Dana Stevens: “If by ‘we’ you mean ‘I,’ then yes, probably. … When we mourn the early death of a writer who was just beginning to find his or her true voice, we’re also mourning, by implication, every work that author never finished, or never started.”
Benjamin Moser: “A dead young writer is, above all, a dead human being. … And the fine line that separates romance from treacle is the same that divides mourning from kitsch; to cross it is to glorify a heart-rending death instead of remembering the achievements of a life.”
Tag: 11.15.15
Robert Craft, 92, Adviser And Steward To Stravinsky
“Called an elegant Boswell by his supporters and a calculating Svengali by his detractors, … Mr. Craft spent nearly a quarter-century as Stravinsky’s amanuensis, rehearsal conductor, musical adviser, globe-trotting traveling companion and surrogate son. After Stravinsky’s death in 1971, at 88, he was a writer, lecturer, conductor, public intellectual and keeper of the Stravinskian flame.”
America’s Cult Of The ‘Amateur’
The phrase amateur hour “now registers as an insult. But it has an older meaning, one that betrays America’s sincere enthusiasm for the utterly unprofessional. … The idea of effortless authenticity is so attractive that members of the American establishment have vied for more than a century to buy, cheat or counterfeit their way to amateur status.”
The New York Public Library’s Below-Ground Shelving Is Going High-Tech
“To fit all the books in the allotted space, the library will have to abandon its version of the Dewey Decimal System, in which shelving is organized by subject, in favor of a new “high-density” protocol in which all that matters is size. Books will be stacked by height and tracked by bar code rather than by a subject-based system, making for some odd bookfellows.”
OK, So How Do Directors Who Practice Color-Conscious Casting Deal With The Audience?
“Since I first wrote about color-conscious casting, I’ve learned—by directing my own productions as well as casting plays that I did not direct—that color-conscious casting doesn’t guarantee a color-conscious production. Diverse casting is a cause; a more challenging and/or inclusive conversation is not inherently an effect.”
The Last Living Member Of The Original Lindy Hop Troupe Is 95 – And Doing Stand-Up Comedy
“Before she became the Queen of Swing, Miller was just a poor black girl in Harlem who loved to dance. Even as she watched her mother struggle to make rent by cleaning houses, Miller dreamed of another path.”
What’s The Role Of Entertainment In The Wake Of The Attacks In Paris?
“Once again, those of us immersed in entertainment–as producers, as distributors, as chroniclers, or even just as devotees–are left to ask where it fits in. Cultures have been grappling for centuries with how much space to allow levity in the place of a tragedy. But the relevance, and even the defensibility, of entertainment has lately been thrust forward as never before.”
This German Musician Drove Through The Night With His Portable Piano To Play Near Paris’ Bataclan Theatre
“Martello described the scene as shocking and said there was blood on his piano from the previous night’s attack at the concert hall. ‘I got to the end of playing Imagine and just couldn’t carry on,’ he said. ‘Even if I wanted to it was just too emotional.'”
The Paris Photo Art Fair Has Shut Down In The Wake Of The Attacks
“We are located in the Grand Palais near the Palace of the President,” said Jean-Daniel Compain, a senior vice president at Reed Exhibitions, reached by telephone Sunday. “We were expecting another 20,000 people in those two days, and I cannot take the risk.
The Habits Of Highly Creative People
“Psychologically speaking, creative personality types are difficult to pin down, largely because they’re complex, paradoxical and tend to avoid habit or routine. And it’s not just a stereotype of the ‘tortured artist’ — artists really may be more complicated people. Research has suggested that creativity involves the coming together of a multitude of traits, behaviors and social influences in a single person.”