The most fascinating shows are easy to miss. VR companies like Oculus are already trying to take immersive theater to living rooms, but the best experiences still remain low in tech and very site-specific, staged in real-world places, and kept mostly phone-free (I turn off my phone during shows). In a year where I’ve seen a lot of attempts at making augmented reality become a magical thing, this theater piece was probably the best augmented-reality experience of all.
Author: Douglas McLennan
Using Dance As A Tool In Mental Health
Mental health is an issue that can be difficult to approach and discuss. Dance can break down this barrier as it allows us to express ourselves without using words: how we move our bodies can say so much. Dance allows us to explore complex ideas, feelings and emotions, and find creative ways to express that in movement.
By The Numbers: What Edinburgh’s Festivals Do For The City
Edinburgh’s flagship festivals contributed £14.4m to the Scottish culture sector in 2016/17, according to new research that examines the events’ local impact for the first time. The festivals, which celebrated their 70th anniversary last year, were also credited with creating a “halo effect” that enhances the reputation of Scotland’s cultural activity, and generating international opportunities for its creatives.
Changing Of The Guard: The Bill Maher Generation Fades As The Hannah Gadsbys Rise
The difference between these current comedy avatars isn’t confined to their material about the shifting cultural status of straight men, although that’s a big part of it. Originality and craft are just as important. To put it bluntly, many of the most established, big-name acts in comedy, like Maher, Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Dave Chappelle, and (to a lesser extent) Chris Rock are either coasting or flailing. At worst, they’re regurgitating old styles and points of view and sounding culturally as well as artistically conservative in the process.
How Netflix Figured Out How To Dominate The Emmys
Yeah, it spent billions. But “Netflix racked up its dominant tally by having lots of Emmy-approved shows in many categories, rather than one or two overperforming titles — perhaps the best possible outcome for an outlet whose business model is geared toward appealing to as wide an audience as possible. While HBO, NBC, and Hulu all had shows with more than 20 nominations, Netflix’s biggest performer — The Crown — earned a comparatively modest 13 noms.”
Highlights From This Weekend’s AJBlogs 07.15.18
- Recent Listening In Brief: Black Art Jazz Collective, Lynn Arriale Black Art Jazz Collective, Armor of Pride (High Note Records) Half of the Collective’s members are leading lights among jazz artists in their forties and early fifties. They include trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, … read more
- Communities Can Start Quietly Jean Mineo recalls a memory that left a powerful impression on how communities form and our ability to go out and create them. In managing a number of … read more
- Communities Come From Needs Kate Schapira shares three stories about the needs that form a community and the effort it takes to be a part of one. Late summer, 2017: for a project, I needed many small drawings of … read more
Will Robot Labor Free Us To Pursue Our Passions?
“Just as the division of labor among humans leads to much better work outcomes, so will the rise of automation benefit the worker. Only the outcome will be many multiples greater than that which springs from human divisions of labor. Imagine the future if robots achieve their potential to erase all manner of work forms,” he writes. “How very exciting.”
Fyre Festival Redux: Another Extravagantly Fraudulent Festival Implodes
XO Music Festival was slated to take place this weekend, July 12th to 15th, in Antioch, California. It promised seven stages, performances by 100 artists including Ludacris, Vanilla Ice and T.I., and a litany of Instagram-minded perks such as a foam pit, a color arena, an indoor skating rink and something billed only as an “interactive bounce arena.” Days before the start of the show, however, several artists dropped out of the lineup citing incomplete or missing payment, and Bay Area news outlets reported that other musicians were increasingly worried about whether the show was still taking place. On Wednesday, Contra Costa Event Park, the festival’s venue, suddenly released a statement canceling the festival entirely, “due to the promoters’ lack of fulfilling contractual obligations.”
A National Review Intern Goes To The Whitney Museum And Decides… (Surprise) It’s Not Really A Museum
“One gets the feeling the patrons of this museum visit to prove how progressive they are. They do not care that the so-called art is the quintessence of bilge. They care only that it advances the ideology de rigueur. The March for Life has been going on since 1974, yet we find no “Abortion Is Murder” sign in the quite incomplete history of protest. That would get the museum shunned by high society. Indeed, there is no reason the Whitney should go on calling itself an art museum now that it has forgone artistic merit as its selection criterion. Let it call itself the Protest Shrine — at least then the unwoke will save their money.
Despite Efforts, Lack Of Diversity Is Still A Big Problem In America’s Orchestras
African-Americans make up 1.8 percent of orchestras nationwide while Hispanics make up 2.5 percent, according to an industry-wide study. Those statistics inspired several performing arts organizations to form the National Alliance for Audition Support, which prepares talented musicians of color for auditions. Making it past that first hurdle is crucial as one opening in a top-tier orchestra can easily attract as much as a thousand candidates.