“A Belgrade-based writer, Jelena Bogavac, has now written a play to be performed by Kosovo Serbs in the Kosovo town of Gracanica that attempts to portray the full complexity of a man still blamed by many across the Balkans for the deaths and suffering of tens of thousands of people.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.23.18
Be What You Are
This is part of a series, introduced in Baby Steps, about arts organizations’ initial efforts in community engagement. The premises are twofold. First, since relationship building is the core of community engagement, attempting to do … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-01-23
Hugh Masakela Has Died
Hugh Masakela, a hero of African popular music and an inspirational fighter against discrimination, died today in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 78. Masakela’s rapid ascent to fame in the 1950s led … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-01-23
How USC’s Film School Handled It When A $5 Million Gift From Harvey Weinstein Became Radioactive
Last year, Weinstein announced that he would donate $5 million to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts to endow scholarships for female filmmaking students. When his years of sexual misconduct became public, the gift became a problem; one USC student said in a petition, “We don’t need this money. What we need is some damn principles.” Mike Scutari looks at how the school responded and the implications of its decision.
Jack Whitten, Abstract Painter And Sculptor Discovered Late In Life, Dead At 78
“As with many painters whose style matured during the late 1960s and early ’70s, Whitten’s career wasn’t widely recognized until the past few years. But today, when Whitten’s visually seductive paintings appear in major museum shows, it has become difficult to imagine a history of abstract painting without his work.”
A Theatre Critic Reviews The NFL Season’s Best Touchdown Celebrations
Nelson Pressley: “Victory rituals have been part of football for decades. … But this season’s repertory ensembles are different from the soloists who have historically commanded the end zone, from Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson and his Funky Chicken to Ickey Woods … doing his light-footed soft shoe known as the ‘Ickey Shuffle.’ … Three Kansas City Chiefs performed a potato sack race. Five Detroit Lions formed a boisterous (if bulky) Rockettes-style kickline. Flocks of Philadelphia Eagles danced the Electric Slide.”
Cellist Pulls Out Of New Concerto Premiere With Three Days’ Notice, And L.A. Phil Comes Up With Daring Solution
“There are said to be only three [other] cellists on the planet who have played [Bernd Alois] Zimmermann’s incredibly demanding concerto, all in Europe. I’m not sure any other orchestra would have dared, or even could have dared, to go on. But management turned to three local musicians with exceptional new music chops – L.A. Phil associate cellist Ben Hong, Calder Quartet cellist Eric Byers and Lyris Quartet cellist Timothy Loo – to divide the solo part. They got their scores Wednesday morning. Rehearsals were Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.” And, writes Mark Swed, they were “utterly convincing.
‘I Am Not A Prophet,’ Says Margaret Atwood
“Let’s get rid of that idea right now. Prophecies are really about now. In science fiction it’s always about now. What else could it be about? There is no future. There are many possibilities, but we do not know which one we are going to have.” (That said, she’s “sorry to have been so right.”)
Should I Take My Daughter To See Opera, Where Terrible Things Happen To Women?
Actually, yes. “Asked if she wanted to copy Gilda’s supremely self-sacrificing approach to romance, your correspondent’s daughter replied: ‘No, the opera made it quite clear that people who act like Gilda end up shanked and in a bag.'”
Listening To Classical Music Every Day Saved My Sanity, And It Can Save Yours
Freelance writer, BBC Radio 3 presenter, and mother of a toddler Clemency Burton-Hill: “It turned out that, when I converted my listening habits into a conscious daily ritual, I began to feel less anxious almost immediately. I curated myself monthly classical playlists with a specific piece for each day. Getting on the Tube and pressing play, instead of automatically being sucked into a social media scroll hole, seemed to be spiritually stabilising. I began to look disproportionately forward to it. And it occurred to me that, if I could benefit in such a meaningful way from this small but powerful act of soul maintenance, so might others.”
Long Wharf Theatre’s Artistic Director Accused Of Sexual Assault And Harassment
Four women have gone on the record describing persistent unwanted sexual contact by Gordon Edelstein. “Six other former employees, women and men, described frequent sexually explicit remarks in the workplace.” Several current and former Long Wharf employees say that other officers and board members had been alerted to Edelstein’s behavior.