Tag: 11.15.19

How Has The Current President Affected Publishing? [AUDIO]

Whew. All of this: “The response has been that there’s been a couple of very successful books about Trump, but if you’re not writing about Trump, you know, where does that take you? What do you do? How does a literary novel that’s functioning on all of the rules that were there, which were not really stated prior to this moment, now function in this new moment? Is the writing of literary fiction a parlor game for the upper middle class? Maybe it is. But what happens when that upper middle class completely freaks out in response to a public event outside of that relatively small ecosystem?” – Literary Hub

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra Tours For Seven Weeks A Year, And Pulls In $60 Million

It’s a holiday miracle: People willing to part with their money for a classical music-prog rock mashup, especially at the holidays. But how did we get to this elaborate two-band tour setup that begins in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and extends around the entire continental U.S.? The founder, Paul O’Neill. “In the early ‘90s, O’Neill began to plot a holiday-themed live spectacle that combined progressive rock, heavy metal and classical music with elaborate stage productions” ever more elaborate by the year. – Billboard

In The Wake Of Apparent Hostility Toward Black Guest Curator, The Guggenheim Hires Its First Full-Time Black Woman Curator

Art historian Chaédria LaBouvier, who was the first solo Black woman curator in the museum’s 80-year history, said that she was cut out of her own show, “Basquiat’s ‘Defacement’: The Untold Story.” Now the Guggenheim, without directly addressing LaBouvier’s claims, has hired the Brooklyn Museum’s Ashley James. James’s work “‘complements the Guggenheim’s mission to present the art of today,’ Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator, said.” – The New York Times

GoFundMe Isn’t Just For Health Care Or Funerals In The U.S., But Also For Ballet Costumes

That’s right, the Colorado Ballet has turned to crowdfunding to get new Nutcracker costumes; the old ones were created for the San Francisco Ballet in 1986, and Colorado Ballet bought them in 2005. “For years, the team has done what it can to try to maintain the set and costumes, using vodka to try to extract the sweat from the costumes and glue and tape to keep some of the props together.” – Denver7

Egypt Officially Criminalizes Climbing The Pyramids

The new laws also criminalize all kinds of antiquities theft. “Earlier this year, an Egyptian man climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, removing parts of a 19th-century wooden mast that was installed to measure the height of the pyramid, and throwing stones at security forces.” Then there was the Danish couple that claimed to have, er, peaked on one of the peaks. – Hyperallergic

In The UK, Money Means Co-Productions, And That Means Regional Theatres Will Lose Their Identities

Or at least that’s the warning right now. Bristol Old Vic’s artistic director Tom Morris: “It is harder to make shows that are specific to your audience, though it doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and it’s harder to make shows specific to your region. Not impossible again, but I think we’re at an interesting tipping point.” – The Stage (UK)