Why is our language so eccentric? Just what is this thing we’re speaking, and what happened to make it this way?
Tag: 11.13.15
Critic Goes To Concert. Critic Loses Patience. Critic Writes An “UnReview”
“Why would those institutions change a system they’re benefiting from? Why would they stop throwing concerts of dead composers’ music when they can sell the same stodgy audience members tickets season after season? I don’t know, but I have an answer for why they should: they’re killing the tradition they claim to love.”
Why Has Arts Coverage Dropped Out Of Newspapers?
Because we have the data, my friend, and they are sobering. As former Globe editor-in-chief John Stackhouse reports in his new book, when the paper analyzed its online traffic, they found that fully 40 per cent of the paper is read by fewer than 1,000 people. This benighted, much-ignored category includes “baseball, tennis and theatre reviews” – basically, a lot of arts and culture coverage. Including, probably, this book review.
Much-Loved Public Art Sculpture Removed After Blogger Spots Anti-Semitism
“A well-known piece of art in Shorewood’s Atwater Park will be removed and altered after a New Jersey blogger’s accusation that it contains hidden anti-Semitic messages went viral, generating concern among village residents and local Jewish leaders.”
Can These Architects Bring Back Mexico City’s Ancient, Buried Lakes?
“The Lakeside City (‘La Ciudad Lacustre’), which set out to recover the ancient Texcoco lake in the east of Mexico City, is the most comprehensive urban plan the city has ever seen. Kalach and fellow architect, Teodoro González de León, proposed to limit urban growth, clear and curtail development on the original lake bed, and allow the groundwater and rain to restore the body of water.”
Sesame Street To Concentrate Less On Puppets, Pop Culture
“Parents watching the show may notice fewer pop culture references in future episodes. That’s because, as humorous as they are to grownups, such references are typically lost on the preschoolers who watch the show. And as it turns out, fewer parents are watching Sesame Street these days, compared to when the show first aired.”
Networks Are Starting To Negotiate With Netflix For Branding Rights
“As networks struggle to keep their brands relevant, making sure viewers know the origins of a show and where to go for fresh episodes is paramount. Also, if the network is identified, the hope is that users will eventually be able to search Netflix by network for content instead of just by show titles and actors.”
Peggy Guggenheim Was Flamboyant, True, But Also A Real Art Patron
“The new documentary on her life, ably directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, is a reminder of what an engaged patron Guggenheim was. At one point in the film, an interviewer asks her what the role of her gallery was in the realm of American painting. ‘To give birth to it,’ replies Guggenheim. ‘I was the midwife.'”
Was This Play Canceled ‘Because Of Race’ Or Because The Director Ignored The Playwright?
“I cast it without thinking what color people were at all. I would have cast a black Jesus if I had the right person for the role. I wasn’t thinking that this was a play about race. When I do plays about race, I try to be extraordinarily sensitive to those issues.”
Carlos Acosta Retires From The Royal Ballet – But What’s Next?
The 42-year-old dancer, who is heading back to Cuba to run a dance school there: “Allow yourself to make mistakes. There is no such thing as failure because life is a learning process. … Be curious and enjoy, enjoy enjoy because one day you will blink and realise that 70 years have gone by.”