“Numerous studies in behavioural psychology show how our individual conviction of what is true or right quails before the massed pressure of our peers.”
Tag: 09.29.16
Carlos Acosta On Finding Artists Who Will Surprise Us
“Hire anybody that shows skill and talent and give people the chance to surprise us. They would never have thought I would end up one day playing Romeo in the Royal Ballet, so the same thing has to be done for others – give them the chance to see what Romeo lies inside of them.”
‘Sex’, The Play That Landed Mae West In Jail For Obscenity, Returns To The Stage
“After a 10-month run on Broadway in 1927, the play was deemed by a grand jury to be such ‘obscene, indecent, immoral, and impure drama’ that it might corrupt ‘the morals of youth’. West was sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity, and travelled there in style – garlanded in roses, wearing silk underwear and riding in a limousine.” Who’s reviving it? A troupe called the Dirty Blondes.
Milwaukee Symphony Set New Box Office And Attendance Records Last Season
“The MSO recorded an 8 percent overall increase in single ticket sales and 20 sold-out performances. More than 200,000 people attended its shows over the season. … The organization said it also had a 32 percent increase in new attendees over the previous year.”
New Orleans’s Music Box Village Finds A Permanent Home
“The initiative of the nonprofit New Orleans Airlift started back in 2011, and its assemblage of musical architecture, in which every structure is a playable instrument, has evolved into a large-scale experiment in reuse and collaboration. A cacophonous water tower, sonic telephone box, and shack of chimes are a few of the structures [musicians can play].”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.29.16
“Art Is Good?” Not Much Of An Argument For Art Is It?
I suggested in a post this week that, based on the lack of any arts business before the 114th US Congress, that it appears that lobbying for the arts seems to be failing. … read more
AJBlog: diacritical | Douglas McLennan Published 2016-09-29
Tech Crash at Metropolitan Museum: “Digital Underground” Buried?
While I’ve been distracted from blogging by mainstream-media assignments, I’ve been itching to weigh in on several important museum developments. Let’s start with Metropolitan Museum President Daniel Weiss‘ tough-love strategies … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-09-29
Not so good planning
Let’s agree, first, on one thing. A gala that opens a symphony orchestra’s season should feel like a gala. Should be fun and lively, with some glamour and glitz. But to create a gala like that, you have to do some planning. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-09-29
Mysterious Beauty
Pam Tanowitz Dance kicks off “NY Quadrille,” a two-week season masterminded by Lar Lubovitch. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-09-29
Hands and Brains
Unless orchestras change, ‘diversifying the stage’ means that orchestras will have more Black and Latino bodies, but not necessarily Black and Latino minds. … read more
AJBlog: SongWorking Published 2016-09-29
[ssba_hide]
Now Out Of Prison, Garth Drabinsky Will Try For A Broadway Comeback
“A return to Broadway would be a remarkable moment for Mr. Drabinsky, who was convicted of fraud and forgery in Canada in 2009. As a theater producer he won three Tony Awards, for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Show Boat and Fosse, but he has not had a production on Broadway in 15 years, and is unable to travel to the United States because he is considered a fugitive there.” His vehicle will be a new musical adaptation of Madame Sousatzka.
Without Warning, Off-Broadway’s Soho Rep Closes Its Theater
“The company said Wednesday that it had recently concluded that the scale of its current productions was not permitted by restrictions on the property, and that it would immediately vacate the premises. Three productions by other theater companies renting the Soho Rep space, including one that was scheduled to begin performances Thursday, will have to be relocated or canceled.”
Miles Davis, Sorcerer Of Jazz
“Davis became known as “the sorcerer” because of his alchemical flair for transforming the humblest of materials—a Tin Pan Alley song, a simple bass line, even another musician’s wrong note—into an exalted form of expression. Shy to the point of taciturnity, he rarely spoke to his sidemen, except to offer the occasional cryptic instruction—“play [guitar] like you don’t know how to play the guitar,” he told the guitarist John McLaughlin—yet he knew how to inspire their best playing.”
How The Great Philosophers Struggled With New Ideas
“The metaphysical and epistemological problems that arose out of the scientific revolution are particularly difficult and abstract, and the responses of these thinkers are among the most formidable structures that philosophy has produced.”