USC’s MFA Program Reopens – With One Student

“On Monday, the fall semester began for USC’s sole MFA art student, a woman from South Korea on a fully-funded scholarship and educational visa. … Last May, the once-lauded program suffered a devastating blow when the entire class of 2016 left the school in protest of alleged broken promises and a perceived corporate takeover of the program.”

How I Became Julie Taymor

The director tells Alec Baldwin about her youth at Boston Children’s Theater, her time at Oberlin majoring in anthropology (“but I couldn’t stay away from theater”), what she learned watching shadow puppet plays in Java, and how her career metamorphosed – several times – once she returned to the U.S. (podcast)

Why Critics Have Such A Bad Rap

“Just about no one has a good feeling about the word “criticism.” Most of the time, it simply means chastisement; it sounds like what you don’t want to get on your performance review, or from your parents. If you have a critic, that person is likely to be your enemy, and to be critical means to be ill disposed, hard to please or actively hostile — in short, a hater. When it comes to the arts, for many people a critic is someone whose job it is to tell you why you’re wrong to like the movies or music or books you like.”

Fed-Up Myung Whun Chung Says He’s Leaving Seoul Phiharmonic; Musicians Campaign For Him To Stay

After a horrendous year that saw the orchestra openely rebel against an abusive but politically connected CEO, who resigned with obvious reluctance and then had Chung investigated for embezzlement, the maestro announced he was stepping down as music director. Then the musicians held a press conference pleading for the city government to convince Chung not to quit.

‘Leathery Authenticity And Baked-In Americana’: Harold Bloom, Rock Critic

On The Band’s “The Weight”: “The song’s chorus centers on removing a spiritual load and the narrator’s charitable offer of assuming responsibility for it: ‘Take a load off Fanny, and you put the load right on me.’ Here, you also have the double entendre of ‘fanny’ in the vernacular sense and a rather loose lady. The ‘load’ is the weight of earthliness, of mortality.”