in the Los Angeles area — giving the region a 39% share of total pilot production, down from 45% last year. New York was the second most-active location with 28 pilots, followed by Vancouver with 25 pilots, Atlanta with 15 and Toronto with 12.”
So This Is A Thing Now? 1000 Robots Break Record For Synchronized Dancing
“1,040 robots, each just under 44 centimeters in height, started their synchronized dance routine in Qingdao city. Of them, 1,007 finished the challenge, setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous robot dance.”
Albanian National Opera And Ballet Chief Quits Over Tiny Budget
“The total budget of Albania’s Ministry of Culture for 2016 has been set at just over 9 million euros – but only some of this is allocated for the country’s main cultural institutions. The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet gets about 2 million euros but the institution hosts the biggest artistic troupe in the country and also contains within it the national symphonic orchestra and the folk ensemble.”
When Is Cultural Appropriation Just Exploitation (And When Is It Expanding The Culture?)
“Of course, it’s hard for any people who are socially dispossessed not to feel extra possessive when it comes to their cultural icons and their reception by a more socially dominant audience, particularly when there’s ample evidence of those same icons being celebrated (and dismissed) by the majority in an ignorant way. It’s kind of bleak right now.”
Restitution Advocate Ronald Lauder Says His Museum Has A Work WIth Uncertain Provenance
“Mr. Lauder, 72, would not identify the piece or its creator during an interview, saying that negotiations on its return were being finalized. He did say he was surprised that a work with a disputed provenance had made it into the museum, which focuses on art created in Austria and Germany from 1890 to 1940.”
Why Are People Piling On Dede Wilsey? She’s Been A Bay Area Arts Powerhouse
“This is a woman who had donated more than $10 million to the city-owned museums over the years. Even more important, she guided the institution through a $190 million capital campaign that gave San Francisco the de Young Museum’s award-winning building in 2005, and she led numerous smaller fund drives for the Fine Arts Museums as well as for several other cultural and social service organizations in town.”
The Ballet National De Marseille – Dance And Protest In The Wake Of France’s Terror Attacks
Co-artistic directors Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten have two themes to their work at the company: “Le Corps du Ballet” (deliberately not corps de), and “‘Le Corps en Révolte’, the body in revolt, where ‘the ballet is used almost for protest’, says Greco. The aim is to create a space for demonstration, ‘like Taksim Square’.”
Oops! Kids Destroy 5,000-Year-Old Rock Carving They Were Trying To Touch Up
“They thought the etching had become too faded, so they decided to scratch over it to make it easier to see. … The carving on the northern island of Tro is one of the country’s most famous historic sites and an important clue as to when people began skiing.” (This may not end as well as “Beast Jesus” did.)
Stephen Sondheim Says His New Musical Will Be Ready Next Year
“The performance date may be news, but the subject is well known. Written with the playwright David Ives (Venus in Fur), the piece is based on two films by Luis Buñuel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. The first, in Sondheim’s précis, is about a group of people trying to have dinner together, and the second is about people having dinner together who for some reason can’t leave.” (The hope is for the musical to run in New York at the same time as Thomas Adès’s new opera version of The Exterminating Angel.)