And they do – more, oddly, than on screen, let alone in real life. Peter Libbey looks at the reason profanity packs the punch it does (and when it doesn’t) – from The Mother****** with the Hat to Jerry Springer – The Opera, where even God curses.
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Much Of Art Conservators’ Work Should Be Visible?
The question arose (again) with the $450 million sale of da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi after former Met Museum director Thomas Campbell posted an image of the painting pre-conservation on Instagram. Ben Luke looks at the issues – and at four Old Master paintings said to have suffered conservation “indignities” in the past.
Reddit Has Harbored Some Of The Very Worst Of The Web – Here’s What It’s Doing To Clean Out The Filth
Andrew Marantz meets the co-founder/CEO of the fourth-most-visited website in the United States, looks at just what it took for the company to move past free-speech absolutism, and how the staff finds the bad stuff and decides whether or not to get rid of it. (He also watches the heartening results of a Reddit social experiment.)
The Issues Dance Companies *Really* Need To Fix, Per The Readers Of Dance Magazine
Jennifer Stahl: “The bottom line: Readers agree it’s time to hold directors accountable, particularly to make sure that dancers are being paid fairly. But the good news is that change is already happening. Here are some of the most intriguing ideas you shared via comments, email and social media.”
Groups Press NPR To Release Investigative Report By Journalist Who Left In Harassment Scandal
“Peace Corps alumni and drug safety organizations are calling on NPR to immediately air an investigation by Daniel Zwerdling, a veteran reporter who left the network last month after facing sexual harassment allegations. The two-part report on the anti-malarial drug mefloquine had been scheduled to air in late November.”
Cooper Union Will Go Back To Free Tuition – Over Ten Years
“Cooper Union has a plan to gradually move back to free tuition for undergraduates over the next 10 years, reversing course from a controversial 2014 decision to start charging. Scholarships could begin increasing in two years … Costs to students will be bought down in increasing amounts over time as administrators find ways to pay for tuition by cutting costs and raising money.”
James Levine Sues Metropolitan Opera For Defamation And Breach Of Contract
Just three days after the company fired the conductor for “sexually abusive and harassing conduct,” Levine has filed a legal action for more than $5.8 million. “It was only upon learning that the allegations would be published in the press,” argues the filing, “that the Met and Gelb, cynically hijacking the good will of the #MeToo movement, brazenly seized on these allegations as a pretext to end a longstanding personal campaign to force Levine out of the Met and cease fulfilling its legally enforceable financial commitments to him.”
There’s Another New Banksy In NYC (This One Planned), And It’s In Support Of A Political Prisoner
“The anonymous British artist’s 70-foot-long mural was unveiled on Thursday, and it protests the imprisonment of the Turkish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan, who was sentenced last March for painting the destruction of a Turkish [Kurdish] town, with the country’s flag flying over rubble.”
There’s No Problem At All With Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Working Culture, Investigation Finds
“The review was commissioned amid speculation of a poor working culture at the [company] after it was reported close to half of the 36 dancers it employed were leaving, and not all by choice, at the end of 2017. The substance of any specific allegations made or the responses to them were not within the scope of the review, which looked more at how complaints had been managed and its general working policies.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.15.18
The Big Crack
The vintage-candy vault is a Brooklyn cliché, like stoop ball, stickball, new pink Spaldings (Spawl-DEENS) down the grate. … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2018-03-15
Bill Frisell And Brad Mehldau: Alone
Their recording histories encompass dozens of collaborations, but in their new albums two of the most prolific recording artists in modern music go it alone. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-15
Mieczyslaw Weinberg on Film
Is Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) a third Soviet composer to set beside Shostakovich and Prokofiev? An increasing number of musicians seem to think so, including the peerless Latvian-born violinist Gidon Kremer, himself a product of Soviet training. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-03-15
Beware the Eve of the Ides of March
Today is the Ides of March, so I should have known better than to go to a performance yesterday of Julius Caesar at London’s new theatre, The Bridge. Remember, it was on … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2018-03-15