Recently Red Bull announced it would stop funding its music academy that promoted World Music. “These days, experimental art often views corporate largesse as necessary. The closing was a reminder that much of contemporary culture is produced by companies that don’t see themselves as archivists, or as custodians for the future. Art is just content, and it vanishes, too.” – The New Yorker
Blog
As The Earth Warms, Long-Buried Objects Are Emerging. It’s Both Scary And Fascinating
Water levels in the River Elbe dropped so far that “hunger stones” were revealed – carved boulders used since the 1400sto commemorate droughts and warn of their consequences. One of the stones bears the inscription “Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine” (If you see me, weep). – The Guardian
Study: The Twitter Universe Is Nothing Like Here In Real Life
Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey of 2,791 adult American Twitter users, and the team’s findings paint a stark contrast between those who are extremely online and those who are not. While the gender and ethnic makeup of Twitter users seems to be mostly similar to the greater U.S. population, there are significant differences in terms of political views, income-generation, and more. – Fast Company
Ibsen Was A Hugely Influential Playwright And His Ideas Permeate Still. But…
Terry Teachout writes that the ideas – groundbreaking and shocking in their times, are now so familiar that they’re boring. “To be sure, we live with their culture-changing consequences—we know them well—but the plays themselves too often come across as static, talky exercises in bourgeois-baiting, as smug as Shaw at his worst but without his compensating wit.” Commentary
Many Rank-And-File Dancers Can’t Afford To Eat Properly — So This Organization Feeds Them
“Dancers will forego eating to take classes,” says Yvonne Chow. So, once a month, DanceMart, operated by H+ | The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory in New York City, will cook and serve a dinner, teach a class in cooking healthy and inexpensive meals, and send them home with a recipe and the groceries to make it. (There’s a party, too.) Any and every kind of dancer is invited. – Dance Magazine
Dave Samuels, RIP
A Grammy award winner, Samuels was best known for more than three decades as a member of the crossover jazz-fusion band Spyro Gyra. – Doug Ramsey
René Char on Rebirth and Phantoms
Two short excerpts taken from Char’s WWII writings. One concerns a walnut tree; the other speaks about the phantoms of our “empirical souls.” Why post them? And why now? Read them. – Jan Herman
Herb Alpert Was A Helluva Trumpet Player. For 30 Years He’s Also Been A Brilliant Philanthropist
He has been a consistent and articulate proponent of the arts at a time in which the field is under siege. His free-wheeling and improvisational approach belies a coherent underlying strategy that is both forward-looking and impactful. And in an almost uniformly risk-adverse philanthropic climate, Alpert has shown a refreshing tendency to boldly go where other funders are unwilling to tread. – Inside Philanthropy
Playwright Lucas Hnath — A 21st Century George Bernard Shaw (Via Wallace Shawn)
“Hnath is a master of Socratic dialogue … In a Hnath play, you repeatedly find yourself agreeing with a pointed speech, then agreeing with its rebuttal. … Many playwrights promote the beleaguered liberal values of tolerance and skepticism, but Hnath enacts them onstage. This, you feel, is what it means to think something through.” – The New Yorker
La Jolla Playhouse And Goodman Theatre Co-Commission Plays By And For Artists With Disabilities
“National Disability Theatre has announced a partnership with La Jolla Playhouse and Goodman Theatre to commission two new works written, directed, and designed by artists with disabilities for casts featuring only actors with disabilities. The selected playwrights are Gregg Mozgala … and Christopher Shinn.” – American Theatre