Penned under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood is Rowling’s fifth book to feature private investigator Cormoran Strike. An early review of the book by Telegraph writer Jake Kerridge described it as featuring a “transvestite serial killer,” which inspired readers’ anger and spawned the Twitter hashtag #RIPJKRowling — a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the author’s career. – CBC
Month: September 2020
US Senate Report On Money Laundering Contains Warning For Art Market
Focusing on purchases of art from major auction houses by Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, two Russian nationals described as ‘oligarchs’ by the report, the Subcommittee makes a series of pronouncements about the supposed prevalence of money laundering in the art market, and the need for regulation to address this perceived problem. – Apollo
Virtual Theatre As An Opportunity Space
“We’re working with authors, artists and companies we’ve always wanted to and reaching audiences around the world in numbers that would be completely unattainable with previous ways of working. This is our working practice now. It’s not an addition – it is the core.” – The Stage
Clarinetist Anthony McGill Wins $100,000 Avery Fisher Prize
Mr. McGill was the Philharmonic’s first Black principal musician when he joined in 2014; he is currently its only Black player. He appears at David Geffen Hall and elsewhere as a concerto soloist, and is in a trio with his brother, Demarre McGill — the principal flute of the Seattle Symphony — and the pianist Michael McHale. In 2009, he performed at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. – The New York Times
The Wagner Problem
By making music ideological and semantic in new ways, Wagner made it much easier to talk and write about—which is one reason why he has always been so appealing to intellectuals. A book like Alex Ross’s Wagnerism, a survey of Wagner’s influence on art and ideas over the last 150 years, could not be written about any other composer. – The New Republic
Bill T. Jones Dances With Rice
Well, to be truthful, it’s his performers who are engaging the grain directly. Artist Lee Mingwei’s performance installation Our Labyrinth, a meditative ritual in which performers sweep a mound of rice across a floor, has arrived at the Met Museum. Met Live Arts director Limor Tomer got the idea to add movement by Jones, who says he isn’t changing Lee’s piece but rather “infecting” it. – The New York Times
Syracuse Refuse: Everson Museum Discards its Pollock to “Address Inequality” & Pursue the New
I’ve been planning to call out the lamentable decision of the Everson Museum in Syracuse to jettison its only Jackson Pollock painting “in order to refine, diversify, and build the museum’s collection for the future” (in the words of the museum’s self-justification). – Lee Rosenbaum
Alex Ross: Classical Music Grapples With Race
Since nationwide protests over police violence erupted, in May and June, American culture has been engaged in an examination, however nominal, of its relationship with racism. Such an examination is sorely needed in classical music, because of its extreme dependence on a problematic past. – The New Yorker
Old White Lighthouse Gets Wildly Colorful New Paint Job (And Some Critics Blanch)
“For almost a century, the lighthouse, near the Cantabrian town of Ajo, was a mute, monochrome sentry beaming its light out over the Atlantic. Now … the 16-metre tower is a collision of colours, geometric shapes and animals, which is intended to boost visitor numbers to one of the lesser known spots on the [northern] coast of Spain.” – The Guardian
The “Festival Of Brexit” – Will It Really Bring The Country Together?
Ever since Theresa May announced a huge national event celebrating our departure from the EU, set for 2022 and with a budget of £120m, it’s acquired that nickname, suggestive of drizzle, stale pies and being forced to listen to Rule Britannia (with the words) on loop. Even the organisers are keen to stress that the current working title is actually Festival UK. – The Guardian