“The work took much longer than expected – the company was originally scheduled to move back from its interim residence across town in the Schiller Theater four years ago – and the renovation costs spiraled from an estimated 239 million euros to 400 million ($473 million), half of which was covered by federal funds.” Even so, after a new production next month, the theater will close for another two months so technicians can master the new high-tech equipment.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Walter Becker Of Steely Dan Dead At 67
“Steely Dan sold more than 40m copies of nine studio albums, won four Grammy awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Their music – slick and catchy, with wry, observational lyrics – was all-pervasive for much of the group’s first period of activity, between 1972 and 1981.”
A New Director Has Revolutionized – Or Upended – Canada’s Shaw Festival
Tim Carroll is “preaching the gospel of ‘two-way theatre'” – expanding the company’s repertoire well beyond George Bernard Shaw and plays that debuted during his lifetime, presenting $5 late-night shows, doing “Secret Theatre” pop-up performances to which audiences are alerted by email on short notice.
Ontario Gov’t Directs $50 Million In Extra Funding To Arts
“In a statement issued by the Office of the Premier, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) will be issued $50 million in additional funding over the next four years. This is in addition to the existing governmental amount, bringing the total to $80 million per year by 2020-21.”
Mexico Creates New Federal Police Division To Fight Trafficking Of Art And Antiquities
“Mexico has been criticized for failing to register the theft of stolen cultural antiquities and for a lack of coordination among authorities responsible for preserving the items. Many church paintings are replicas of the two- and three-hundred year old paintings that have been stolen. According to official figures last year, 90 percent of stolen cultural objects, including archaeological pieces, liturgical objects and religious art, are never recovered.”
Comedian Shelley Berman, 92
“[He] was among a group of comedians who emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s, including Mort Sahl, Bob Newhart and Elaine May and Mike Nichols, who built their humor around topical storytelling rather than the traditional setup and punchline. His routines about the frustrations of modern life, including pieces about airlines or about the difficulty of dealing with businesses and other institutions, were wildly popular and made him one of the first comedians with best-selling recordings. … [He also] had a late-career resurgence playing Larry David’s dotty father on Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.04.17
In Harvey’s Wake: An Update on Houston MFA and the Menil Collection
Updates to my previous post on the effects of Hurricane Harvey on two of Houston’s premier art museums: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-09-01
Walter Becker, R.I.P.
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, the creative nucleus of Steely Dan, were the Stephen Sondheims of rock, ironic, disillusioned, and musically and lyrically sophisticated to the highest possible degree. I first heard their music (not … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-09-03
All Fall Down
We’ve got a packed fall season in the Composition Department of the UNC School of the Arts. For those who aren’t familiar with it, this is a campus of about 1200 students, all artists, from … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-09-04
When Virginia Woolf And Her Pals Dressed Up As ‘Abyssinian’ Princes And Pranked The Royal Navy
One day in the winter of 1910, Woolf, her brother, and a few others put on fake beards, makeup (blackface, unfortunately), and elaborate robes and turbans (which didn’t look particularly Ethiopian), taught themselves some pidgin Swahili (which they don’t speak in Ethiopia), and talked their way onto the Royal Navy’s newest, highest-tech warship, where they got the proverbial royal treatment.
Why Blue Is The World’s Favorite Color
Researchers have found that, all over the globe, some shade or other of blue is the most widely beloved hue. But that preference does not appear to be based in genetics or otherwise hard-wired – the reasons lie elsewhere.
Mary Shelley Didn’t Just Invent The Science-Gone-Wrong Genre, She Also Pioneered Post-Apocalyptic Fiction In English
Frankenstein was not her only groundbreaking novel; in 1829, she published The Last Man, depicting England circa 2100 as a post-plague dystopia. “As with Frankenstein, Shelley was playing on some very real anxieties in Industrial Revolution-era society – anxieties that live on to the present day. And, just like with Frankenstein, she got flack for it.”