Here’s a Flash Mob video featuring a huge number of Muscovites having more fun than may be legal in Russia, dancing to the most joyous and metrically challenging song Irving Berlin ever composed. – Doug Ramsey
Author: Matthew Westphal
ABC Needs To Stop Trying To Trim The Oscars Broadcast And Embrace Its Oscarness
“If you paid any attention at all to the run-up to this year’s Academy Awards, you might reasonably think the ceremony’s producers and network wish they didn’t have to do the damn thing at all. … ABC learning the wrong damn lesson from the Super Bowl is depressing, because that quintessential Live! Television! Event! offers so much more guidance on which way to go with Hollywood’s big night.” – Flavorwire
New York City Ballet Moves To Get Alexandra Waterbury’s #MeToo Lawsuit Against It Dismissed
“‘Finlay’s sexual relations with (Waterbury) were not even remotely connected to his employment as a dancer for the Ballet,’ declared the court documents filed Wednesday. ‘Indeed, Plaintiff does not and could not allege that anything about Finlay’s job as a dancer required him to engage in a sexual relationship with her. … Even if the Ballet knew that Finlay had engaged in [‘partying and alcohol use’], they hardly suggest knowledge of a propensity for the distribution of intimate photographs alleged in the Complaint.'” – New York Daily News
The Leviathan Of Piano Concertos
“At over seventy minutes, [Busoni’s Piano Concerto of 1904] may be the longest concerto ever written for any instrument. It may also be the most challenging. It demands nearly superhuman stamina and virtuosity of its soloist, who plays almost continuously throughout and whose part is fiendishly difficult.” – New York Review of Books
Art Acne: When Paintings Develop Pimples
“These are happening on works of art throughout the generations — since oil paint was created,” says a Smithsonian conservator. They’ve appeared on paintings ranging from Rembrandt to van Gogh to Chagall to O’Keeffe. Turns out they’re made of soap — and no, that’s not because anyone has tried to wash the canvases. – Smithsonian Magazine
Publishers Fight Libraries Over Scanning Books
“If you thought the controversy over library book scanning ended with the Google case, think again. This week the National Writers Union became the latest organization to join the outcry over a practice known as “controlled digital lending” (CDL), by which a library (or a nonprofit, like the Internet Archive) scans a print copy of a book they have legally acquired, then makes the scan available to be borrowed in lieu of the print book, using a DRM-protected one user/one copy model, and, crucially, taking the corresponding print book out of circulation while the digital copy is on loan.” – Publishers Weekly
Ex-Professor Sues ACT For Racial Discrimination
Stephen Buescher, former head of movement for the San Francisco theater’s MFA program and choreographer for several of its mainstage productions, says that he was underpaid for his work and denied access to the building on several occasions, along with other factors that “created a hostile, discriminatory work environment for him and for other employees and students of color.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Breakdancing Could Become An Olympic Sport
“The head of the planning committee for the Paris 2024 games, Tony Estanguet, announced today that break dancing was one of the four new proposed events. Its inclusion is contingent upon approval from the International Olympic Committee, which is expected to make a decision after the conclusion of the Tokyo 2020 games.” – Dance Magazine
Ken Nordine, Creator Of ‘Word Jazz’, Dead At 98
“You may never have heard the Ken Nordine name, but there is no doubt you have heard him. … [He was] one of the few people in the history of radio to use the medium to its fullest potential, rather than as a forum for blather, confrontation, inanities and noisy nonsense. He made a kind of vocal music as the voice of thousands of commercials and as the force behind a new art form he created and called ‘word jazz.'” – Chicago Tribune
Of Artists In Major U.S. Museums, 85% Are White And 78% Are Male: Study
“Researchers examined more than 40,000 artworks in the collections of 18 museums across the US, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago, to analyze the gender and ethnic diversity of their holdings.” – Artnet