This Week: That Mike Pence goes to “Hamilton” story? A textbook protest… Finally – some real data on the health of orchestras… Arts criticism is either being reborn or it’s in dire shape… Pop culture is getting to be only for the rich… The myth of the outsider is a standard pop culture meme…
Breaking away
Can you remember the movie Breaking Away? From 1979, and set at that time, in my current home town of Bloomington, Indiana. Four lads just out of high school, all lacking a sense of purpose. … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s WorthPublished 2016-11-20
Recent Listening: Phil Norman Tentet
Phil Norman Tentet, Then & Now (MAMA Records) This album’s tune list could create an expectation that we’re in for just another trip down the memory lane of modern jazz classics. No, Norman’s ensemble combines … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-11-19
Journey for Two
David Vaughan and Pepper Fajans in Co. Venture at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Pepper Fajans (L) and David Vaughan do a little routine in Co. Venture, created and choreographed by Fajans and directed by Chris Green. … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-11-19
Going Cold Turkey (in Cyberspace)
Click to enlarge.The computer screen has become a substitute for reality, dominating us not just by way of social media but — old news — by making artifacts like books on paper seem obsolete. I … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-11-18
Sheku Kanneh-Mason has six musician siblings, but he turned to Nicola Benedetti (the 2004 Young Musician winner) for advice: “She advised that while I’m still young and studying I should learn as much repertoire as possible, because it becomes more difficult once you’re doing lots of concerts.”
Young Dalí wanted to be a chef, and as an adult artist, “he loved the ‘logarithmic curve’ of cauliflowers.” Of COURSE he did.
Basically, yikes: “If a student asks about the point of it all, I ask him why no one else seems to have the same concern. I get louder. I get meaner. I give students points for alerting me to the sources of dissent. Eager to shore up their grades, gleeful at the chance to tweak friends and possibly enemies, a few students furtively hand over notes after classes.”
It’s the one Shakespearean lead that he resisted for years – “I don’t want to do anything that feels pedestrian or obvious,” he said. Now he’s finally playing the role – Off-Broadway, opposite Daniel Craig – and here he talks about why. (For one thing, the producer spent two years wooing him.)
Disney’s animators – who took a lot of care to consult Hawaiians, Samoans and other Polynesians while developing the film – explain how the character got to look the way he did over a five-year process.
