“Last month, the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, unveiled a cache of antiquities seized from a Roman property developer. The objects, which include two Greek vases as well as a bull’s and a horse’s head, both in terracotta, are worth €900,000, the Carabinieri’s cultural protection squad says. … But when we sent this picture to five independent experts, all of them questioned the objects’ authenticity. Although the specialists said they could not offer a definitive opinion based on a photograph, all of them expressed grave doubts.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A New American History Prize In Honor Of David McCullough
“Looking ahead to its 300th anniversary year in 2024, Philadelphia’s Carpenters’ Company” – to this day the city’s union guild for carpenters – “has announced it will inaugurate the David McCullough Prize for Excellence in American Public History, to be awarded annually starting next year.”
India’s First Trans-Led Dance Company
There’s a long tradition in India of intersex and trans women called hijras who show up at weddings and other celebrations and dance for money. Except for those special occasions, however, hijras are severely marginalized in Indian society, and many must turn to begging or sex work to survive. But one group in Mumbai has banded together to create a performing company called Dancing Queens. Reporter Priti Salian meets them.
You’ve Heard Of K-Pop, Now Meet K-Drama: South Korea Exports Its Version Of Telenovelas
“‘The industry’s tripled in size since the early 2000s,'” says [producer] Ma Jung-hoon. … ‘Half of our income comes from international sales.” Says an American executive who distributes K-drama, “I think that the format of Korean dramas is very digestible. So instead of having these long, 20-episode, multi-series shows like we have in the US and other parts of the world, Korean dramas are [up to] 16 episodes. That’s it, you only have one season.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.19.18
Two-Phase Engagement
Community engagement practitioners are frequently asked to justify their work using traditional arts marketing/development metrics: ticket sales and donations. Don’t get ahead of me. This is not a touchy-feely objection to practical outcomes. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-06-19
The Crossing’s Month of Moderns : A masterwork is born
The great but tragic American poet Hart Crane (1899-1932) can’t help but exert a magnetic attraction to composers with his fusion of lyricism, modernism and mad, extravagant fantasy. Of course, … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-06-19
Verdi v Shakespeare? Falstaff‘s no contest
Verdi’s Falstaff seems a modern piece to me; despite its première being 1893, it feels as musically up-to-date as say, Puccini’s 1926 Turandot. Verdi knew what was up in music. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2018-06-19
El Paso, Kurt Weill, and Tornillo’s Tent City
Readers of this blog may remember my last filing from El Paso – a “Kurt Weill’s America” festival, part of the NEH-supported “Music Unwound” consortium I direct, that ignited a week of discussion and … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-06-19
Check Out These Jokes From ‘The Simpsons’ That Never Made It On Air
In an excerpt from his book Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for ‘The Simpsons’, writer/producer/showrunner Mike Reiss shares a few of the bits that were just too weird even for this show (or that didn’t make the cut just by happenstance).
Previously Unknown Footage Of Rudolf Nureyev Found
The 16 minutes of film, incorporated into a new documentary by filmmaker Jacqui Morris, features Nureyev choreographing his version of Nutcracker and dancing in contemporary works.
Inside The Latest Expansion At Gibney, New York’s Dance Hub
“It’s a performance venue, a dance company, a rehearsal space, an internship possibility — a Rubik’s Cube of resources bundled into two sites at 280 and 890 Broadway. And in March of this year, Gibney (having officially dropped ‘Dance’ from its name) announced a major expansion of its space and programming; it now operates a total of 52,000 square feet, 23 studios and five performance spaces across the two locations.”
The ‘Trolley Problem’, The Famous Philosophy Thought Experiment, May Be Bogus
Daniel Engber: “Scientists use versions of the kill-one-to-save-five hypothetical, reworded and reframed for added nuance, as a standard way to probe the workings of the moral mind. … But if the answers to those questions don’t connect to real behavior” – and some new research indicates that they don’t – “then where, exactly, have these trolley problems taken us?”
Britten’s ‘Rape Of Lucretia’, Staged With A Man Playing Lucretia And A Woman Playing The Rapist
“Directed by Kip Williams, this particular production … comes from Sydney Chamber Opera and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the performers and artistic directors are all aged in their 20s and 30s. They found one way around the gender problems of the text by reversing the roles of men and women in many scenes, including the rape scene.”