For years, artist Serkan Özkaya has been fascinated by Duchamp’s Etant données, the darkened room you view through peepholes in the closed door. He wanted to know exactly how it works, but the curators at the its home, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, aren’t allowed to go in and inspect its mechanisms themselves, let alone allowing a stranger access. So Özkaya did it Ikea-style.
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Newly-Discovered Raymond Chandler Story Attacks US Health Care
“Found in Chandler’s archives at the Bodleian Library in Oxford …, the story, “It’s All Right – He Only Died,” opens as a ‘filthy figure on a stretcher’ arrives at a hospital.”
Hiking With John Adams In The Mountains Where His New Opera Is Set
“From time to time when driving in the High Sierra I’ll see amateur gold miners, panning in a river that 150 years ago gave up the best of its treasure to the first prospectors,” says the composer, “and I’ll be tempted to wonder if the image of these latter-day panners, hoping only for a tiny nugget, isn’t an illustration of my own predicament as a composer.”
Della Reese, R&B Singer And Actress, Dead At 86
“Reared in gospel, Reese became a seductive, big-voiced secular music star with her No. 1 R&B and No. 2 pop hit ‘Don’t You Know’ in 1959. … She ranged through a series of releases that showed off her mastery of standards, jazz and contemporary pop through the early ’70s, and over the course of her career she received four Grammy Award nominations.” She went on to become an even bigger star on television, where she was the first black woman to host her own variety show and played major roles in Chico and the Man and Touched by an Angel.
Bramwell Tovey Named Chief Conductor Of One Of BBC’s Orchestras
The music director of the Vancouver Symphony (from which he departs next year) and popular guest conductor will succeed Keith Lockhart at the podium of the BBC Concert Orchestra this coming January. “Tovey’s new role will see him work with the orchestra for five years, including a Radio 3 concert at Watford Colosseum in February 2018, before leading performances in the BBC orchestra’s 2018-19 season at Southbank Centre.”
Thief Carries Botero Sculpture Right Out Of Paris Gallery
“The Colombian artist’s 57cm-high sculpture, Maternity (2003), of a mother sitting on a plinth and cradling her baby, … was stolen from Galerie Bartoux in an upmarket district of Paris earlier this month in broad daylight. Gallery staff became aware of the theft only when they prepared to close the gallery.”
$1.5 Million Bounties For Beheading Bollywood Star And Director Offered By Indian Politician
A state-level boss of India’s ruling party, the Hindu nationalist BJP, is offering 10 million rupees each for the heads of the lead actress and director of Padmavati, a new movie about a legendary 14th-century Rajput queen. A leader of the present-day Rajput clans has threatened to cut off the star’s nose, and violent demonstrations have led to the delay of the film’s release. All this over rumors of a scene the director says isn’t even in the movie.
Pakistan Bans Film About Rape Victim’s Revenge, Then Reverses Itself After #MeToo-Style Campaign
“Verna, which stars popular actor Mahira Khan, was originally denied a certificate by the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) because of its ‘mature themes’ and ‘edgy content’. This caused an outcry among women’s rights campaigners, who accused board members of censoring women’s voices and putting their heads in the sand at a time when … ‘rape is a rampant issue in Pakistan’ … Soon the ban had inspired a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #UnbanVerna, which emerged as Pakistan’s own #MeToo movement.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.20.17
Forgetting Hitchcock
Unlike most of my colleagues, I liked, and was even a little moved by the world première of Nico Muhly’s Marnie by the English National Opera (it goes to the NY Metropolitan next year). … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-11-20
All there is
I’ve worked on enough shows by now to be familiar with the all-consuming experience of rehearsing, yet its disorienting nature still comes as a surprise each time it happens. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-11-20
Report: UK Government Funding Of Arts Down 39 Percent In Last Decade
“The latest edition, updated to include figures from 2014/15 and 2015/16, found that local government funding for the arts, per person, “continues to crash”, falling by 15 points since the index was last published. It has dropped by more than a third since the index began in 2007/08 – the most dramatic drop among the 20 indicators.”