“The chairman of [ENO], Martyn Rose, will step down from his position on 15 February, reportedly because he believes that a full-time commitment is required to guide the organisation through its £5m drop in Arts Council England funding.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Tony Verna, Who Invented Instant Replay, Dead At 81
“Mr. Verna was directing the Army-Navy football game for CBS Sports in 1963 when he ran the first instant replay on television, changing the way sports were viewed by fans and, over time, refereed by officials. His invention, for which he received no patent or payment, is considered one of the most momentous in sports and entertainment history.”
6.5 Million Sounds Are In Danger, Says British Library In Crowdfunding Pitch
“Collecting sounds is important. The experience of listening to them is as close to time travel as we’ve ever come. From the rare or iconic to the ephemeral and everyday, recordings give a living picture of the world changing around us. … This is urgent: these recordings go back to the late-19th century, and many of the formats on which the sounds were originally captured … are disappearing.”
Inside Philadelphia’s Mummers Parade: Can It Evolve The Way The City Has?
A longtime resident who’d never seen the century-old New Year’s Day spectacle goes behind the scenes with one of the old-line South Philly clubs, meets the new brigades that draw from the city’s growing population of art-minded Millennials, and remarks on some of the parade’s worryingly retrograde elements. (Then she hits the after-party on Two Street.)
Dancing Waters: A Ballet Of Boats On The Mississippi River
Choreographer Patrick Scully, who has already done a similar project in Germany, hopes to get a cast of 100 kayaks, racing sculls, motorboats, paddleboards, and maybe even a barge to perform a work on the river in the Twin Cities this summer. (No sailboats, though.)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.21.15
Engagement Principles: Current Thoughts
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-01-21
New Horizons in Microtonal Neoclassicism
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2015-01-21
Excited audience
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-01-20
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Brian Blessed Collapses While Playing King Lear – Then Comes Back And Finishes The Show
“The 78-year-old had just begun his lines at the start of the Shakespearean tragedy when he fainted, falling off a raised platform with his crown rolling to a halt at the front of stage.” After being examined by a doctor in the audience and 20 minutes of rest, Blessed returned to the stage, apologized, and started over again.
Broadway Has No Room Anymore For Shows That Are Merely Good
“How do you tell somebody who’s going to spend anywhere from $175 to $500 or more, per ticket, for a show, how do you tell them ‘It’s so-so, but you can’t miss this performance’? … Unless you come out of the theater saying ‘I have to tell everybody I know they must see this show,’ the show is going to die.”
The Woman Who Made Playboy A Literary Outlet, Alice K. Turner, Dead At 75
“While not known most widely for its literary fiction, Playboy was for many years one of the few mainstream monthlies that published ambitious short stories. Ms. Turner became fiction editor in 1980 and guarded that tradition, shepherding works by John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Bob Shacochis and other acclaimed writers into pages better known for Playmates and other pinups.”
Yoko Nagae Ceschina, 82, Japanese-Italian Countess And Classical Music’s Fairy Godmother
A young Japanese harpist who went to Venice to study and met and married a wealthy nobleman, she spent her adult life discreetly but lavishly funding major performers and institutions – and sometimes taking personal care of them.