“Medicine has long separated burnout from depression, qualifying the former as more exhaustion-related rather than a clinical psychological problem characterized by chronic anxiety and feelings of sadness, but a recent study … indicates it might be time for us to rethink that division.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Young People Have Been Getting More Depressed For 80 Years
“Generally speaking, sweepingly pessimistic statements about society should be taken with a grain of salt. … Sometimes, though, there are exceptions. … Ever since the 1930s, young people in America have reported feeling increasingly anxious and depressed. And no one knows exactly why.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.14.16
Worstward Ho! Is That How You Spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E?
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho) The above quote from Beckett’s penultimate novella has become a popular battle cry of enlightened arts leaders. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-14
Lessons from Failure
Failure is one of our key opportunities to learn from experience. In many respects, we learn more from our failures, those efforts that did not work, than we do from … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-14
“Unfinished” Business: Reflections As the Met Breuer Opens to Public
In my experience, whenever a critic writes a review, some observations have to be left out. There’s no room; they don’t fit thematically without great, leaping transitions, or some other reason intrudes. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-14
No more pocket versions of To Kill A Mockingbird
The estate of Harper Lee has decided to end its relationship with Hachette publishers, which was licensed through HarperCollins to produce a mass-market paperback edition of To Kill A Mockingbird. HarperCollins will continue to produce … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-03-14
All in the acting
You might think someone who had spent a hefty proportion of their evenings in the theatre, at the movies, in front of TV dramas or news broadcasts of politicians might have a few ideas … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-03-14
Quincy Jones’s Birthday
Quincy Jones turns 83 today. His story has had many chapters since his early days in Seattle and his apprenticeship in Lionel Hampton’s trumpet section. Jones went on to lead an important big band, score … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-14
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Louis Meyers, Co-Founder Of South By Southwest, Dead At 60
“In 1986, Meyers and [Ronald] Swenson were part of an Austin contingent that traveled to the New Music Seminar, a trip that planted the seeds for a New Music Seminar-sponsored convention in Austin the following spring. ‘When the seminar people backed off of doing an event, he and I were the ones who talked (Chronicle editor and publisher) Louis [Black]and Nick [Barbaro] into doing the thing,’ Swenson said.”
The Great Opera Singer Who Was Discovered By Chaliapin, Thrilled London, Disappeared Twice, And Ended Up In Delaware, Forgotten
“Seldom does such a strong, complete vocal personality leap across the decades – full of steely confidence, haunting mystery, and emotional gravity – especially one attached to a name that’s completely unknown. … ‘She had a shimmering quality to her voice … and every note that comes out of her mouth is connected to intent. There’s not one empty note on the entire CD.'”
Sibelius And The Symphony That Never Was
“The gestation of the [8th] symphony may have been long and troubled, but Sibelius had, at various times, referred to his manuscript as ‘brilliant,’ ‘a great work in the making,’ a piece that would have been ‘the reckoning of [his] whole existence.’ For so long, he had had but one desire: to finish the piece before drifting off ‘to the final silence.’ Why, then, did Sibelius destroy such a highly anticipated and promising work? This remains one of the most perplexing questions in all of music history.”
Are These Actual Dancing Machines?
A photographer, a dance company, and a strobe light got together in a studio – and these amazing images are the result.
‘Sex And The City’, West African-Style
“Watching these women enumerate the times they’ve been called fat as a compliment parallels the series’ main strategy: each episode inventories and dramatizes the way the characters negotiate the difficulties they encounter in Accra.”
‘Re-Redicalizing Chekhov’
As playwright Aaron Posner observes, “Since the last 100 years have seen Chekhov imitated by virtually every play, movie and TV show, what was once radical is now clichéd.” Here are seven different approaches to bringing Chekhov’s edge back.
Theatre’s 18th-Century Thunder Machine Rumbles Once More
“The ‘thunder run’ in the British theater’s ceiling is a rare example of cutting-edge Georgian technology that involves balls rolling down a wooden chute to conjure the roar of a tempest.” (includes video)