“It’s the preservationists’ version of American Idol. American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have chosen New York City to receive $3 million in preservation grants, and New Yorkers and New York lovers will get to vote for some of the winners.”
Month: April 2012
Kurt Masur’s Podium Fall Caused Broken Shoulder
“Conductor Kurt Masur fractured his shoulder blade when he lost his balance and fell off the stage at a concert in Paris on April 26, his assistant said on Monday. He remains in Paris’s Pompidou hospital and has canceled his scheduled concerts through June.”
Who’s Britain’s Top Philanthropist of The Year? David Hockney
The painter “shot to the top of the list after he donated £78.1m worth of paintings for charitable causes. His donations are more than double his estimated £34m wealth.”
Getty Museums To Cut 34 Staff Jobs
“The J. Paul Getty Trust announced Monday that it was cutting 34 jobs in its museum division, with the expected annual savings of $4.3 million to be redirected to art acquisitions. There will be no reductions in the exhibition schedule or public programs, the Getty said, and no cuts to curatorial and art-conservation staffs.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Turning A Corner
“The orchestra has a new labor agreement reducing minimum musician salaries by about 15% and cutting the size of the ensemble by about 10 musicians to 95. It also is close to finalizing a new lease agreement with Kimmel Center Inc., where since 2001 its home has been the 2,500-seat Verizon Hall, to reduce operating costs. Performances have continued during the [bankruptcy] proceedings, and orchestra officials say attendance is up.”
Getting To Know The Young Susan Sontag (Through Her Journals)
“She contemplates the kind of writer she wants to be, wondering – in a swoop of ambition and possible megalomania – how to be as good as Tolstoy. … There’s ego and insecurity and the continuous plotting of her own public face … though she’s not without an inkling of her public function and renown (from 1975: ‘My role: the intellectual as adversary’).”
The State Of Contemporary Chinese Photography
“However coyly subversive, much of it seems aimed both at foreign curiosity seekers and at a native moneyed class with an appetite for slick advertising and pop mockery. A regrettably high number of photographs made in China over the past decade are worthier of study as sociology than as art.”
Humans – We’re Immortality Junkies (We Can’t Stop Looking For The Fix)
“Among all of the animals, we probably uniquely are aware that we’re going to die. … And this is terrifying. So we are very keen to hear any story that can allay this fear and say death isn’t what it seems, and we can just keep on going indefinitely.” Author Stephen Cave lays out the four paths humans follow in search of (only sometimes metaphorical) immortality.
Alison Bechdel’s New Graphic Memoir Is About Her Mother – What Does Mom Think?
“She really feels like the book is – she sees the hostility; she doesn’t see the love. And that is distressing to me. … I got a pre-pub review that talked about my ‘substantive yet essentially distant’ relationship with my mother, and I showed her that review and she was really psyched about it. … She did not seem the least bit fazed to hear our relationship described as ‘substantive yet essentially distant’.”
Karole Armitage Does A Variety Show
The “punk ballerina” choreographer’s latest project, anchored by her 26-dancer ballet/modern/voguing/capoeira work Rave, is “a four-night multimedia presentation curated with contributions from friends including performance artist Kalup Linzy, artist Will Cotton and photographer William Wegman.” (Yes, some Weimaraners will be there.)