“It’s hard to avoid noticing that J.C. Gabel, a tall, almost burly transplant from Chicago, is — among other things — a bit of a ranter. … But the difference between Gabel, 42, and most people who declaim loudly on the patios of bookstores is that a) he’s generally — or at least arguably — right most of the time and b) he’s managed to put his money where his mouth is. … Surviving in the current publishing climate is impressive; thriving and expanding is almost bizarre. And Gabel and company have done it.”
Blog
George Walker, 96, Pioneering African-American Composer
“Walker was a trailblazing man of ‘firsts,’ and not just because of the Pulitzer [he won in 1996 for Lilacs]. In the year 1945 alone, he was the first African-American pianist to play a recital at New York’s Town Hall, the first black instrumentalist to play solo with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the first black graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.”
Edinburgh Fringe Takes On Brexit (And Not Just For Laughs)
“‘It’s hard to make comedy out of situational paralysis,’ said Nish Kumar, a comedian whose show at the Fringe is called ‘It’s In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves.’ … But many comedians on both sides are trying to understand and explain, rather than merely mock. Mr. Kumar said that 2016 was the year for angry Brexit-themed shows … In 2018, the festival seems to reflect a nation that is finally coming to terms with the fact that Brexit is happening.”
Site Of Deadly Nerve Agent Attack Uses Arts To Reclaim City
“Six months on from the shock of the nerve agent attack on the Skripals, the people of Salisbury are attempting to use the power of the arts to reclaim the streets, work through the trauma of the assault and draw visitors back to the cathedral city.”
Despite Felony Conviction Of Its Founder, Brazil’s Great Sculpture Park Carries On
“It seemed like a potentially dispiriting blow: a government move to take over massive works of art, acres of land and multiple gallery buildings at the Inhotim Institute, a vast sculpture park and botanical garden in southeastern Brazil whose founder faces a prison sentence for laundering donations. Yet Inhotim is soldiering on despite the downfall of its creator, the mining tycoon Bernardo Paz.”
It’s Time For British Arts Orgs To Prepare For ‘Catastrophic’ Hard Brexit, Warns Industry Group
“Creative organisations and businesses must now prepare for the ‘catastrophic’ possibility of losing employees, facing higher costs when trading goods and services and being denied access to European Union (EU) funding through a no-deal Brexit, the Creative Industries Federation (CIF) has warned.” A new guide distributed by the CIF warns arts organisations to carry out an audit and, if they find themselves highly dependent on the EU, to set up a branch in another member country.
‘Trash Radio’ – Even In Lovely Old Quebec City, Shock Jockery Gins Up Outrage And Ratings
“Jeff Fillion, 50, is among the most prominent and provocative talk radio hosts on Quebec airwaves, dominating what his critics call ‘radio poubelle,’ or trash radio. … At a time when Mr. Trump’s tirades on Twitter and beyond are changing global political discourse, Mr. Fillion and his fellow shock jocks are drawing legions of listeners in this picturesque political capital, propagating a cocktail of anti-immigrant, anti-environment and anti-feminist views. They are also testing the boundaries of free speech in a country that prides itself on liberalism but has seen a growing far right.”
Why Has Philosophy Walled Itself Off From Non-Anglo-European Thought? Not Because Of Racism
Jonardon Ganeri, himself a biracial philosopher, argues that it’s an unintended consequence of one of the qualities the field most values in itself – one that distinguishes it from most of the humanities – combined with the conscientious scholar’s natural reluctance to muck about with subject matter she doesn’t know.
Marcel Proust, Art Critic
During his mid-career crisis, Proust actually worked as an art critic, and In Search of Lost Time includes hundreds of aperçus on visual art and even a death scene that takes place in front of a Vermeer.
On Rescuing a “Dead Art Form” — A Landmark Book on Opera in Performance
Joe Horowitz on Conrad L. Osborne’s new Opera as Opera: The State of the Art — “the most important English-language treatment of opera in performance ever written.”