Her predecessor, Septime Webre, “stamped the Washington Ballet as a showcase of youthful punch and audience-friendly showmanship. … [Kent] She aims to groom the Washington Ballet in the more refined, elegant language of the classics and first-rate contemporary works.”
Tag: 09.28.16
Terrific Action Films On $200 Budgets: Uganda’s One-Man Hollywood
“It starts out like any other training montage. Alan is a white doctor in Uganda, and the children of the slum resolve to teach him the ways of the commando. A child soldier, armed with a makeshift assault rifle strung together by yam sticks and slung over his shoulder, chases the hapless doctor into a small stream. Alan falls face first. ‘That, my friend, was poo poo, for real,’ the film’s omniscient narrator exclaims through giggles. ‘This is Uganda. Poo poo everywhere.’ Madcap moments like this are emblematic of Wakaliwood-style films. And Wakaliwood is one Ugandan man in a slum.”
Donald Trump Stiffed Me On $100,000 Worth Of Pianos, Says New Jersey Music Store Owner
J. Michael Diehl: “My relationship with Trump began in 1989, when he asked me to supply several grand and upright pianos to his then-new Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. I’d been running a music store for more than 30 years at that point, selling instruments to local schools and residents. My business was very much a family affair (my grandsons still run the store). And I had a great relationship with my customers – no one had ever failed to pay.”
$300K Gish Prize Goes To Wooster Group’s Elizabeth LeCompte
“LeCompte takes the award for 40 years of Wooster Group work encompassing a string of experimental, boundary-pushing, multimedia shows that include Route 1 & 9, L.S.D. (Just The High Points), Brace Up! and The Emperor Jones. She co-founded the troupe with Spaulding Gray, with Willem Dafoe among its original members; Frances McDormand has performed with the company in recent years.”
The Matthew Bourne Dancer Killed In A Collision Last Year? The Driver Was Talking On His Cell Phone
“Dancer Jonathan Ollivier was killed when his motorbike was hit by a minicab while the driver was making a hands-free call on his mobile, a court has heard. Ollivier died last August after his motorbike collided with a car as he was making his way to the final performance of Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.28.16
What should Congress do about the arts?
I am going to urge caution on the vision thing. Because aside from “art is good”, reasonable people can differ on what that vision ought to be. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-09-28
Miles Davis: Long Time Gone
This is how co-host Renee Montaigne of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition opened one of the program’s hours this morning. “We’re kind of blue. Miles Davis died 25 years ago today.” … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-09-28
Snapshot: The Kinks sing “Sunny Afternoon”
The Kinks perform Ray Davies’ “Sunny Afternoon” in a 1966 promotional video. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-09-28
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Bots Are Figuring Out How To Make Art (And Starting To Get Good At It)
“We’re always writing from our experiences of things that we’ve read and what we’ve heard and things that we’ve absorbed verbally. So to what extent can anyone author anything? And to what extent does this machine augment this capacity?”
An Evolving Landscape Of Creative Re-Use Rights
So, what do you do if you want to use someone else’s work as a creative jumping off point? “Appropriation art” is in the news these days; just ask artist Richard Prince, who’s been sued multiple times for copyright infringement and won, based on the “fair use” principle.
Continuing Woes: Metropolitan Museum Lays Off 34 Employees
As AJBlogger Judith Dobrzynski reported yesterday, the Met is cutting staff. “The Met has been contending with a ballooning deficit even as it aims to raise money for a $600 million new wing dedicated to Modern and contemporary art and to sustain its eight-year lease at the Met Breuer at a cost of $17 million a year.”
Why Balanchine’s ‘Jewels’ Makes The Perfect Introduction To Ballet
Alastair Macaulay: “Nobody can miss how vividly different its stage worlds are: the green romantic medieval French forest of ‘Emeralds’ (music by Fauré); the red Modernist high-energy American urban world of ‘Rubies’ (Stravinsky); the wintry white (both snowscape and palace) grand imperial Russian classicism of ‘Diamonds’ (Tchaikovsky). What other artist could conjure these three dissimilar realms with such easy mastery?”