At issue is a digital artwork showing an image of the Virgin Mary: press a button and it shatters. (The artist says the piece is about iconoclasm.)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Milt Okun, Record Producer Who Crossed Folk With Pop And Changed The Record Industry, Dead At 92
He produced and promoted everyone from Peter, Paul and Mary through Laura Nyro and John Denver (and Plácido Domingo – Okun was the man behind their duet) to the Black-Eyed Peas and will.i.am.
Merce Cunningham Trust Names New Executive Director
Ken Tabachnick, who began his career as a lighting designer, is currently a consultant and has previously worked as Deputy Dean at NYU’s Tisch School, dean of the School of the Arts at SUNY-Purchase and General Manager of New York City Ballet.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.17.16
Kenneth Clark’s Response to Crisis
During World War II, in London’s bleak days, Kenneth Clark acted, as the review of his biography by James Stourton in today’s New York Times reminds us. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-11-16
Creativity and joy — “I could create the career I wanted”
Sarah Robinson, co-chair of the L.A. branch of Classical Revolution, remembers seeing her first CR event: “It was like I had spent 10 years banging my head against a door that would never open [honing her flute technique, auditioning for orchestra jobs], only to look around and realize that there were no walls. I could just walk outside and create the career that I wanted.” … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-11-16
Faddis and Beiderbecke
Thanks to Seattle bassist Bren Plummer for calling our attention to a short video of trumpeter Jon Faddis getting acquainted with Bix Beiderbecke’s horn. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-11-16
How Big Was Leonard Cohen’s Impact On Popular Music? Even Bigger Than You Thought
Scott Timberg follows the trail, from Cohen’s discovery by Judy Collins and then Fairport Convention through Gen X grunge and alt-rock up to today.
China In The Years Before Mao, Where They Were Slingin’ The Jokes Left And Right
“China in the early 20th century, my book’s focus,” says historian Christopher Rea (whose book, says the Times, is “hilarious”), “was, to put it mildly, a rough and tumble place. But it fostered a whole industry of mirth populated with cultural figures from hack jokesters to respectable writers slumming it as humorists.”
How Two Brothers Created And Spread The First Alphabet For A Language Spoken By 40 Million People
For several centuries, people have tried to write Fulani – which is spoken across a huge swath of West Africa, from Senegal to Cameroon – with adaptations of the Arabic and Latin alphabets, neither of which can properly represent Fulani’s sounds; neither ever fully caught on. So Fulani remained mostly a spoken language, its speakers taking their school classes in French or English. In 1990, two Guinean teenagers developed a new script, and they’ve spent a quarter-century spreading it.
They Took Notes For Other People That They Found Lying Around And Made Them Into A Musical
It all started when Davy Rothbart (you may remember him from This American Life – he’s the guy who scalped Chicago Bulls tickets and took his deaf mother to a faith healer in Brazil) found a note on his windshield that said, ‘Mario, I [bleeping] hate you. You said you had to work then whys your car HERE at HER place? You’re a [bleeping] LIAR[.] I hate you I [bleeping] hate you[.] Amber. p.s. page me later.”
If You Let Someone Hypnotize You, Do You Give Up Control Of Yourself? No – Rather The Opposite
Science writer Erik Vance gives a brief history of hypnotism (back to Dr. Mesmer and before), explains the neuroscience if hypnosis and what it can and can’t do, and recounts his own attempts to hypnotize a friend.
Classical And Pop Music Produce Different Responses In The Brain, Say Researchers
The way they’re putting this may not go over so well with some folks, though: “‘This study gives clear neuronal evidence supporting the view that artistic music is of intelligence, while popular music is of physiology,’ writes a team of researchers led by Ping Huang of South China Normal University in Guangzhou.”