“If you ask the average person about Wagner, you will probably hear two things: that he is associated with grandiosity, bombast, anything that makes a loud noise and goes on for a very long time; and that he was Hitler’s favorite composer. There is, of course, more to Wagner than that.”
Tag: 09.25.12
In Philadelphia, The Arts Have An Even Bigger Economic Impact Than You Think
“Arts and cultural organizations have a multibillion-dollar impact on the Philadelphia region’s economy, and are among the nation’s most productive in creation of jobs and stirring up economic activity. Only those in the Washington area generate more per-capita expenditures, and in terms of jobs, no region comes close to Southeastern Pennsylvania.”
Tereska Torrès, 92, Wrote (Inadvertently) The First Lesbian Pulp Novel
“Though she wrote more than a dozen novels and several memoirs, [she] remained inadvertently best known for Women’s Barracks, … a fictionalized account of the author’s wartime service in London with the women’s division of the Free French forces.”
Warfare And Altruism: Flip Sides Of The Same Human Instinct?
“Other animals fight over limited resources and desirable mates, but humans fight for both biological and cultural reasons. We alone will go to war to defend our honour and values. … What’s more, conflict seems to be an integral part of our social organisation. … Paradoxically, these antagonistic tendencies may be intimately linked with another, much more noble side of human nature: our unparalleled capacity for large-scale cooperation and altruistic self-sacrifice.”
Doug Varone On Starting His Own Dance Company
“What’s really fascinating is when you are in a dance company for so many years you are taken care of as a dancer. You are told where to go, you are given money to do it, you take your classes and then go to the theater. Your life is laid out for you in a very particular way. So, when I left and began the process of having a group of dancers that worked for me I realized how much of life I had missed as an adult.”
Philadelphia’s (Perhaps Final) Barrymore Award Winners
“The Philadelphia Theatre Company and Wilma Theater are the big winners of this year’s Barrymore Awards, in what may be the final curtain for the theater honors that recognize work on the region’s stages.”
Kent Nagano Named Hamburg’s Next Generalmusikdirector
The rumor was true: Beginning with the 2015-16 season, Nagano will be the music director of the Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra. “This job will keep the 60-year-old Californian in the opera business, and in Germany, after he leaves the Bavarian State Opera in Munich next July.” (He has also just extended his Montreal Symphony contract through 2015-16.)
Why Is Blasphemy Wrong? (A Philosophical Inquiry)
“Suppose there had not been a single riot in response to the now infamous video The Innocence of Muslims, Not a single car burned, not a single embassy breached, not a single human being physically hurt. Would the makers of this risible little clip have done anything wrong? If so, to whom, and why?”
Coen Brothers To Adapt Fargo For TV
The cable network FX has contracted to develop an hour-long series based on the Coens’ Oscar-winning dramedy. (The pair is involved but will not be writing the scripts.) The series is “part of MGM TV’s strategy to mine the company’s catalogs for properties suitable for series adaptations/remakes.”
Why Crowdfunding Is Unlikely To Overturn Traditional Media Power
“Although crowdfunding and crowd investment ventures … are often perceived as level playing fields with no or low entry barriers, it is not only the material capital, but very much also the cultural capital that a project is able to accumulate which determines whether a film receives funding in the first place and, subsequently, reaches a significant audience.”