According to research by Music Week, it took an average of 5.34 people to write last year’s Top 100 biggest singles. That’s up from 4.84 in 2017, and 4.53 the year before. So what’s going on? – BBC
Author: Douglas McLennan
How Peter Schjeldahl Illuminates The Art World
“What separates Schjeldahl is the tangible sense in nearly every piece in this book — say 85 of the 100 — that something existential is at stake as he writes. The same sensation is present in Barthes and Sontag, his closest analogues to my mind, writers who, whatever their subject at a given moment, are desperately attempting to make something lucid out of this indecipherable life they’ve received without asking for it.” – The New York Times
Autofiction? What’s That?
It is perhaps this apparent contradiction, between “fiction” and “facts strictly real”, which can seem baffling. Is autofiction fiction, or non-fiction? Autobiography, or novel? There is no easy space for the genre to settle, and the area it occupies remains uncertain. It has always troubled some readers, and it requires if not a new, then a reconsidered, critical response. – Times Literary Supplement
How The New Orleans Jazz Market Survived A Scandal And Rose Again
“Most organizations probably would have went under and failed,” the drummer Adonis Rose, a charter member of the orchestra who took over as artistic director after the scandal broke, said in an interview last month. “Thankfully, we did not.” – The New York Times
Want To Know What Is Art? Start By Asking What Art Isn’t
“What’s the difference between something that’s not art because it’s not good enough, and something that’s not art because it’s the wrong sort of thing? Let’s start there.” – 3 Quarks Daily
Are The Liberal Arts Worth It? The Rich Seem To Think So
What, then, can we make of the anomaly that the elite liberals arts education so coveted today by the rich or those seeking to get rich consists largely of diatribes against the rich? – Washington Post
The (Fabulous) Making Of Randy Rainbow
Think of him as a modern-day Gilbert and Sullivan, or the millennial version of the piano-playing Mark Russell or Tom Lehrer — the key difference being that his get-it-out-fast production marathons and savvy use of social media bring his commentary to the public quickly, directly and with no filter. – Washington Post
BookEXpo’s State Of The Biz: Number Of Indie Bookstores In US Up 20 Percent In Last Ten Years
“The booksellers association again gained membership, rising from 1,835 individual companies (all but a handful independently owned stores) a year ago to 1,887, an increase of more than 20 percent since 2009. The number of store locations is now 2,524, compared to 2,470 in 2018, as independent sellers such as Shakespeare & Co. in New York continue to expand.” – Seattle Times (AP)
Broadway Racks A Record Season At The Box Office
Attendance hit 14.77 million while ticket sales topped off at $1.83 billion in grosses, according the Broadway League, the national trade association tied to the Great White Way. That’s a 7.8% season-over-season increase in terms of grosses, easily topping the $1.7 billion from the 2017 to 2018 season. It’s also a 7.1% increase in attendance, up from 13.79 million in the previous season. – Variety
The Rehabilitation Of Antonio Salieri (Modestly)
“Two centuries of calumny have created sympathy for the musical devil: I found Salieri’s grave festooned with bouquets. These were evidence that the man and his music are enjoying a modest comeback.” – The New Yorker