“Since the advent of recorded music, labels have exploited artists. And though they’ve certainly taken their licks, the big three (Universal, Sony, and Warner Bros.) have also begun to learn from some of their mistakes, and may have positioned themselves to regain their stranglehold on the industry.”
Month: October 2015
Kansas City Symphony Signs Music Director Michael Stern For Another Five Years
“Our symphony audiences have never been larger, and our financial position has never been stronger. The Kansas City community has embraced Michael, and he has returned the affection with energetic and entertaining performances of the highest quality.”
What Makes Lin-Manuel Miranda A Genius?
Now 35, Miranda began working on Hamilton in 2008, shortly after he read the Ron Chernow biography Alexander Hamilton. A lot of people read that same biography around then, but it’s hard to imagine that anybody else was hit by the thought—whew, this would make a great hip-hop musical with a multi-racial cast playing the Founding Fathers!
Two New York Times Critics Debate Race In Casting
What “political correctness,” in its most positive sense, means for me is correcting, or rectifying, past abuses of stereotypes. It’s a balancing process that calls out for some extremes in making those corrections. It is the time we live in. We may — oh, may it happen — reach a moment where such abuses are so long behind us, that we’ll feel a bit more comfortable when something like “The Mikado” is staged.
After 30 Years, Major Restoration Of The Acropolis Is Almost Done
“The overhaul is far from merely cosmetic. An earlier restoration misguidedly used iron clamps to strengthen the marble on the edifices. These are rusting at a rate of knots and being replaced with titanium rods, all of which are removable, in case future generations want to fiddle further. Chunks of broken marble are being shored up with new stone and columns rebuilt. It is also a cataloguing project: every stone has been noted and listed.”
Grand Rapids’ Art Prize, In Its Seventh Year, Is Finding Its Voice
The targeted investments, impressive lineup of jurors and new curatorial initiatives are attracting higher-level artists and creating more trenchant thematic exhibitions that exist like self-contained planets within the ArtPrize universe.
Study: Watching Quality TV Can Improve Emotional Intelligence
Two years ago, groundbreaking research revealed that reading literary fiction can help us understand the inner lives of others. Now, a newly published paper finds watching quality television drama can do the same thing.
Catherine Coulson, Log Lady Of ‘Twin Peaks’, Dead At 71
“[She] became a classically trained actor – and, as a burgeoning special-effects technician, assistant director and still photographer, a force behind the camera as well. A collaborator at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where Coulson lived from 1994 until her death, said she was once a camerawoman for 60 Minutes.”
Author Of Italian Mob Exposé ‘Gomorrah’ Accused Of Plagiarism In New Book
Michael Moynihan, the journalist who uncovered Jonah Lehrer’s inventions and copyings, lays out the case against Roberto Saviano’s ZeroZeroZero.
Public Arts Funding Leads To Self-Censorship, Says Leader Of Famed Dissident Underground Theater
Natalia Kaliada, co-founder of Belarus Free Theatre: “Creative conformism is blooming in democratic countries, and so you have to ask whether the only way to secure funding today is to create safe art … I paid the price, and my family paid the price, for speaking our minds freely while living under a dictatorship. Now, living in a democracy, I start to develop a fear of speaking freely in our shows in case we will lose our funding.”