Scientists know that art has a profound impact on the activity of the human brain. Exactly what that activity signifies, and what it says about art or about humans, is an open question, however, and an entire field of study has developed to seek such answers. “Neuroaestheticians… imagine that, over time, these kinds of studies will become more and more precise: They hope to get ever-finer detail about what happens in the brain in an ever-growing range of aesthetic situations.”
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Following Plimpton
Many assumed that George Plimpton’s death would see his beloved Paris Review come to a quiet end, or at least that the small, influential literary journal would be transformed into something unrecognizable to the New York literati who are so devoted to it. But new editor Brigid Hughes has no plans to change the magazine, and insists that Plimpton’s rather complicated legacy was actually quite simple, as far as the Review was concerned: “I don’t think it needs to change. The goal is to publish good writing. I intend to do that.”
Captain Kangaroo & The Power Of Calm
Captain Kangaroo (a.k.a. Bob Keeshan) died this weekend at age 76. “Keeshan had many talents, and he had no edge. Having no edge is an admirable quality, but one that almost never flies today. It allowed men (and a few women) like Captain Kangaroo to simply exude an almost suspicious amount of niceness. Yet there was nothing to suspect… In a world designed to be noisy, he built a show around calm. (Except when Ping-Pong balls fell from the ceiling. And when Mr. Green Jeans’s contraptions fell apart.)”
Helmut Newton, 83
“The photographer Helmut Newton transformed fashion into a form of erotica. With his long-legged models shot from below and lit like goddesses carved out of stone, Newton’s vision of women was both threatening and compelling. Through his lens, sexuality was transformed into power. Newton, 83, died yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.”
Disney’s New Empire
The Walt Disney Company is apparently serious about becoming a theatrical juggernaut, as evidenced not only by recent successful Broadway adaptations of its animated films, but also by extensive plans for a nationwide blitz of big-budget stage shows. “Ten years after Beauty and the Beast arrived on Broadway, to critical brickbats and audience acclaim, the company feared by rival producers for its cavernous pockets and brand-name product has become a dominant long-term player onstage. In recently published figures not disputed by the company, Disney has earned more than $1.2 billion in worldwide gross theatrical receipts from Beauty, $1 billion from Lion King and $270 million from Aida.”
Shades of Gray
In his intensely personal monologues, Spalding Gray talked incessantly about death, and his lifelong obsession with it. With a tone alternately fatalistic and defiant, he spoke of suicide, of incurable illness, and of the various ways in which a human being can slip away from life. Gray always seemed decidedly unbalanced, but his monologues were cathartic in a way which always made one hope that he was exorcising his demons as he laid them before an audience. Now, two weeks after vanishing without a trace from his New York home, the horrible ironies of Gray’s life and work are on display, his uncertain absence a tragically appropriate denouement to a career built on pain.
Making Sense Of Jazz
Jazz is perhaps the ultimate “melting pot” style of music. It is a serious and difficult genre, steeped in intellectual tradition, and yet it often seems to absorb the best (and, some would say, worst) of popular culture in order to stay fresh and evolve. This mixed bag of musical ideas makes for a great many divisions in the jazz community, and the annual conference of the International Association of Jazz Education functions simultaneously as a way for gripes to be aired, and for the past, present, and future of the genre to be documented and discussed.
Is Culture Doomed, Or Are We Just Snobs?
“That deafening seismic discord at the end of 2003 – a low moan followed by a ripping noise and then a heavy crash – was the sound of Western civilization falling apart, its alabaster pillars splitting like Popsicle sticks, its flagstone terraces shredding like saltines in water. Then again, maybe not. If you believe that culture – music, literature, film, the visual and performing arts – is a rarefied realm to which only the work of an exalted few should be admitted, then doom is imminent. If, however, you believe that culture is a wide-open arena that can accommodate a variety of approaches and levels of complexity, then you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about.”
Henry James: The Beta Test Version
Floyd Horowitz believes that he has located more than twenty examples of early writings by novelist Henry James, penned under various pseudonyms and previously unidentified as particularly Jamesian. But not everyone is convinced of the validity of Horowitz’s research, especially since much of it was based on computer models which scan the word selection and literary style of unidentified works, searching for subtle connections which could link the works to a particular author.
We’re Sure Those Cleveland Winters Have Nothing To Do With This
The curator of drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art is leaving town to take up a similar position at tghe Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Carter Foster’s resume reads like a listing of the top American art museums, and he was celebrated in Cleveland for his success in acquiring new works for an already impressive collection, and for curating several important shows in his eight years in Ohio. The move from Cleveland to LACMA means that Foster will have a much larger staff and more exhibition space, but LA’s collection is nowhere near as complete as the one he is leaving behind. The CMA has not yet decided whether Foster will be replaced.