When season six of the satirical HBO series about a self-defeating female politician was written and shot, pretty much everyone involved assumed that Hillary Clinton would be president when the show aired this spring. This means that everyone involved figured that the new storyline – about the aftermath of former President Selina Meyer’s defeat in a very close election – would be a counterfactual. No such luck: as Willa Paskin observes here, “when Veep actively tries to avoid imitating life, life goes and imitates it.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A Star-Is-Born Moment? Young Conductor Jumps In For Yannick In Philly On Three Hours’ Notice
Kensho Watanabe, the 29-year-old assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, stepped in at the last minute on Saturday evening for suddenly-ill music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin – and reportedly brought the house down. With a Q&A, David Patrick Stearns introduces readers to Watanabe and gets the story of the fateful night.
The Next Stage: Wendy Whelan And Virginia Johnson On Life After A Career In Ballet
“Former professional ballet dancers Wendy Whelan and Virginia Johnson join us to discuss life after a career in dance. Whelan, who had a 30-year career with the New York City Ballet (NYCB), is the inaugural Lida Orzeck Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Barnard. Now artistic director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Johnson was a founding member and principal dancer with the company for more than 20 years.” (audio)
Linda Hopkins, 92, Gospel Star And Tony-Winning Singer-Actress
After a four-decade gospel career (she was discovered by Mahalia Jackson), she began performing on Broadway in such shows as Purlie, Inner City, Me and Bessie (as in Smith), and Black and Blue.
After Smashing Antiquities In Mosul Museum, ISIS Used It As Tax Bureau
“Iraqi troops took the museum back last month from the militants, who left its once-famous collection in a sorry state. … In a basement room under the main exhibition halls, there was a pile of envelopes used to issue orders to pay Islamic tax, one of main sources of funding for the militants. ‘The Islamic State … seeks to levy your duties which were forced by God on the rich people’s money.'”
‘World’s Most Elegant Public Transit Campaign’ Stars Ballet Company
“The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has a new fleet of subway and streetcars, so why not show them off in style? In its latest ad campaign launched late last year, called We Move You, dancers from the National Ballet of Canada run, twirl, and twist their way through empty stations and rail cars with an elegance few riders can match.” (includes video)
Masterpieces In Russian Regional Museums Literally Left Out In The Cold, Displaced By Patriotic Putin Project
“The displays are inspired by an annually updated exhibition called Russia – My History, which was launched in 2013 by Tikhon Shevkunov, a Russian Orthodox bishop who is reportedly close to President Putin. … The presentation is meant to encourage patriotism by offering positive interpretations of Russian and Soviet history. Ivan the Terrible’s bad reputation is presented as a product of Western fake news, for example, and Stalin is credited with restoring the Russian empire.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.11.17
Doin’ It: Museums
In my last couple of posts, I introduced the idea of participatory experiences as being a potentially critical element in the work of arts organizations … In my next two posts I want to focus on examples of both the practice and practitioners of this type of work. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-04-11
Can You Spot the Fake?
The exhibition that Winterthur recently unveiled, Treasures on Trial: The Art and Science of Detecting Fakes, comes at an opportune time. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-04-11
What I learned in El Paso
In the musical part of my visit … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-04-11
Correspondence: About A New Jazz Club
Rifftides reader Arthur Hill writes from somewhere in Oregon:
Yes, Virginia – there is a jazz club in Salem, Oregon, called Christo’s, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-04-11
In The Service Economy, Politeness Is No Longer Enough: Friendliness Is Required, And That Is Not Good
The dateline notwithstanding, this is not a joke article: “emotional labor” is a real phenomenon, much studied by sociologists and behavioral economists, and it can lead to real burnout.
Is A Free, Open, Borderless Internet Too Dangerous – To Itself And To Us?
In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a major address on the worldwide importance of an “internet freedom agenda”; in 2017, one could forgive her for being a bit ambivalent about that. “The internet freedom agenda presumed the benefits of the free flow of information only cut one way: in favor of open societies, values, and ideals. But we’re now seeing that its destabilizing effects cut both ways. And that doesn’t bode well for the borderless internet we enjoy today.” Ben Moskowitz considers the pros and cons.