“There’s a long and noble tradition of literary critics misunderstanding Joseph Conrad. … Far more words have been written about him than he ever wrote himself – and not everyone can get it right all the time. Especially when you throw combustible postcolonial issues into the mix. Time has a cruel habit of amplifying those mistakes. A century after he was writing, any negative predictions about Conrad’s long-term durability, for instance, seem hilariously misguided.”
Month: October 2015
It Is Impossible To Stop Comparing Yourself To Your Peers
“They say comparison is the thief of joy, and this, as it turns out, is one cliché that has a raft of empirical evidence backing it up. But there is another truth about social comparison: It’s pretty much inevitable, so you may as well learn to use it to your advantage.”
Kaija Saariaho On Composing And Teaching Composition
“When I’m still imagining the music in my mind before making notes is the most problematic. I try to imagine the music first: that’s very precious. The first idea includes the tempi, the orchestration, which are not difficult to imagine. But to reduce the possibilities for harmonic use and pitches, that is the most time consuming before starting the actual composition.”
How Did U. Cal.-Irvine’s Art School Get So Radical? It Was Born Radical
“At this recently opened university – which was still young and free from historical traditions – artist/teachers including SoCal Light and Space art movement pioneers Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman and Ed Moses counseled students, employed curious teaching methods such as having classmates put crayons between their toes, collaborated with them on performance pieces, and even partied with them.”
Robert Moses Vs. Jane Jacobs: The Opera (Yes, It’s Real)
“It’s called A Marvelous Order – the phrase is drawn from Jacobs’s masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities – … [with] music by composer Judd Greenstein, choreography by Will Rawls, and words from Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Tracy K. Smith.” Says director Joshua Frankel, “The biggest challenge is we don’t want to make this, Moses is Darth Vader and Jacobs is a perfect angel from heaven.”
The Show That Makes People Literally Dance In The Streets
Choreographer Dan Canham says that his Of Riders and Running Horses is “about reclaiming the city space in a gentle way. In the four UK cities the show has been performed in so far, he said they always ended with a spontaneous dance party erupting as the audience joined in.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.19.15
It’s Not A Career. It’s A Lifestyle.
It’s hard to plan for how to follow your dreams. And those of us who work in the arts have landed here because of a personal calling, following an often … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-19
Your Career Plan: It’s not always a straight line!
Even though I am not an arts administrator, I have had to wear small versions of that hat in my career as a professional musician. In my past life as … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-19
Feeling Alive
The following two thoughts cross my mind nearly everyday. When I forget why I’ve chosen to build an unconventional career, they remind me. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-10-19
Cartoon Artist Kate Evans Does Rosa Luxemburg
I notice that the NYT Sunday Book Review’s not-so-special “Special Issue” on graphic books (Oct. 18) makes no mention of Red Rosa by Kate Evans, forthcoming from Verso (Nov. 3). My tireless staff of thousands … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2015-10-19
Come for the sex dolls, stay for the protest
The Young Vic is calf deep in sex dolls. Tacky plastic fake-flesh spills over the stage as Measure for Measure begins, a ‘huge peach heap of vinyl orifices,’ as critic Natasha Tripney wrote. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-10-19
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Nigeria’s Literature Of Love
“Some of the authors, devout Muslims, speak out against child marriage and human trafficking, while others advise how to please husbands or offer escapist tales where the impoverished heroine finds love, wealth and a husband.”
Netflix Faces Some Hurdles To The International Domination It Desires
“‘We had expectations for Netflix to be doing slightly better, but the broadcasting landscape is very locally oriented,’ David Sidebottom, an analyst at Futuresource Consultancy, said in reference to Netflix’s international reach. ‘People are also more reluctant to pay for a monthly subscription to a video service in France and Germany.'”
A Syrian Film Collective Risks Everything To Give Glimpses Of Life During This Civil War
“The idea is to present an alternative to mainstream coverage of the country’s fractured state, with its focus on conflict and destruction. ‘Our first enemy is pity,’ Charif Kiwan, the group’s spokesman and only active named member, said in an interview at the New School in Manhattan. ‘Since the beginning, we tried to say that we are fighting for freedom, for dignity.'”