“The music flowing out of the record player sounds distant, muffled, surrounded by whispers. The singer’s voice alternates moments of clarity with crackly sputters– as if coming out of a wormhole from a windy day in the Fifties. You can get the sense that what is being played is no ordinary vintage record: indeed, on the platter, instead of a vinyl, is the X-Ray of some guy’s skull, cut in the shape of a disc.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Book Piracy In Russia Is Even Worse Than Anyone Thought
The Russian government (which you’d think might not want to publicize this) estimates that between a quarter and a third of all books on the market in the country are pirated. (The problem is virtually nil with print books, though; it’s all in the e-book sector.) Even more worrisome is what one survey found about Russians’ beliefs regarding pirated content.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.09.17
Should Museums Compare and Contrast Cultures?
It seems to be a trend these days for art museums (and some galleries) to mix and match cultures and, sometimes, time periods. Sometimes, this is about breaking down so-called false hierarchies in art history … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-08-09
Read Annie Dillard’s Classic Essay About Solar Eclipses
“I had seen a partial eclipse in 1970. A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it.”
In honor of this month’s event, The Atlantic brings back Dillard’s 1982 piece “Total Eclipse.”
Resurrecting The Most Legendary Musical In South Africa’s History (It Was Suppressed Under Apartheid)
“Nelson and Winnie Mandela were in the crowd. Miriam Makeba was the female lead. Abdullah Ibrahim played inconspicuously in the orchestra, as did a teenage Hugh Masekela, on a trumpet given to him by Louis Armstrong. Thrilled by what they saw and heard, the audience members, at first roped into ‘white’ and ‘nonwhite’ sections, refused to leave the theater after the show … On the opening night of the musical King Kong [in 1959], a black composer, Todd Matshikiza; a white creative team; and a 72-strong black cast offered the audience a vision of another kind of country, in which creativity and collaboration prevailed.” After nearly 60 years, King Kong is being updated and revived in Cape Town.
Half A Century After ‘The Twilight Zone’, Single-Episode Anthology Series Are Back On TV
“Golden-age classics such as The Twilight Zone and Playhouse 90 … delivered a full-course narrative meal within as little as 30 minutes. It was one of the great TV genres, until it wasn’t.” (Yeah, there was also The Love Boat.) Now, with the likes of Netflix’s Black Mirror and the Duplass brothers’ Room 104 on HBO, “all of a sudden, short-form storytelling has found its way back onto the TV menu – and the reasons why have a lot to do with the ripple effects of Peak TV.”
After 51 Years, Uncensored Version Of Joe Orton’s ‘Loot’ To Be Staged For First Time
If you know much about Orton, it won’t surprise you that “before its West End debut in 1966, [his] play fell foul of the lord chamberlain, who removed scenes that hinted at homosexuality and mocked the church and police.” The original version of the piece premieres next week in London to mark the 50th anniversary of Orton’s murder by his lover.
Banning All Ivory Completely Is Not Going To Save The Elephants, But It Could Lead Us To Destroy Important Pieces Of History
Okay, almost no one argues that we should continue to permit trade in new ivory. Yet, argues John Frederick Walker, blocking all sales of older, already-sculpted ivory – and (as is happening now) burning or crushing existing pieces, even certified antiques – will simply increase scarcity and add glamor (and cash value) to the material. And we’ll lose some marvelous historic art as well.
This New Performance Space Was Built To Withstand Avalanches
The Origen Festival has built a red tower, housing a 250-seat in-the-round theater lit by windows on all sides, on a 7,500-foot-high pass in the Swiss Alps. “Built at a cost of two million francs, it weighs 410 tons and can withstand winds of up to 240km/hr.” The plan is to present world theater and other forms there year-round (though they need another million francs to winterize the building).
How Do Looted Antiquities End Up At Museums Like The Met And The Getty, Anyway?
Noah Charney, co-editor of the Journal of Art Crime, fills us in on the tombaroli (Italian tomb looters who emerged in the 1970s), how they get their looted antiquities onto the market (the story has a villain named Medici), and how museums do (or don’t) check the objects’ provenance.