“With all due respect, opera critics risk missing what the rest of us will see and hear in the new era in which an increasingly significant portion of the audience is at cinema relays: the cross-cutting between scenes, the aesthetic reconstruction of theatre-bound drama through montage and even, sometimes, sophisticated sound design denied to mere opera directors. Just the things, in fact, film directors are good at.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Old Library Card Catalogs Were Wondrous Things
“Waxing nostalgic about card catalogs or being an advocate for the importance of libraries is a mug’s game. You can practically feel people glancing up from their iPhones to smile tolerantly at your eccentricity. My response to this, after an initial burst of profanity, is to explain (again) why libraries are essential to narrowing the inequality gap, and why the Internet is not an adequate substitute for books or libraries.”
There’s A World Record For Most Frida Kahlos In One Place? Who Knew?
More than a thousand men, women, and children alike dressed up as the popular Mexican artist to celebrate her 110th birthday, setting what appears to be a Guinness World Record for the most Fridas in one place.
The Fyre Festival Disaster Has Made It Harder For All Big Festivals
“A Fyre-like calamity is the greatest fear of most festival organizers. The majority already seek to protect themselves by obtaining insurance, but it doesn’t come cheap, or easy. Insurers typically begin working with mega-festival organizers well in advance, determining exactly what kind of coverage they need. In some cases, risk and claim specialists will even tour facilities in advance and during the festival in an effort to mitigate any potential issues.”
Scientists Have Made A Machine That Can Write Poetry (And Fool Readers Into Believing A Human Wrote It)
“A neural network trained on thousands of lines of poetry has tried its hand at penning its own rhymes that mimic certain forms of verse. Its best efforts even fool people into thinking they’re reading the words of a human poet, rather than the algorithmic output of a cold-hearted AI.”
Bolshoi Suddenly Cancels Ballet About Rudolf Nureyev
Speaking to journalists Monday, Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin denied reports that the show had been scrapped because of its frank portrayal of Nureyev’s gay relationships. The dancer was diagnosed with HIV in 1984 and died in 1993.
The Arts: Resistance Or Refuge?
“Does an organization elect to present art that more obviously than not seeks to provide either refuge or encourage resistance to its audience? Does the organization present art that does one or the other, but consciously choose not to emphasize or highlight that aspect? Some performances and some art will be more provocative and elicit more strident supporters or detractors. And in a no win situation, the decision not to make that decision is itself subject to criticism in some quarters as a sell-out.”
How The Million-Dollar Netflix Prize Changed How We Get Our Movies
The forums, which are still viewable using thanks to internet archives, were a hotbed of problem-solving, discussion, and joyful discovery. Imagine a digital summer camp for researchers. “It was so much fun. The contest was structured so well. We had to learn so much to be competitive and I met so many people along the way.” As stressful as it could get, especially as the improvements to the algorithm slowed down and the years rolled along, the teams were buoyed by a sense of community.
We Keep “Finding” Lost Ruins. But They Usually Weren’t Lost At All
By ‘finding’ a lost city from the air, archaeologists fail to understand the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience that communities have of their place and their past. The illusory ‘finding’ seems important. The ‘finding out’, the delayed gratification, is replaced by the immediacy of the ‘discovery’.
Expansion Plans For Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Museum Draws Ire Of Preservationists
Particularly after a statement by the museum’s director Janne Sirén: “We are also not in the business of collecting buildings. We are an art museum and our service is to our public and to the artworks in our custody. The buildings are here to serve us, and not us as the staff, but the public and the art. That is our foremost responsibility. The buildings are the utilitarian tools, in some respect, that allow us to accomplish our mission.”