So things are … interesting … for the artistic director: “Kramer, who has never before held a position at an opera house or run a major arts organization, will need all his optimistic, feisty exuberance to prove himself and rescue the company. Its subsidy has been slashed, and it has bled administrative and artistic executives in recent years, curtailing its offerings, renting out the Coliseum for longer stretches to gin up revenue, and threatening its high reputation.”
Blog
Top Stories From AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 05.13.18
Recent Listening In Brief: Hersch, Davis-Coltrane & Hamilton
Fred Hersch Trio, Live In Europe (Palmetto) Hersch opens his new trio album with Thelonious Monk’s “We See” and closes it with an unaccompanied performance of “Blue Monk.” A longtime source of … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-05-12
Fragile fool
A friend of mine has just discovered the music of Chet Baker, about whom I wrote sixteen years ago in The Wall Street Journal. Since that piece, a review of James Gavin’s Deep in a … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-05-11
The Times Are Changing
Kyle Abraham’s company, A.I.M., performs at the Joyce Theater. Marcella Lewis (L) and Keerati Jinakunwiphat in Kyle Abraham’s Drive. Photo: Ian Douglas Kyle Abraham used to call his company Kyle Abraham/Abraham in Motion. Now it’s … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-05-10
At Cannes, Women Join Arms In A Silent Protest Over A Lack Of Woman Directors
After the 82 women, including Jane Fonda, Selma Hayek, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, and Agnes Varda, climbed the steps on the red carpet, Blanchett and Varda read a statement. “The group said that the number of women present was chosen to match the total number of films made by female film-makers that have appeared in competition at the festival in its 71-year history. In that time 1,645 films directed by men have been selected in competition.”
If You Want To Make Sure Your Movie Is Gender-Balanced, Run Your Script By The Robot First
Or just download the updated version of scriptwriting software, actually. Highland 2 will tell you how many lines your characters of different gender specifications are speaking. Its creator is a screenwriter himself: “During the writing process, you’re not always aware of how little your female characters are interacting or speaking … because you’re only looking at a scene at a time, a page at a time. It’s not a good overview.” But this is.
A Warehouse Of Alternate Superheroes, Created By An Artist Who Collects And Creates Them
“It’s an intensely personal vision that begins with [artist Trenton Doyle] Hancock’s youth. When you walk into Moundverse Infants, you’re overwhelmed by bright reds, greens and yellows meant to evoke both a toy store and the tile in Hancock’s grandma’s bathroom. ‘I’m obsessed with my own childhood,’ Hancock says. ‘I’ve actually tried to turn that into a superpower.'”
Actor, Comedian, And Activist Franchesca Ramsey Is Over The Trolls, But Now She Needs To Promote A Book Partly About Them
Ramsey shot to viral fame on YouTube, got a deal with MTV, and worked on the “Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.” That’s a lot, in a little bit of time. Now she’s ready to stop engaging as much online. “The internet contains a cacophony of voices, said Ms. Ramsey, adding: ‘If you want to be a creative in any field, at some point you have to stop listening to what everybody else is saying about what you’re doing and just do.'”
Even If The Only Thing To Fear Is Fear Itself, Isn’t That Kind Of Useful?
Turns out USians are most afraid, right now, that government officials are corrupt, and afraid for the planet, and afraid of losing health care. Whew, whatever happened to public speaking? Well, we’re complex: “We’re simultaneously too primitive and too evolved for our own good. Our lizard brains are ruthlessly efficient.”
Peter Mayer, Publisher Of Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses,’ Has Died At 82
Mayer wouldn’t go into hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeni called for the deaths not only of Rushdie but of his publishers at Penguin. His point of view: “Once you say I won’t publish a book because someone doesn’t like it or someone threatens you, you’re finished. … Some other group will do the same thing, or the same group will do it more.”
An Author Sits For An Artist, And Makes Sketches In Return
Author Olivia Laing, who’s being painted by artist Chantal Joffe: “How do you catch reality, the actual minute? I wanted to see what would happen if I wrote about her while she was painting me, if we could survey each other at the same time in an act of simultaneous witnessing.”
How To Win Eurovision: Do The Chicken Dance
As 200 million people watched, Israel’s Netta Barzilai overwhelmed the “carnival of camp” competition – “Denmark featured singing Vikings, Ukraine’s contestant rose from a coffin to play on an enormous flame-wreathed piano, and an Estonian opera singer performed in a gown 26 feet in diameter” – with a song that she said was inspired by the #MeToo movement.