“The classic film was first shown 75 years ago. Since then, there have been many interpretations, from religious allegory to an acid trip. BBC Culture picks out five of the most interesting readings of L Frank Baum’s modern fairy tale.” (includes video clips)
Author: Matthew Westphal
14 Artists Who Are Transforming The Future Of Opera
“The artists below are some of our favorite opera innovators, toying with non-linear narratives, unusual instruments and new media, to name a few. Some take inspiration from subject matter we’d never expect to see on an opera stage, from gentrification to bad shroom trips to Milli Vanilli.” Some you may know of – composer David T. Little (Dog Days, the upcoming JFK), “electrodiva” Pamela Z – others, you will. (includes video clips)
A Place Beyond Words: The Literature Of Alzheimer’s
“As baby boomers approach their seventies and Alzheimer’s disease becomes increasingly commonplace, more and more fiction writers are attempting to reach into that obscure space. … Because the full, internal experience of Alzheimer’s is an account that fiction alone can deliver, … [this is a good time] to reassess the burgeoning genre and determine what its writers can and can’t tell us.”
Art Isn’t *Only* For Art’s Sake; Politics Is There, But It Isn’t *Everything*
Alex Ross, responding to Jed Perl: “To debate whether politics is always present or always absent is to play a parlor game irrelevant to the complex, ever-shifting reality in which both artists and their audiences reside. … Ultimately, I cannot forget the historical context. But forgetting is not essential to a full and passionate engagement with the music.” Ross takes as examples the much argued-over Richards, Wagner and Strauss.
Deaccessioning: The Ethics For Art Dealers
“If someone helps another person commit a crime, he’s an accessory to the illegal act and probably guilty of an infraction.” But if an art museum commits the ethics violation of selling off art for operating money, is the dealer who handles the sale doing anything wrong?
Just Watching “Jersey Shore” Could Turn You Into A Jerk (Annals Of Suggestibility Research)
“[The study] finds watching ‘reality shows’ of that variety, in which cast members habitually attack or undermine their rivals, appears to raise the aggression level of viewers. What’s more, this effect is more pronounced than it is for watching violent fictional crime dramas.”
Louisville Ballet Names New Artistic Director
The choice is 38-year-old former Australian Ballet principal Robert Curran. “‘Robert always talked about meeting patrons where they are,’ said the company’s board president, Joel Stone.”
L.A. County November Election Will Include Arts Funding Measure
The ballot measure concerns “whether to absorb $23 in annual per-parcel property taxes over the next 30 years for improvements to parks and cultural facilities within them as well as recreational facilities, beaches and wildlife areas. If the required two-thirds supermajority says yes, the county would have $53 million each year to spend for all those purposes combined.” Most major arts venues in L.A. County are technically within parks.
What Do We Really Learn From Teaching Apes Language? Inside The Strange World Of Koko The Gorilla And Kanzi The Bonobo
“Koko is perhaps the most famous product of an ambitious field of research, one that sought from the outset to examine whether apes and humans could communicate. … But no new studies have been launched in years, and the old ones are fizzling out. A behind-the-scenes look at what remains of this research today reveals a surprisingly dramatic world of lawsuits, mass resignations, and dysfunctional relationships between humans and apes.”
Jane Austen Used Pins To Edit Her Manuscripts
“Before the word processor, before Whiteout, before Post-It Notes, there were straight pins. Or, at least that’s what Jane Austen used to make edits in one of her rare manuscripts.” Have a look.