“It is grand opera done grandly in an era of budget pressures and challenges in attracting new audiences. To capture the work that goes into a staging that will be performed just eight times this season – an expensive, labor-intensive undertaking that helps explain why the Met’s budget will be almost $300 million this year – James Estrin, a photographer for The New York Times, observed weeks of rehearsals.” (photo journal)
Author: Matthew Westphal
An Oral History Of The World’s Most Important Comedy Club
“Booker Estee Adoram is still formidable, the bathrooms are still awkwardly placed, and the ‘family table’ is still terrifying. Even as much as the Comedy Cellar hasn’t changed over three decades, the talents who got their starts there have transformed the comedy world. Jon Stewart, Colin Quinn, Judy Gold, and more comedians share memories of the cramped basement venue that made their careers, and that they still call home.”
Women-Only Art Shows Are Back
“While some artists are ambivalent about being viewed through the lens of gender, the all-women’s group show, which fell out of favor in the ’80s and ’90s, is flourishing again. At least a dozen galleries and museums are featuring women-themed surveys, a surge curators and gallerists say is shining a light on neglected artists, resuscitating some careers and raising the commercial potential of others.”
Crystal Bridges Museum To Turn Kraft Cheese Plant Into Contemporary Art Center
“The 63,000-square-foot space is intended to function somewhat in the way that MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, serves as an edgier, more experimental affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art. It is expected to open in 2018, … and the location, in downtown Bentonville, [Arkansas,] would not only provide a place to show more contemporary art but would also continue a transformation of the small city.”
The Anti-Celebrity Of Great Pianists
“[He] turns out to have been a poor (and uninterested) self-promoter. … He never entered a major competition. He was uninterested in late Romantic concertos. … His book Piano Notes (2002) remained conspicuously silent about his own career. A mind of insatiable curiosity produced one of the greatest writers about music from any era. No surprise that his pianism was both misunderstood and undervalued.”
When Meryl Streep Got Slapped By Dustin Hoffman (And Won Her First Oscar For It)
“Benton heard the slap and saw Meryl charge into the hallway. We’re dead, he thought. The picture’s dead. She’s going to bring us up with the Screen Actors Guild. Instead, Meryl went on and acted the scene. … As far as she was concerned, she could conjure Joanna’s distress without taking a smack to the face, but Dustin had taken extra measures. And he wasn’t done.”
Could Morris Dancing Become Cool In The 21st Century? (It’s Trying)
“There are some interesting changes afoot within the Morris community as the tradition has adapted to remain relevant in modern times. Among those changes: the inclusion of women, the adoption of Steampunk aesthetics, and the blasting of Guns ‘n’ Roses.”
Actress Patty Duke Dead At 69
Duke, “who won an Oscar at age 16 for her portrayal of Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker but was more known for her bouncy 1960s TV sitcom The Patty Duke Show, … came to fame as a teenager, combining both a masterful talent for dramatic acting with a sunny, all-American image that enchanted both TV and film audiences. But her admirers had no clue about the much-uglier reality of Duke’s childhood.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.29.16
Community Learning
As I discussed in Transformative Engagement, the foundation of successful community engagement is deep understanding of the communities with which an organization is engaging. This body of information – key players, concerns, identity, etc. – is not necessarily common … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-03-29
Darts for Dartmouth: Hood Museum Has Less Moore in Tod Williams Billie Tsien’s Makeover
Win some, lose some: While adding five new galleries and increasing floor space by 50%, the much delayed $50-million expansion and renovation of Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum will be less ambitious than originally planned in … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-29
The Iron Lady at home
A quarter-century after she left office, Thatcher remains one of the most polarizing figures in postwar history. Because of this, … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-03-29
Debasing Culture
In the last decade on several occasions subscribers to Seattle Opera, of which I was the General Director, commented to me that they enjoyed opera, wanted others to experience it, but that it would be … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2016-03-29
Monday Recommendation: 2015 Mack Avenue Superbad
Beginning in 2012, the Detroit Jazz Festival has teamed players of varied backgrounds in all-star bands. At the 2015 festival, thorough preparation resulted not in a typical festival jam … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-29
[ssba_hide]
Jawn – The History Of Philadelphia’s Strangest Word
“The word ‘jawn’ is unlike any other English word. In fact, according to the experts that I spoke to, it’s unlike any other word in any other language. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people. It is a completely acceptable statement in Philadelphia to ask someone to ‘remember to bring that jawn to the jawn.'”