The staff gauged the rate at which the postwoman is depositing new releases in the Rifftides mailbox and decided that we should pick up the pace of telling you about some of them. – Doug Ramsey
Blog
The Amazing Hidden City Beneath Paris
This invisible city follows different laws of planning to its surface counterpart. Its tunnelled streets often kink and wriggle, or run to dead ends. Some of them curl back on themselves like whips. At junctions, three or four tunnel-streets might spray out. There are slender highways running almost the length of the tiled map, from southwest to northeast. There are inexplicably broken grids of streets, or hubs where the spokes of different tunnels meet. Coming off some of the tunnels are chambers, irregular in their outlines and with dozens of small connecting rooms. – The New Yorker
Michigan Lawmakers Say There’s A Crisis With The State’s School Libraries
“Michigan ranks 47th in the nation for its ratio of students to certified librarians — it’s also in the bottom five in literacy. The two statistics have legislators like State Rep. Darrin Camilleri questioning why more isn’t being done to increase the presence of librarians in schools.” So he and colleagues have introduced three different bills to address the problem. – WXYZ (Detroit)
Is Koons’ “Rabbit” Worth $91 Million? Value Isn’t Measured In Cash
Andrea Scott: “It became an icon of eighties excess (and, thus, of white, male privilege): fuck like bunnies, make more money, the one with the most toys wins. It was an instant classic worthy of the oxymoron, as weightless as Andy Warhol’s shiny silver clouds of inflated Mylar and as radical as Constantin Brancusi’s polished-bronze ‘Bird in Space’.” – The New Yorker
Reviving Twyla Tharp’s ‘Deuce Coupe’, The First Ballet-Modern Dance Fusion
Gia Kourlas got Tharp and Sara Rudner, who danced in the work’s 1979 premiere, together with Misty Copeland and Isabella Boylston, who are performing in ABT’s upcoming revival. “It was lively … but certain points became clear: How important is it to work with the artist who actually created a ballet? Very. And how scary is it to step into the roles of two of the finest dancers of their generation, classical or otherwise? Ditto.” – The New York Times
We Applaud The Philanthropist Who Says He’ll Pay Student Loans. But This Is A Policy Failure
Students are saddled with crippling debt. And generations will be encumbered by it. The generous philanthropist who says he’ll pay the Morehouse College graduating class’s student debt has done a great thing. But it points to a glaring failure of public policy. – The New York Times
33 Lessons From 33 Pros On How To Succeed As A Dancer
“Dance Magazine spoke to 33 people from all corners of the industry” — among them Paloma Herrera, Judith Jamison, Liz Lerman, David Dorfman, Meredith Monk, Donald Byrd, and Trey McIntyre — “to get their advice on the lessons that could help us all, no matter where we are in our careers.” – Dance Magazine
The Mozart Problem: Revolution In Tight Form
Stephen Brown: “This is the problem that Mozart poses for our contemporary ears. His music is so balanced, clear, rational in its order, especially in comparison to the music that has come after, that it is easy – for performers as well as listeners – to miss the drama.” – Times Literary Supplement
On The Tour Van With Shakespeare And Company
That would be the New England theatre troupe, not the Paris bookstore. “Every year since 1982, Shakespeare & Company has sent young performers on the road from early winter through late spring, for four months of Dunkin’ Donuts breakfasts, motel showers, flubbed lines, forgotten props, missed turnoffs, standing ovations and the chance to live with Shakespeare’s words a lot like the traveling players of 400 years ago would have.” Reporter Alexis Soloski spent a few days with them. – The New York Times
We’ve Already Got Broadway Shows Performed Live On TV. Soon We’ll Have Musicals Produced Directly For TV
Netflix has already done small-screen versions of Springsteen on Broadway and American Son, and they’re now working on feature versions of Broadway’s (recent) The Boys in the Band and (current) The Prom. Fox is working on its own jukebox musicals. Where will the genre go from there? – Dance Magazine