As if it weren’t bad enough that the terrorist group torched rare old books and manuscripts in the municipal library while they occupied the city, as ISIS was being driven out of Mosul by Iraqi government forces, it burned down the university’s library building and its entire collection, one of the most important in the Middle East. Robin Wright visits the wreckage.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Violinist Paul Zukofsky Dead At 73
“[He] specialised particularly in the performance of 20th-century repertoire, working with such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, [etc.] … He premiered Glass’s Violin Concerto in 1987 and was the dedicatee of John Cage’s Freeman Etudes – Books I and II, composed between 1977 and 1980.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.14.17
Metropolitan Museum as Renegade: Reorganization Defies AAMD’s Professional Standards
The Metropolitan Museum has become a renegade. Its decision to rejigger its organizational chart — elevating the finance-oriented CEO (now President Daniel Weiss) above its (as yet unnamed) new art-centric director — runs contrary to common wisdom about … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-06-14
The More Things Change…(Or Do They?)
The following post appeared on Rifftides eleven years ago this spring. What thoughts does it stimulate in readers now? Have there been significant changes in jazz since 2008? … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-06-14
‘Naked Came The Stranger’ – An Oral History Of The Worst Bestseller Ever
Okay, there have surely been worse bestsellers in the 48 years since, but probably none that were deliberately bad. Producer Sam Kim has assembled the first-hand story of the newspaper writers who pulled of one of the great “literary” (if that’s the word) hoaxes of the 20th century. (audio)
A Peek Inside James Baldwin’s (Very Large) FBI File
For instance, “this secret FBI summary made the mistake of treating variations on Baldwin’s name and identity” – variations such as “James Arthur Baldwin” and “Jimmy Baldwin” – “as a set of potentially criminal pseudonyms.” Then there’s J. Edgar Hoover writing, in a note at the bottom of a memo, “Isn’t Baldwin a well known pervert?” (Well, look who’s asking.)
When A Female Critic Published A List Of ‘Top 10 Living Women Composers’, Here’s What Happened
Rebecca Lentjes: “You might think I would be getting disgruntled input from women composers who felt they deserved to be placed on the list, but every single negative message I have gotten has been from a man.”
Yuja Wang Gets A Mini-Feature In Elle Magazine
Hey, she’s a notorious famous fashion figure, right? In any case, most of the interview, however brief, is about music and how she performs it, not her outfits.
How Mr. Bean Nailed The Behavior Of American Museum Audiences
“If the movie Bean has taught us anything (and what hasn’t it taught us really?), it’s that American museums and the museum-going public will line up, go out of its way, to view something spectacular, whether there’s much in the way of educational value.” Noah Charney (who cops to similar behavior himself) talks with some curators about “what you as a curator do when the material in your collection is more interesting than spectacular.”
‘Cultural Appropriation’ Is A Bogus Concept
Kenan Malik (a non-white writer, if you were wondering): “Appropriation suggests theft, and a process analogous to the seizure of land or artifacts. In the case of culture, however, what is called appropriation is not theft but messy interaction. Writers and artists necessarily engage with the experiences of others. Nobody owns a culture, but everyone inhabits one. … [And] who does the policing?”
How The Tiger Mother Convinced J.D. Vance To Write ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
Not a tiger mother (as his book makes clear, Vance’s mother did not qualify), but the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua, who was his law professor at Yale. The two authors talk to Caroline Kitchener about their mentoring relationship and how Chua helped bring Vance’s bestseller into being.