The show, housed at another Rio museum, the Palace of the House of Money, features fossils found in Antarctica. Eight of the items on display, including a pterodactyl bone, were recovered from the museum’s ashes, the other 152 in the show were borrowed from other collections. — Yahoo! (AFP)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Toronto Venue First Known As O’Keefe Centre Gets Its Fourth Name
Opened in 1960 as the home of the Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet of Canada as well as a venue for rock, jazz and other concerts, the O’Keefe Centre was renamed the Hummingbird Centre in 1996 under a sponsorship deal. After another such deal in 2006, it was called the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Now, thanks to the large credit union of the same name, it will be Meridian Hall — at least through 2034. — Ludwig van Toronto
For MLK Day: Recap of My Visit to the National Museum of African American History & Culture
Visitors who had scored timed entry passes for a Martin Luther King Day pilgrimage to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in DC were out of luck: Its doors remained locked today, due to the federal government shutdown. However, last February, I tweeted about (but never got around to posting on) the NMAAHC … — Lee Rosenbaum
2018 jazz, blues and beyond deaths (with links)
Not a happy post, but a useful one: here are the hundreds of musicians and music industry activists who died in 2018, as compiled by photographer-writer Ken Franckling for the Jazz Journalists Association. — Howard Mandel
Boogie Fever: The Dance Plagues Of Medieval Europe
A widespread belief of the 15th century held that the bite of a tarantula could only be treated by wild, mad dancing; groups of people would be possessed by a compulsion to dance, and towns would pay musicians to play for the sufferers. (Hence the dance called the tarantella.) “In fact, mass epidemics of dancing have afflicted various parts of Europe since the seventh century, breaking out particularly in times of famine, disease, and political unrest.” — JSTOR Daily
The Renoir Family Had Daddy Issues
“The filmmaker Jean Renoir made a career of dismantling the beliefs of his absentee father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Jean satirized the aristocracy and upended his father’s saccharine scenes of leisure.” — The Paris Review
Developing Authentic Disability Theatre, And Bringing It To The Public
“Theatre has the power to help us recognize the social forces that we have created as a society and allows us to envision how we can change them. To incite positive social change and critically alter the way society views differences, voices from the disability community must be included in what we present onstage.” Seattle dramaturg Andrea Kovich, who identifies as disabled, writes about two projects focused on the work of Deaf and disabled playwrights that she recently did with Sound Theatre Company. — HowlRound
Why Is The Font From The Covers Of Old Pulp Novels Suddenly Popular Again?
“In its first era of popularity, [Lydian] was all pop and pulp, but now it seems reserved for the task of adding just the slightest bit of a smirk to extremely straight-faced endeavors: elegant magazines, important books, experimental theater, and $80 ceramic pipes.” — Vox
Yalitza Aparicio, Star Of ‘Roma’, Becomes A Symbol Of, And For, Mexico’s Indigenous Women
“[She and the film have] started a national conversation about inequality, the treatment of domestic workers and who is welcome on the red carpet in a country where Indigenous women are rarely seen in magazines” — she’s now the first indigenous woman ever to appear on the cover of Vogue México — “much less at Hollywood awards shows.” — The New York Times
Nasty, Brutish, And Short: Early Children’s Stories Were Shockingly Violent
“The history of children’s literature is a shocking affair, offering death, murder, abuse, death, racism, death, and damnation. … For most of history, authors have used their words to render children speechless. Some of the books scarred generations; some merely gave their readers insomnia that would last until puberty.” — Literary Hub