“In the 19th century, William Morris preached a social revolution in which exploitative ‘useless toil’ would be replaced by ‘useful work’. He dreamt of a world that would reject shoddy mass-produced goods in favour of objects made with care and craftsmanship. Any business that sells ‘artisanal’ goods, whether the goods be curtains or crumpets, is essentially quoting Morris and referring to his promise.” And so are these chocolatiers in sailboats.
Author: ArtsJournal2
Ai Weiwei Goes After Chinese Government Again
“Ai said self-interest is China’s only political ideology and the ‘people in office just try to maintain so-called stability to protect their own profit, or their own interest. They have to crush other voices. There’s no real communication or discussion.'”
The Colorado Symphony Saved Itself By Reinventing Just About Everything
“Just seven months ago, the CSO was poison — so toxic that 20 trustees made an angry and abrupt exit when a move to make players part-time failed. Now it is re-emerging as something everyone wants a taste of.”
Annie Liebovitz, Portrait Photographer Extraordinaire, Has A New Book With No People In It
“‘It was great to be in rooms without people, like a meditation of sorts,’ she says. ‘I think of the great society portrait painter Wright of Derby who at the end of his life finished up painting cow pastures because he’d just had it with people. I do think we all head there.'”
Some Large Cosmic Event Happened In The 8th Century, But We Don’t Know What It Was
Tree rings confirm that something, and something huge, happened in the cosmos – and it affected the Earth’s atmosphere. But what was it?
Is (Almost) Everything We Think We Know About The Origins Of Islam Wrong?
A new book says yes. Historian Tom Holland “says that while there’s no doubt some historical accuracy in the sources for early Islam, those documents are more likely to be reflecting conditions at the time of their writing in the ninth and 10th centuries.”
You’ll See The London Symphony Orchestra At The Olympics, But You Won’t Hear It
Actually, you will hear the musicians – on a recording they made six weeks ago, to which they must mime during the opening ceremonies for the London Olympics.
Turkey Charges Pianist For His Tweets
“A court [in Istanbul] on Friday charged Fazil Say, a classical and jazz pianist with an international career, with insulting Islamic values in Twitter messages, the latest in a series of legal actions against Turkish artists, writers and intellectuals for statements they have made about religion and Turkish national identity.”
What’s It Like To Be The Literary Executor Of Your Hero?
“[Edward] Mendelson’s special connection with Auden was studiously based on the work, and what it revealed of Auden’s world view, his ideas on poetry, art, religion and morality. To hear Mendelson expound on Auden is to hear a man who, over four decades of scholarship, has caught the cast of another’s mind perfectly, deeply, and eloquently. Even though he never knew it then, in that 20-year-old dumbstruck student, WH Auden had found a clearer afterlife than the rest of us will ever manage to find.”
Controversy Revisited As Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ Turns 25
The album defined South African township sound for a generation – but along with its success at getting the word out about black musicians came Simon’s deliberate choice to ignore a cultural boycott, not to mention accusations of appropriation. What do we think now, a quarter-century later?