“Annabel Lyon’s [widely-praised] The Golden Mean is the story of Alexander’s childhood, told through the eyes of his tutor Aristotle. … But apparently its jacket – featuring a naked man lying on the back of an equally naked white horse – is offensive to some,” and BC Ferries has refused to carry it.
Tag: 08.24.10
When Heckling Runs Amok: Standup Comedy Can Be Dangerous
“Take the story of UK standup David Whitney, who was involved in an incident with a heckler in Edinburgh that has generated some of the most striking (but presumably unwanted) headlines of the Fringe.” Whitney head-butted his antagonist and now faces assault charges.
Funding Cuts Could Be Very Healthy for Arts in Britain
David Lister: “[There] is a refusal to accept that the current model of public funding may not actually be the only reasonable and civilised one, or that the present reliance on largely unaccountable quangos to fund and administer most arts bodies, small and large, is not necessarily a democratic one, even though it would be pilloried in novels, plays and films if it existed in any other walk of life.”
Crowd-Sourcing Peer Review at Scholarly Journals
“Now some humanities scholars have begun to challenge the monopoly that peer review has on admission to career-making journals … Instead of relying on a few experts selected by leading publications, they advocate using the Internet to expose scholarly thinking to the swift collective judgment of a much broader interested audience.”
The Murder That Changed the Movies – Psycho at 50
“Fifty years ago, death on the silver screen was typically quite decorous.” Women expired in their beds, men died in battle, and “anyone who was murdered – gangsters and ‘bad’ girls, for instance – generally got what they deserved.” Then along came poor Marion Crane. “A nice girl wasn’t safe in her own shower. A filmgoer wasn’t safe in his seat, the rules of narrative having been shattered.”
Contract Battle Could Fundamentally Change Detroit Symphony
“The conflict is rooted in proposed base salary cuts of 28% in the first year, from $104,650 to about $75,000. Management says the cuts are crucial to the survival of the recession-battered DSO, which is hemorrhaging cash and mortgaged up to its piccolos. The players say the cuts would downgrade the orchestra permanently from its status among the country’s elite.”
South Korea Establishes a National Modern Dance Company
The NMDC, founded by the national Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, will be the first contemporary dance company in Korea to have the level of government support and infrastructure provided to the Korea National Ballet Company and the National Dance Company of Korea, the flagship troupe for traditional dance.
New York City Opera Plans (Basically Broadway) Concert Series
“Some of Broadway’s best are taking the stage for New York City Opera’s forthcoming new concert series … Performers including Kelli O’Hara, Christine Ebersole, Donna Murphy and Michael Cerveris will appear on behalf of the company as part of the new series, which kicks off with the opera’s fall gala, ‘An Evening with Christine Brewer’.”
The Decision Is Made: Eli Broad’s Museum Will Be in Downtown L.A.
“In a move that adds another contemporary art museum to the city’s busy art scene, Eli Broad announced formally Monday that he would build his Broad Collection museum downtown and chose a blue-chip New York architecture firm” – Diller Scofidio + Renfro – “to design it.”
No More ‘Cathedrals of Culture, Says New Generation of Museum Directors
“Many young directors see museums as modern-day ‘town squares,’ social places where members of the community may gather, drawn by art, perhaps, for conversation or music or whatever. They believe that future museum-goers won’t be satisfied by simply looking at art, but rather prefer to participate in it or interact with it.”