“Theorists say the internet is making us dumber, but something magical happened when my students wasted time together. They became more creative with each other. They say we’re less social; I think people on the web are being social all the time. They say we’re not reading; I think we’re reading all the time, just online.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Top Posts From AJBlogs For 08.07.16
An Exhibition Not to Be Missed, And One I’m Glad Is Over
In New York, I visited several special exhibitions this past week. Let me mention two here. The first, Founding Figures: Copper Sculpture from Ancient Mesopotamia, ca. 3300–2000 B.C., is at the Morgan Library and Museum until … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2016-08-07
Legends and Visionaries
New York Theatre Ballet performs a new work and a classic at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. New York Theatre Ballet in Song Before Spring by Zhong-Jing Fang and Steven Melendez. Clockwise from R: Melendez, … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-08-06
Clark Lark: What Will I Miss on My Busman’s Holiday? (Sotheby’s edition)
Anyone within driving distance of Williamstown, MA, who has read Lance Esplund’s voluptuous review in theWall Street Journal of the Clark Art Institute’s Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes From the Prado must be exclaiming, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2016-08-06
Ystad Festival
The Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival is in its fourth day. It is so jam-packed and tightly scheduled that this is my first opportunity to begin reporting on it. The early posts will be a series … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-08-06
Total Obscenity of the American Dream
Heathcote Williams’s verse polemic delivered by Alan Cox. “Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton — A Foaming Sleazeball from Hell versus An Iron Lady, Hands Dripping with Blood” Click to listen. … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-08-05
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The Last Journalists Left Turn Out The Lights On Fleet Street
“I was standing by the window once a few years ago, and a tour bus had stopped outside. I heard the guide tell the passengers that Fleet Street no longer had any journalists working here. I stuck my head out and shouted: ‘We are still here’.”
This Art Museum Was Supposed To Open In Early 2016, But It Sure Didn’t
“The historic building remains in a bare-bones state, its parking lot devoid of construction vehicles, as stakeholders await a revised design plan for what the Ringling College of Art and Design, which absorbed the SMOA organization a decade ago, is calling its ‘South Campus Complex.'”
Why Are British Audiences Eating Up An American Comedy About An Entitled, Self-Flagellating Asshole?
“I feel like out of every kind of performance I’m involved in, theater is still the best way to communicate a story to a group of people. I think there is so much value in putting myself through the very difficult experiences of the character eight times a week because I think it communicates — on a macro-level, the human condition, and on a micro-level, third-generation malaise, self-loathing, the fear of immigrants usurping positions of power from hegemonic cultures like mine.”
What Hollywood Can’t Touch
“Thinking about [Kiarostami’s] films while watching an American film leads to a sobering realization: all the things that Kiarostami could not show in his films became the only things Hollywood filmmakers chose to show in theirs. What he showed in his films were the things abandoned by Hollywood: conversation, friendship, understanding, compassion, and empathy.”
When The Cast Of ‘Fun Home’ Went To Orlando After The Pulse Shooting
“In murky, frightening times like these, that is the most essential thing theater offers an audience: a brief community, connecting us to one another in larger, lasting ways.”
The First (Rock) Gateway Song For Children Was ‘Yellow Submarine’
“I love that my son loves the Beatles, and I am optimistic that this will lead him down a path not unlike my own upbringing immersed in music.”
How’s Thomas Adès’ Opera Adaptation Of A Buñuel Movie Going?
“The acting, with certain exceptions, is quite restrained. With an opera, one’s doing in a way the opposite and bringing out the latent psychological and emotional meaning. The music underlines the power of the feeling. In some ways, I found that operatic subjects, whether it’s a source that you use or a real-life thing, are subjects that seem to invite a further dimension that in a way would bring them to some kind of new stature.
When Humans Can Control Each Others’ Brains Remotely, What Will Happen?
“These systems are potentially more precise and less invasive than existing techniques for altering brain activity such as deep brain stimulation. With so much progress on a variety of fronts, some form of human mind control – and the treatments and benefits it confers – should be here before long.”