“Long considered the global capital of cute, Japan is currently experiencing a boom in less-than-cuddly characters … Called kimo-kawaii, translated as ‘gross cute,’ the phenomenon … is part cultural backlash to Japan’s decades-long adorability binge, and part smart marketing tactic.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Finland Is Actually Issuing Tom Of Finland Stamps
Yes, that Tom of Finland, the one world-famous for line-drawings of rough gay erotica. (The stamps will be self-adhesive, so there will be no need to lick them.)
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.15.14
AAMD Tries To Get Tough Re: Delaware Deaccession
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-15
BlogBack: Chris Crosman, Founding Curator of Crystal Bridges, on Museums’ Billboard Barrage
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-15
Family Ties
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-04-15
Time to join the wider world
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-04-15
New Web Resources Everywhere, It Seems
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-04-15
Gearing Up for Record Store Day, and Art “Flipping”
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-04-15
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Inga Saffron Of Philadelphia Inquirer Wins Pulitzer Prize For Criticism
“The Pulitzer committee wrote that Saffron’s writing ‘blends expertise, civic passion, and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise’.”
Annie Baker’s ‘The Flick’ Wins Pulitzer For Drama
A three-hour play “drama that prompted an abundance of head-scratching and some audience walkouts during its off-Broadway run last year,” The Flick “follows the employees of a single-screen movie theater as they clean, converse and otherwise pass the time silently in front of the big screen.”
Donna Tartt’s ‘Goldfinch’, Dan Fagin’s ‘Tom’s River’, Vijay Seshadri’s ‘3 Sections’ Win Lit Pulitzers
Tartt’s novel, Fagin’s general nonfiction work and Seshadri’s volume of poetry were joined by prizewinners Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall (biography) and The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor (history).
Guest Artist With L.A. Phil Collapses And Dies Before Rehearsal
Jeff Dinsmore, of the Philadelphia choir The Crossing, was warming up before a Disney Hall rehearsal for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s upcoming performances of Louis Andriessen’s De Materie when he collapsed and died. Dinsmore was 42.
Fred Ho, 56, Composer, Saxophonist, Activist
“Mr. Ho, who was of Chinese descent, considered himself a ‘popular avant-gardist.’ He was inspired by the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and by the ambitious, powerful music of African-American bandleaders including Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Sun Ra and especially Charles Mingus. But he rejected the word jazz, which he considered a pejorative term imposed by Europeans.”
San Diego Opera Isn’t 100% Doomed (Yet)
“The company’s board of directors met Friday afternoon and voted to keep an April 29 deadline for the opera’s closure. But the board also formed a special committee of six members to explore alternatives to shutting down. … The special committee will focus on the retention of consultants, [the board chair] said, but she didn’t explain the purpose of those consultants.”
L.A. Moves To Unfreeze $7.5M In Frozen Arts Money
The funds, from a levy on developers to pay for public art and/or performance, have been accruing unspent since a 2007 City Attorney ruling that the money had to be spent within one block of the construction that generated it – which, depending on the location, isn’t always realistic.