“The dirty secret of poetry is that it is loved by some, loathed by many, and bought by almost no one.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Bullies Of Brutalism
“Those who wish to preserve examples of the the style aren’t simply fighting against indifference, they’re combating avowed foes—antagonists who would gladly take a turn at the wrecking ball—who view sympathy for the style as willful contrarianism of the ‘Bach or Before, Ives or After’ variety, not just divorced from reasonable taste but purposefully set at odds with it.”
Converting To The Cult Of Marina Abramović
“I am mainly struck by what a religious experience it is; I am as sure as I’ve ever been of anything that this would have been what it was like in the earliest days of Christian mysticism. One charismatic, 20 or 30 devoted disciples; maybe 100 people who are ready, respectfully silent, waiting to be convinced.”
How Do We Save The History Of Recorded Sound? Ask An Optical Physicist
“In the scope of human history, the era of recorded sound is a blip—and yet the volume and fragility of what’s been created in that time is overwhelming.”
Semi-Staged Opera Is The Next Big Thing. Is That Good?
“Particularly in smaller cities, some opera companies have drastically cut their offerings or have closed completely, and symphony orchestras want to pick up the slack and vary their programming, while lacking the resources or appropriate hall for a traditional production.”
Guess What? Game Of Thrones Isn’t *Really* Medieval (And Yes, That Matters)
“What Martin actually gives us is a fantasy version of what the historian Alfred Crosby called the Post-Columbian exchange: the globalizing epoch of the 16th and 17th centuries. A world where merchants trade exotic drugs and spices between continents, where professional standing armies can number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, where scholars study the stars via telescopes.”
No, George Lucas, Don’t Put Your Museum In Los Angeles
“The last thing that the home of Hollywood needs is George Lucas’ treacly art collection, which is replete with more positivity than a film feature devoted to Jar Jar Binks.”
When A Music Channel Protects Itself To Death
“Kids do not watch music videos on television. You’re not going to wait for somebody to program a music video when you have a million available on Vevo. That has hurt the channel.”
The Explosively Popular TV Recap Genre Is Fun, But It Could Ruin Criticism
“If you look at the rise of popular criticism since World War II, the trajectory had been an engagement with larger social issues with relation to popular culture. I don’t see recappers doing that now.”
Why Do More Cuban Ballet Dancers Keep Defecting?
“Companies in cities like London, New York or Boston or San Francisco are very interested in hiring dancers from across several nationalities and ethnicities to reflect the cosmopolitan environments in which the cities are. And dancers from Cuba are highly coveted.”