Wuzhen, a picturesque canal town near China’s east coast, has developed a well-regarded theater festival and several visual art events to turn day-trippers into multi-day visitors. “‘Wuzhen has a kind of nourishing energy,’ said Meng Jinghui, the artistic director of this year’s theater festival. ‘In terms of content and budget, they have given us complete freedom. That’s very rare in China.'”
Tag: 11.10.16
Can You Teach Astrophysics Through Dance? Professors And Performers In Manchester Are Giving It A Try
In an article headlined “Dancing with the stars” (ahem), Dance Manchester director Deb Ashby writes about Stellarium, a project led by three female astrophysicists and a female choreographer that actually is communicating concepts of basic astrophysics to primary school students via dance performance.
The Tech School That’s Had A Theatre For Fifty Years
“As a technology university that has never had a drama or dance department, the University of Bradford seems like a weird old place to host one of the country’s first professional practice venues. But when the university was formed, the incoming senior management appointed fellowships in theatre and music, believing that engaging with art and culture was an intrinsic part of any education, technical or otherwise.” (Those were the days, eh?)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.10.16
Racism and the ‘Bigger Force’
When I asked South African playwright Athol Fugard his opinion of race relations in the United States, he replied: Man! It’s not as easy to identify the enemy here, as it is back home, … read more
JBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-11-10
Happy Birthday, USMC
Today is the 241st birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Hard-core Marines (is there another kind?) might consider it heresy to create a jazz version of the Marine Corps Hymn. They would be wrong. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-11-10
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Leonard Cohen, Singer/Songwriter And Poet, Dead At 82
Though he never had a song in the Top 40, “[his] intensely personal lyrics exploring themes of love, faith, death and philosophical longing made him the ultimate cult artist, and [his] enigmatic song ‘Hallelujah’ became a celebratory anthem recorded by hundreds of artists.”
A History Of Recorded Music
The goals for recording music have evolved over time. ‘For much of the 1900s, the goal of recording technology was to make a listener experience being in a room as music was made, said Giles Martin, who went into the family business. In the 1960s and beyond with the constant introduction of new technology, that changed.”
As Trump Was Declared President-Elect, This Poem Went Viral…
“Campaign in poetry; govern in prose,” the old adage goes. This moment, though, has in many ways flipped that idea: The 2016 presidential campaign was decidedly lacking in poetry. Yet in its aftermath, as Americans consider the contours of their new government, they are, often, turning to poems: to Cope and her gallows humor.
Putting Abstract Expressionism In Its Place
“Unlike Impressionism or Cubism, Abstract Expressionism was not a style or a movement. What the five pioneers had in common was not a shared aesthetic, a painting technique, or a manifesto but a sense of the overwhelming importance of art, a bedrock belief in the power of painting to address ideas and emotions at the deepest level. That sense of importance was there from the beginning.”
Here’s The Best Part Of Morton Feldman’s Six-Hour String Quartet, Chosen By A Violinist About To Perform It
Andrew Bulbrook of the Calder Quartet explains why he likes page 107 best (and also how he and his colleagues prepare to perform a six-hour piece). (includes sound clips)