Peter Phillips: “Spending millions on desperate experiments has become a habit of mind. It is the last of the patrician gestures in which our system of public sponsorship will allow an educated (sort of) elite to impose its preferences on everyone else. … [Why is] this whopping imposition on our pockets tolerable in the first place?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Atlanta Ballet Chooses New Artistic Director
“Gennadi Nedvigin, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, traveled halfway around the world and spent half a lifetime preparing for his next major debut – in a role he might not have taken, if it hadn’t been for a remarkable experience with dancers of Atlanta Ballet.”
Picasso’s Daughter Loses In Court Battle Over Bust Of Marie-Thérèse
“The court on Wednesday ordered Maya Widmaier-Picasso, who is 80 and a Paris resident, to pay 25,000 euros, about $28,000, in court costs to the Qatari [royal] family’s representative.” The Al-Thanis are in an ownership dispute with dealer Larry Gagosian over the sculpture, which was evidently sold twice.
We’re Using A Totally Bogus Standard To Judge The Success Of Musicals
“Where once a musical running one or two years would have been a great success, that achievement has now been devalued. The 1989 production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love was the first time I heard the expression ‘West End failure’ applied to a show that had, in fact, run a very credible 1,325 performances but was being compared to Lloyd Webber’s previous musical, The Phantom of the Opera.”
Met Opera Selects Architects To Fix Its Dysfunctional Lobby
“Provided it can raise the funds and get public approvals, the Met hopes to make its Lincoln Center building more welcoming by improving the cramped lobby – which the building’s [original] architect … was forced to scale back on to save money 50 years ago.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.25.16
Who Said That? Artistic Inspirations
I happened to be in Florida recently, where I visited the Norton Museum of Art, where there’s a lot going on. Just now I want to mention one delightful little touch. Along the staircases between … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-02-25
Black History Month (3) — “And They Lynched Him on a Tree”
An oratorio about lynching! About one of the great horrors of American history. Premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1940. And now, as far as I can see, largely forgotten, though there’s a … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-02-25
Javon Jackson On Coltrane At PDX
With the 2016 Portland Jazz Festival built around the legacy of John Coltrane (1926-1967), Javon Jackson’s appearances were reminders of his tenor saxophone hero’s lasting impact on the music. In a Winningstad Theatre concert, Jackson … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-25
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Happy Poor People: What Kids Learn About Class From Hollywood
A team of sociologists “took the 32 G-rated films that, as of January 1, 2014, had grossed more than $100 million, and that included a character who had a social class (Bambi, for example, did not), … and watched the films carefully to get a sense of which messages about class they communicated.”
Psychopathic, Narcissistic Machiavellians – What Makes Con Artists Tick
“So wherein lies the truth: Is the con artist psychopath, narcissist, Machiavellian? A little bit of all? It is possible, it turns out, to possess all the tenets of the dark triad, and then some, and still not turn to con artistry.”
Glowing Brick Wall Or Mountain Of Ice Cubes? Here’s What This Summer’s Serpentine Pavilion Will Look Like
“In the hands of … Bjarke Ingels and his firm BIG, it won’t be any old brick wall. It’s a wall that will be stretched open and hollowed out, its oversized fibreglass bricks stacked up to form a paraboloid enclosure that will taper high above the park, transforming from a bulging cave to a slender screen as it undulates across the lawn.”
Where Do You Draw the Line Between Commercial and Literary Fiction?
James Parker: “I draw it up the side of the Boston Public Library. I draw it through the middle of Stephen King’s wallet. I draw it right between the frontal lobes of every writer who ever lived.”
Rivka Galchen: “Maybe Commercial Fiction is really great, or maybe it’s great the way a Dorito is great, but Commercial Fiction is in some way consonant with the market. … If, though, we didn’t have the term Literary to protect books of value that ¬aren’t brilliant as commerce, then we would have Melville’s Omoo and Typee but not Moby-Dick.”