Scott Timberg: “Since his lifetime achievement citation from the National Book Awards in 2003 – which saw some resistance from the literary world that is harder to imagine now – he … [is] now a solid citizen in the literary world, which seems to satisfy King and also make the literary establishment feel populist. It’s a transition that’s hard to imagine bestselling peers like Dean Koontz or Jackie Collins making.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How An 18th-Century Philosopher Helped Solve My Midlife Crisis
Alison Gopnik: “Turning 50 and becoming bisexual and Buddhist did seem far too predictable – a sort of Berkeley bat mitzvah, a standard rite of passage for aging Jewish academic women in Northern California.” Then she discovered David Hume.
New York In The ’70s Was A Total Mess – Why Is The Culture Suddenly Acting Nostalgic For It?
“Recently there’s been, in TV and film and certainly in books, an intense yearning for a specific five-year period in New York City, those years between the blackout in 1977, and 1982, when AIDS was finally named by the Centers for Disease Control. … Collectively, these works express a craving for the city that, while at its worst, was also more democratic: a place and a time in which, rich or poor, you were stuck together in the misery (and the freedom) of the place, where not even money could insulate you.”
A Dance Company Becomes Taiwan’s Leading Symbol Abroad
Forty-two years after its founding, Cloud Gate Dance Theater “has become a roving, bounding symbol of this island. … If you travel on China Airlines, Taiwan’s flagship carrier, you may even fly on the Cloud Gate Liveried Aircraft, adorned with dancers’ likenesses. The airline unveiled it last year, saying the troupe represented the ‘pinnacle of Taiwan culture.'”
Ballet Company Becomes Collateral Damage In Quebec Teachers’ Labor Dispute
Ballet Ouest de Montréal has had to cancel almost half (so far) of its December Nutcracker performances for school groups – which make up a hefty part of its income – because teachers staging a work-to-rule action are refusing to supervise field trips and extracurricular groups.
Where Microaggressions Really Come From
Jonathan Haidt looks at “a most extraordinary paper” by two sociologists who argue that Western societies moved from being “cultures of honor” to “cultures of dignity” in the 18th and 19th centuries – and are now in transition to a new “culture of victimhood” – one with striking similarities of the culture of honor.
A Crowd-Sourced Instrument For Objectively Scoring The Level Of Evil (Is Such A Thing Possible?)
“For the last decade, forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner has led a curious, self-funded effort to create something he calls the Depravity Standard … But can a scientist really define the outer edges of our morality?”
Ángel Corella Brings Two More Stars To Pennsylvania Ballet
Kyra Nichols, long one of Balanchine’s muses at New York City Ballet, and former ABT and City Ballet primcipal Charles Askegard (who is also Mr. Candace “Sex in the City” Bushnell), have joined the company as ballet masters.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.14.15
The change continues
I used to call it the decline of classical music – the aging, shrinking audience, the mounting financial woes. But now I’d rather call it the change. The old ways fade, becoming unsustainable. read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-09-14
A Delectable Selection of Native American Art, With Just One Problem
If you read my last post, about thematic exhibition cooperation among museums, you know I was in Santa Fe recently. But why was I in Santa Fe – that’s another story, one that resulted in a review … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-09-13
Monday Recommendation: A Garner Classic Made Whole
Erroll Garner’s heroic 1955 concert will be released this week in its entirety for the first time. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-09-14
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‘How One Of America’s Last Free Colleges Screwed Its Students And Betrayed Its Legacy’ – Felix Salmon On Cooper Union
“Cooper Union would have been better governed by a stinking pile of rotting horseflesh. Horses, dead or alive, don’t happily sign away the very thing they are being charged with protecting.