“The basic idea behind tipping, of course, is that service workers are getting rewarded for doing a good job, but the science simply doesn’t back this up. There’s decades’ worth of consumer-psychology research demonstrating that tipping hardly improves service at all.”
Month: October 2015
One In Four Performing Arts Careers Are Halted By Parenthood, Says Survey
“The claim is made in a major new report into the impact that being a parent can have on people working in the sector, which also found that around three quarters of survey respondents – 74% – had to turn down work because of having a child.”
How Shows Graduate From Smash Hit To Revolutionary Phenomenon
“Hamilton has managed to grab the greater culture by the lapels and give it a good shake unlike any show since The Book of Mormon. It’s been called historic and game-changing … How does a show make that leap from a simple piece of boffo box office – which only means the show is popular and selling tickets – to the kind of attraction that becomes part of the cultural conversation?”
Tania Bruguera Vows To Return To Cuba Despite Eight-Month Ordeal
“After she was detained by the Cuban authorities and had her passport confiscated, [the artist and activist] suffered harassment, surveillance and physical abuse. Her ‘crime’ was proposing to restage Tatlin’s Whisper #6, a performance piece about free speech, in Havana’s Revolution Square.” She was granted an exit visa to go to London for this year’s Frieze, but warned that she might not be allowed back.
How to Disagree: Amin Maalouf on the Key to Intelligent Dissent and Effective Criticism
“To approach someone else convincingly you must do so with open arms and head held high, and your arms can’t be open unless your head IS high. … The key word is reciprocity.”
Ballet Along The Sides Of A Skyscraper
This week’s viral dance video features two members of the daredevil company Bandaloop making their moves in midair outside the windows of a Shanghai office tower.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.15.15
Defending Melissa Chiu
When the Hirshhorn Museum, which has been led for the last year by Melissa Chiu, late of the Asia Society Museum, announced that its 40th anniversary gala would be held in New York, not in Washington, D.C., … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-10-15
No hope for Hamlet
Benedict Cumberbatch made me cry at Hamlet. Or, more precisely, at the curtain call, with a beautifully feeling, indignant and compassionate appeal for Save the Children’s work in the Syrian refugee crisis. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-10-15
Dancing as the Leaves Fall
Every autumn, as the leaves change color and begin to consider falling, Fall for Dance defines the verb differently: New Yorkers and savvy visitors buy bargain-price tickets and fall in love with dance—or at least with some of the twenty companies, … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-10-15
More on Carmine Branagan’s Departure from National Academy
“You have reached the office of Carmine Branagan, director of the National Academy Museum and School.” So said the voicemail message when I called Branagan’s office about an hour ago. But a highly reliable informed source … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-10-15
Weekend Listening Tip: Mays & Stamm
Last weekend, pianist Bill Mays wrapped up a tour of the west with his Inventions Trio, which includes trumpeter and flugelhornist Marvin Stamm and cellist Alisa Horn. Longtime collaborators in several projects, Mays and Stamm … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-10-15
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After A Summer Of Breaking Barriers, Misty Copeland Gets Back To Dance
“My entire career has been working and striving and proving, and it’s just exhausting. It’s so much more than just the work, which is exhausting in itself. I want to just enjoy this first season as a principal dancer and really just focus on that… So now I feel like I can actually sit back and kind of settle in to this position. That’s exciting.”
Brain Science Suggests We Can Learn while We’re Asleep. Uh-oh.
“Almost a century ago, a fad for sleep-learning swept the industrialised world, ending only after neuroscientists determined it was physiologically impossible. Yet today, a growing body of research suggests they were wrong. Sleep-learning appears to be heading for a revival, on a far more solid scientific basis than its earlier incarnation.”
The Age Of Mass-Appeal TV Is Over. Yay!
“For viewers who expected to see something of their own lives and experiences reflected on mainstream TV, the end was probably too long in coming. Now there are niche comedies for everyone. And everybody is still laughing, except the executives who long for the old days of long-running, mass-appeal sitcoms.”