“We’ve never had anything kind of like the splash that Ben has made, for better or for worse,” said Ben Johnson, performing arts program director at the city of L.A.’s Department of Cultural Affairs. – Los Angeles Times
Month: September 2019
Unknown Françoise Sagan Novel Causes Sensation In France
The just-published, unfinished 200-page volume, titled The Four Corners of the Heart and described as “a laconic dissection of the lives of the French haute bourgeoisie,” is the big news of this year’s rentrée litteraire, the post-summer “return” which is the height of the book-publishing year in France. – Yahoo! (AFP)
The Other Michael Cohen (Art Swindler) And The Documentary Maker Who Spent 17 Years Chasing Him
The story just got better – Papillon meets The Goldfinch meets The Great Train Robbery. But it had also gone cold. “I thought: oh, I’ve missed it.” – The Guardian
Poet Jane Mead, 61
“In a literary career that spanned more than 20 years, Mead wrote five poetry collections and her work was regularly published in anthologies and journals. She was a Griffin Poetry Prize and Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist for her 2016 book World of Made and Unmade, about her mother’s death. It also was long-listed for the National Book Award.” – Los Angeles Times
How’s Jaap van Zweden Doing At The New York Phil? There Are Some Surprises
Anthony Tommasini: “When Mr. van Zweden’s appointment was announced, it was questioned whether he would prioritize cultivating living composers, commissioning major works, bringing in a new generation of conductors and soloists, and reaching out to the New York community to try and become a leading cultural figure here. Yet he has delivered quite well thus far.” – The New York Times
In Times Like These, We Need Literary Journals More Than Ever
“Almost certainly more than any other media in our country, literary magazines model critical thinking and arrange an exposure to the unorthodox, both of which can provide inoculations against where we seem to be headed as a collective. They assist in that crucial rear-guard holding action on both reading and writing’s behalf.” – Literary Hub
BBC To Move More Staff Out Of London
“We’ve made enormous strides. A decade ago, a third of the BBC was based outside London and two-thirds was in London. Today, that balance is 50/50. We’ve moved from less than 10% of our network TV programmes produced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to 20%. – The Guardian
Patreon Wants To Fund The Creative Class. But Is It Just Propping Up A Bad System?
The service may very well allow artists to become less beholden to the unpredictable algorithms, turbulent monetization policies, and stingy revenue-sharing of behemoth distribution platforms like YouTube. But in the absence of a viable alternative to those platforms, Patreon winds up effectively subsidizing that very unpredictability, turbulence, and stinginess. – Wired
Why Can’t Most Theatre Performances Be ‘Relaxed’ Performances?
Events labeled “relaxed performances” are ones where it’s okay for the audience to move around, make noise, leave and return to the auditorium if you need to, etc.; there’s usually one per run of a show (if that) and they’re aimed at neuro-atypical people, children, and so on. Maddy Costa argues for “the possibility of all theatre performances being relaxed, with occasional ‘uptight’ performances being programmed to accommodate those who prefer to experience live theatre in a strictly controlled and rarefied atmosphere.” – Exeunt
Making Dance Accessible To Blind And Partially Sighted Audiences
“Our ears take in the score, the artists’ breathing patterns, fellow audience members’ reactions, and the physical percussion made by the dancers’ footfalls and partnering. All of this information is available to audience members with limited to no vision, and when it comes to providing them with the rest, there are multiple approaches being refined by experts in the field generally referred to as ‘audience accessibility.'” – Dance Magazine