Author: Matthew Westphal

The Snopes Of Musicology? No, Linda Shaver-Gleason Has Been Much More Than That

“Since 2016, California musicologist Linda Shaver-Gleason has been using [her] site” — called Not Another Music History Cliché! — “to compile a clear-eyed and level-headed accounting of the ways in which the conventional wisdom about classical music (like conventional wisdom in all walks of life) consistently leads us astray.” Alas, as Joshua Kosman writes, she’s leaving all too much unfinished. – San Francisco Chronicle

Progress In Hollywood: Number Of Female Directors Hits All-Time High, But Women Remain Rare In Other Behind-The-Scenes Jobs

“Examining the 1,300 top films from 2007 through to 2019, the Annenberg researchers found that on average just 4.8 percent of directors were women, yet that spiked to 10.6 percent in 2019 … [and] 15 percent of the directors of all films released by major companies last year were women, another record. … [But] the latest Celluloid Ceiling report … found that women in key behind-the-scenes jobs were outnumbered four to one by men. That figure remained unchanged from 2018.” – The New York Times

Rome’s Mayor Orders Relocation Of All Souvenir Stalls Near Major Attractions

“Seventeen stalls will be moved from sites including the Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. However, eight of the 17 will still be able to trade on streets away from the monuments, Rome’s authorities said in a notice. [Mayor Virginia] Raggi, who has long pledged to banish the stalls, said the move was intended to protect Rome’s heritage while ensuring safety at its most-visited sites. She said last year that the stalls were sullying the city’s image.” – The Guardian

Governors Of St. Mark’s In Venice Want 6½-Foot Flood Wall In Square

A month after the disastrous flood of November 12, the president of the historic church’s governing body said that the building cannot withstand repeated exposure to salt water it has faced the past two years. He and his colleagues want “to surround the basilica on the side of the square with a two-metre-high Perspex wall and sheet piles sunk four metres deep into the ground.” – The Art Newspaper

In Brazil, Artists And Musicians Are Leading The Resistance To Bolsonaro

“‘We can’t become anaesthetised and think, ‘Oh, he won [the election]. There’s nothing we can do,” said [Edu] Krieger, who has written songs for some of Brazil’s most celebrated female voices. ‘At least through our music we can pester them a bit and make some noise. This is the most efficient kind of resistance we can mount right now … We can’t just passively accept the kind of situation they are trying to impose.'” – The Guardian

Russia Relaunches Its First (Post-Soviet) International Film Festival

“Titled Kinotavr. Special Edition as a reference to the Russian national festival Kinotavr, … the festival will run for the first time in Moscow from late January through early February. … In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kinotavr had an international competition that featured films by celebrated international directors. The new festival is viewed as a continuation of that effort focused on bringing the best global films to Russian viewers.” – The Hollywood Reporter

How Clyfford Still, For Better And Worse, Kept Iron Control Over The Market For His Paintings

“In 1951, the Abstract Expressionist stopped working with galleries and became his own dealer. He continued to paint for nearly three decades, retaining complete authority over his canvases’ whereabouts: Until his death in 1980 at age 75, no one could purchase a Still on the primary market without going through the artist himself. This was no easy task. Content to live and paint in Maryland, selling the occasional work in order to get by, Still made admirers prove themselves worthy of his art.” – Artsy

Lament For A Shuttered Music School, And For The Too-Rare Opportunity It Offered

“A nonprofit on the East Side that partnered with public schools, the [Turtle Bay Music School] announced in November that it would be forced to close due to a lack of funding. The entire conceit of TBMS, summed up in its ​mission statement​, was that every single person should be able to learn an instrument and enjoy making music. That ‘every single person’ part was key — if you couldn’t afford lessons, tuition assistance could help.” – Gothamist