Her gratitude was razor-edged: “Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators – I’m glad it’s going slowly – you don’t deserve a bullet).” She ended the post, “Stay tuned.”
Blog
Today’s AJBlog Highlights 11.24.17
The Literary Roots of Lou Reed Back in the spring, when I pitched the Los Angeles Review of Books on a regular column on musicians and their literary interests, my editor immediately came up with the title All the Poets. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-11-24
Piano Sonata as Video Game: Anomalies in My Reception of Beethoven’s Music A transcript of my spoken remarks at Boston University this week, as part of a symposium on piano sonatas by Beethoven. “I’d like to talk about what I would call anomalies in my own reception … read more
AJBlog: PianoMorphosis Published 2017-11-23
So you want to see a show? Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-11-23
Soft power and the arts (3/3) Soft power is the ability for a country to have international influence through means other than the threat of military action or aggressive economic policy (i.e. hard power). How do the arts and cultural … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2017-11-21
How Dance Addresses A Culture Of Suffering
“In countries where people suffer and have a rough life, they dance as a necessity instead of as an option. When you have this kind of history, this very hard background, you don’t practice art for the same reasons. It’s not a luxury; you need it, to heal yourself. I know people in Algeria who say: ‘I had to dance, or I would die.’”
What John Lasseter’s Departure Will Mean To Pixar And Disney
Industry analysts and experts in the animation community said Lasseter’s absence could be a significant blow to the studio if his departure becomes permanent because the executive has been such a key figure in its success. Lasseter is the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
The FBI’s Long History Of Investigating Black Musicians
The FBI’s focus on black musicians has its roots in the agency’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which led to the surveillance of several of the most important black jazz musicians of the mid-20th century.
Apple Could Spend $4.2 Billion On Original Streaming Content By 2022
“Apple won’t catch up to either by 2022 in terms of spend, projecting that Amazon will eclipse Netflix, $8.3 billion to $6.8 billion. Earlier this year, Apple signaled its intent to invest as much as $1 billion into original programming. That’s still well short of Netflix, which announced previously an $8 billion budget toward original and licensed content in 2018, and Amazon, which is expected to spend more than the $4.5 billion that went into premium video entertainment this year.”
The British Pride Themselves On Their Choirs. But How Good Are They?
“Are Britain’s leading choirs actually the best? We wouldn’t know, because as a concert-going public we take almost no interest in foreign ensembles. Attracting an audience in the UK is one of the most difficult challenges an overseas choral group can face.”
A boom In Inventing New Musical Instruments
“You would be forgiven for thinking instrument-making reached its endpoint long ago. The orchestra has largely been fixed since the Belgian Adolphe Sax patented his eponymous instrument in the 1840s. And these days, a standard laptop can make so many sounds, why would we need anything new? But there are hundreds, even thousands, of instrument inventors beavering away.”
More Studies Say Using Laptops In Class Leads To Less Learning
“A growing body of evidence shows that over all, college students learn less when they use computers or tablets during lectures. They also tend to earn worse grades. The research is unequivocal: Laptops distract from learning, both for users and for those around them. It’s not much of a leap to expect that electronics also undermine learning in high school classrooms or that they hurt productivity in meetings in all kinds of workplaces.”
Machines Are Learning In New Ways. But What If We Can’t Understand Them?
“In many arenas, A.I. methods have advanced with startling speed; deep neural networks can now detect certain kinds of cancer as accurately as a human. But human doctors still have to make the decisions — and they won’t trust an A.I. unless it can explain itself. This isn’t merely a theoretical concern.”