“There are many pleasures to vacuum cleaning, and then sometimes there’s rug rage.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.13.15
Slinging the Art-Market Lingo: A Crash Course for Confused Journalists
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-05-13
Christie’s Maintains Contemporary-Art Dominance with $658.53-Million Sale
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-05-13
When Humor Misfires: Warren Buffett Edition
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-05-13
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Three Women And A Housing Project Are Finalists For 2015 Turner Prize
The housing project, a Liverpool complex revamped by the young architecture collective called Assemble, is joined on the shortlist by a study room, a chamber opera, and fur coats sewn onto Marcel Breuer chairs.
Picasso’s Stepdaughter Has Paris Dealer Arrested For Trying To Steal Her Picassos
“Catherine Hutin-Blay, the only daughter of Picasso’s second wife Jacqueline, … believes that some of the works the art dealer was hired to transport have gone missing. Prosecutors would not say which works were involved nor give their estimated value.”
How Sex On TV Began Resembling Sex In Real Life (With All The Awkwardness And Miscommunication)
“Critics debate whether we’ve passed the golden age of television defined by shows like The Sopranos and The Wire and if new TV dramas will live up to those classics. One thing is certain though: We are in a new age of sex on TV. TIME spoke to six of the showrunners who are taking sex seriously.” (includes video)
Brooklyn’s Hipster Mecca Gets A Classical Music Venue
“A long-discussed plan to turn a disused sawdust factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn into a venue for classical and contemporary music appears to be now taking shape. Organizers of the 13,000-square-foot space on Friday announced plans to open this October with a program of ‘genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices.’ The venue is to be called National Sawdust, and will host, among other performances, three concerts of the New York Philharmonic’s Contact! series.”
Will Philadelphia’s Next Mayor Pay Attention To The Arts, Which Have Led The City’s Renaissance?
“Like a prospector who discovers a gold mine then watches others pull riches from it, the Philadelphia arts and culture community has been looking around and wondering when its turn will come. Center City is a boomtown, its vibrant street life and desirable real estate in large part a consequence of arts pioneers taking a chance on new facilities and expanded missions more than two decades ago.”
Soprano Montserrat Caballé Fails To Attend Court For Tax Evasion Sentence
Always notorious for cancelling, the diva missed a hearing to ratify the plea deal that would allow her to avoid jail time for defrauding the Spanish government of €500,000 in taxes owed. Her attorney, fed up, dropped her as a client over the weekend. (in English)
Defendant Loses First Round Of Lawsuits Over Collapse Of Broadway ‘Rebecca’
“That publicist, Marc Thibodeau, who had been hired to help bring to Broadway the gothic musical based on the Daphne du Maurier novel, had sent foreboding emails under phony names to a potential investor and his lawyers, warning that the show’s producers had been tricked by a fraud scheme.”
In Defense Of The Negative Book Review: Can Hatchet Jobs Build Strong Literary Culture?
“The language of marketing is that of ‘appreciation,’ and if literary critics adopt appreciation as their primary mode, they have not achieved critical distance from market interests. … The reviewer must be allowed to retain the option of proclaiming some books superior to others in the canon; if this right is denied her, then reviewing has become an extension of marketing, and she has lost credibility.”