“An online documentary about Fort McMurray, Alta., lets viewers visit the city at the heart of Canada’s oilsands by taking part in a hybrid film-game project. Fort McMoney lets players explore the city and surrounding areas in the frame of economic simulator and point-and-click adventure games.”
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TV Advertisers Discover The Power Of Dance
“Not only have adverters cottoned on to the fact that the art form is having a global moment, but they’re discovering that dance has its own expertise at combining the subliminal emotional message with the instantly striking image. However queasy you may feel about the trend, the industry is at least showing good taste in the talent they sign.”
That Strange Bowed-String Keyboard Instrument Designed By Leonardo? It’s Not Really Leonardo’s Design
The viola organista Slawomir Zubrzycki built and demonstrated last week is in fact much closer to the Geigenwerk designed and built by the German organist Hans Hyden in 1575.
Post-Gay? No, Two Boys Is Pre-Gay
J. Bryan Lowder: “I’m interested in how impressively and arrestingly [the new Nico Muhly opera] illuminates the psychic space where [labels like ‘gay’] honestly don’t (quite yet) apply. … It’s all the stuff that is retroactively explained by ‘gay’ once you’re out, but is something else while you still don’t quite realize that you’re in.”
“J. Alfred Prufrock” Becomes A Comic Book, Er, Graphic Poem
“Artist and illustrator Julian Peters posted the first nine pages of a comic-book adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ on his website some time ago. A recent wave of attention for the project [has] convinced him to resume work on it.”
In Search Of A Lost Fats Waller Musical
John McWhorter: “A Broadway show about a whorehouse in Martinique with music by Fats Waller sounds intriguing. Until recently, however, Early to Bed was largely a lost musical. As someone who has always liked both theatre music and old jazz, I always wondered why.”
The New Yorker Reviews Virgin America’s Flight Safety Video
Richard Brody: “What’s fascinating, at first, is the mere idea; then, the whimsical tone (the electronic nun-sense, the snark about ‘the .001 percent of you who have never operated a seat belt before – really?!?’). But as the video progresses, it offers remarkable signs of the cinematic unconscious – or a subtly brazen audacity – at work.”
The Sexy Baby Voice, The Voice Of God, The Movie Trailer Voice, Mom’s Phone Voice
It’s all a sociological and semiotic gold mine.
How Jeremy Denk Made Peace With The Goldberg Variations
“In fact, the Goldberg Variations have caused me more misery than any other piece of music in history, with the exception of the Tchaikovsky Trio (for totally different reasons). How many hours have I spent backstage fretting, knowing that there will be several insufferable know-it-alls in the audience, with their 700 recordings and deeply considered opinions?”
New York City Ballet Makes Its Own Web Series
“What does it really take to be a dancer in New York City Ballet? In city.ballet., a new web series to be released on Monday by AOL On Originals, key ingredients are strength, grit, talent and perseverance. Having a life outside ballet is not a bad idea. And when all else fails, reach for the wine.”