“What perhaps makes Walker’s story even more unusual is that while he is now arguably the eldest statesman among still-active composers, he began his career as a child prodigy. He started studying the piano at the age of five, composing as a teenager, and had become something of a cause célèbre by his early 20s. He made his New York piano recital debut at Town Hall at the age of 23 in a program of mostly standard repertoire, which also featured three of his own compositions.”
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Seriously – Do We Really Know Who Our Audience Is?
“Let’s be realistic: theatres can’t force self-identification on our audience members. Most people want to come to the theatre, see a show, then leave with their friends. They aren’t interested in meeting our nonprofit funders’ reporting requirements. Still, arts administrators have to come up with estimates, because we have to complete those final reports. And unfortunately, any estimation method we select has problems.”
Before The World Wars, “Trauma” Was Physical. There Wasn’t A Term For The Psychological Version
“In the 1920s and 1930s, trauma is still used to refer to physical trauma. The idea of trauma as a psychic wound develops a little during the Second World War, where there is talk of ‘traumatic neuroses’, but it is quite tightly defined, and is more a psychoanalytic concept than a standard psychiatric one. I have looked through issues of the Lancet and the British Medical Journal published during the Second World War, and the word trauma still has a fundamentally physical meaning. Its emergence as a psychological concept happens during the Vietnam War.”
America’s Latin American Art Connection – It’s Incestuous, Really
“Disney borrows from Latin America, they turn it into something Hollywood, they send it back to Latin America, and the Latin Americans do something else with it and send it back.”
Art Tatum Was The Best Pianist Of All Time. But…
How well do we really know Tatum? Read further, and the contradictions begin to pile up. You’ll learn that he was heavily influential, but you will also read the opposite — that his style was so personal and technical that he had little actual influence.
Caravaggio: Genius, Thug, Gangster, Nightmare Tenant
Nightmare tenant? Oh, yes – he poked holes in the roof of his apartment and threw rotten vegetables at his landlady. That in addition to the murder, brawling, whoring and vandalism. In fact, writes Noah Charney, “we know far more about Caravaggio than most pre-modern artists because he was brought to trial so often.”
The Spectacular Rise And Fall Of Tower Records
By 1999, Tower was operating more than 150 stores in almost two-dozen countries, generating annual revenues of a billion dollars. But in 2004, the company was forced into bankruptcy, a victim of its own unchecked appetite for expansion, cutthroat competition from consumer-electronics retailers, tone-deaf marketing decisions on the part of the record industry, and viral file-sharing applications like Napster. Two years later, in 2006, Tower’s assets were unceremoniously liquidated.
Neo-Nazis Are Fixating On Medieval Europe – How Should Medievalist Scholars Handle This?
“Telling the story of the Nazi love affair with the medieval past doesn’t require blaming medievalists per se. It’s not about whether our intentions are good. … Having discovered it, the question is what to do. And the first step is to understand the myriad forms that racist engagement with the Middle Ages can take.”
The Social Justice Side To Leonard Bernstein
Bernstein is important for many reasons, including being the first American-born, American-trained conductor to rise to fame and lead an American orchestra. But perhaps most impressive is the fact that he created lasting works of art that were informed by his commitment to social justice, but largely avoided preachiness.
Changing Of The Guard: Graydon Carter To Step Dwon From Editing Vanity Fair After 25 Years
“Mr. Carter’s influence and stature in the magazine and entertainment world is so great that to call his exit a changing of the guard seems insufficient: This is more of a regal passage. One of the few remaining celebrity editors, Mr. Carter — famous for his double-breasted suits, white flowing hair and a seven-figure salary — is a party host, literary patron, film producer and restaurateur who presides over a monthly publication that can still break news in a round-the-clock media age.”