It all depends on how you experienced the holiday as a child, apparently. (Also, it depends on whether you’re trapped working in a retail environment where Christmas music plays endlessly, and on repeat.)
Tag: 11.26.17
Why Does The Art Of Criticism Seem So Far Removed From The Judgments Everyone Makes Daily?
What is it that makes the artfulness of critical writing illegible to so many? Why do so many self-identified artists imagine that the creative practice of critical writing is so far removed from their own? The cliché “everyone’s a critic” is a truism. There is criticism — judgment — implicit in every decision we make.
The Most-Anticipated New Opera Of The Year Faces Backlash
The piece has “taken many aback with some startlingly negative reviews as well as bending-over-backward attempts to find some value in a work by a team that has given us operatic masterpieces in the past. Without question, the most highly anticipated new opera of the year — a year in which John Adams turned 70 and Peter Sellars, 60 — “Girls” has also been presented as the first opera of Trump times. The populist spirit of the 49ers, the lack of regard for the environment in pursuit of wealth, along with the rampant racism against Latinos, Chinese and black people has created the expectation of the kind of political opera that the lyric stage has historically been very adept at.”
The Art Of The Fake: Forgers Are The Art World’s Folk (Anti-)Heroes
Noah Charney: “There is an element of illusionism to a good forger’s craft, but also a mischievous Loki quality to them, a sense that they are ‘more prankster than gangster,’ and that it is okay to admire them, even cheer for them against the authorities. The tabloid media, in particular, likes to dress up art forgers as working class heroes who are ‘sticking it’ to the elites, showing the emperors that they wear no clothes.”
How One Entrepreneur Is Trying To Make More Affordable Artist Studio Space
“I wanted to make a protected space,” Andrea Woodner offers, “where they don’t have to be completely bare-knuckled about the commercial environment. Here, they can be artists, think about and show their own work, and use the facility as an artist-run project space.”
How Technology Has Liberated Underground Music
Today, the tools have ripened to the point where, if musicians build enough momentum, a record label becomes an indulgence, rather than a necessity. “Technology has democratised creativity,” says Brian Message, a partner at artist management company ATC. “The tools are in everybody’s hands to be able to create and to promote at any level.”
Reading And Comprehension. Are We Teaching Them Wrong?
“Current education practices show that reading comprehension is misunderstood. It’s treated like a general skill that can be applied with equal success to all texts. Rather, comprehension is intimately intertwined with knowledge. That suggests three significant changes in schooling.”
The Trouble With Thinking We’re In A “Golden Age” Of TV
“Television shows function like businesses—they have huge payrolls, with hundreds of people doing hundreds of tasks to make even the most banal sitcom a reality. During the “Golden Age,” the conversation around who made television tended to boil down to one person—the showrunner—and in many ways, we are still living with that legacy. We evaluate television creators as artists, but not often as bosses, which is exactly what most of them are.”
Winners And Losers If Net Neutrality Goes Away
Winners? Big internet providers and marketers. Losers? “You. If you’re a normal person and you want access to the Internet, get ready for all kinds of airline industry-style charges. You’ll either accept a slower connection or pay extra for going over a threshold on your unlimited data plan. In practice, you’re likely to get amazing speed and service for video content you don’t care about and terrible service while trying to use the things you really want. The solution … pay more.”
What Might Happen At This Year’s Oscars, As Parts Of Hollywood (And The Government) Seem To Implode?
It seems almost impossible to predict. Yet “one narrative threatens to overwhelm all others — the Movie That Speaks to Our Present Crisis.” (All eyes are on Get Out.)