One way is “all rhyme and no reason,” mannered and polished, filled with self-revelation; the other is “so circumspect in … claims to self-knowledge that a reader grown used to the personal essay’s relentless flash of exposure might wonder what kind of shy, self-effacing creature produced [it].”
Blog
The Essay, Says Rebecca Solnit, Has Re-entered A Golden Age
Solnit, who has written many things, including the extremely viral “Men Explain Things to Me,” says the time is ripe. “When I started [Solnit is 56], the essay was belles-lettres, decorative. Essays by women, particularly, tended to be treated as memoir even when they were not. Now they’re seen as powerful and compelling again. “
Latin Music Writer, Broadcaster, And Expert Sue Steward – ‘La Reina’ – Dies At 70
Steward became a press officer for Richard Branson’s first foray into a record label in the 1970s, toured with Captain Beefheart, and worked with the Sex Pistols before she became fascinated with promoting both Latin music and what’s often called “world music.”
Pianist Taka Kigawa Talks Messiaen, And Playing The Bird Marathon
Messaien’s “Catalogue of Birds” is “an absurd undertaking for a pianist. Its sprawling score demands that performers master three hours of complex music: the painstakingly transcribed sounds of European birds.” But Kigawa is performing it today in Greenwich Village. How?
Yeah, That Big Trump White House Redesign? Basically Looks Like A Bad Hotel
For instance: “The plain old Obama brown carpet clearly wasn’t lustrous or glorious enough, but the new busier version looks like it has been lifted straight from a mid-range chain hotel. It’s clearly a look that the hotelier Trump is comfortable with: a surface of ornament, but ultimately bland, forgettable and good for hiding the stains.”
The National Youth Ballet Is Trying To Help Get Women Choreographers In The Ballet Pipeline [VIDEO]
Young British choreographer Ruth Brill: “It’s made me more want to strive and achieve, and if I can help redress that balance by doing what I want to do, then brilliant.”
Top AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 08.27.17
Yaël break
You’d know a Yaël Farber production at 100 paces. The air sweetly smoked and full of noises. The lighting crepuscular but sharded with moonlight. The movement deliberate, registering the actors’ full body weight. And … read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2017-08-27
Weekend Extra: Art Farmer And Sweden
The most recent visit to Sweden stays with me more than three weeks after my return. In great part, that is because music I heard at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival refuses … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-26
Are You Certain?
John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman premiere a collaboration at Jacob’s Pillow. John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty, Maira Kalman at left. Boxed (L to R): Courtney Lopes, Amber Star Merkens, Weaver Rhodes, … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-08-26
The Literary Richard Thompson
FEW living musicians fascinate me as much as Richard Thompson, the London-reared, Los Angeles-dwelling, Fairport Convention-founding guitarist and songwriter whose recording career just hit the 50 year mark. I’ve been listening to Richard’s work … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-08-25
Bryan Ferry, Art, and Roxy Music
EVEN a decade after their heyday, when I first heard them in the mid-’80s, there was nothing like Roxy Music. The sleek, almost alien sound, with its world-weary vocals, European touches, and deep, if … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-08-25
Now You Can Buy One Of Voyager’s ‘Golden Records’ (On Vinyl)
OK, this is just cool, especially if you’re mature enough to remember the launch of Voyager in 1977: “Using audio from the original tapes from the 1970s, a small team in California has put the Golden Record on vinyl for the first time. The set contains three LPs and a book of the photos that were encoded in the original record.”
Is The Podcast Score A New Art Form?
The makers of “Serial” and “S-Town” want you to think so. “As podcasts grow in popularity and ambition, they’re proving an exciting laboratory for original music, essentially creating a new art form.”
Looking For A Book That Explains The United States? Here Are Three For Each State To Get You Started
Hey, it’s the end of the summer, and people are traveling (if they’re not already back in school): “Whenever I’m visiting a new place, and particularly if I’m going to spend a good deal of time there, I like to find my way in with a book—either a book about the history of the area or one that’s simply set there, so that I can get a feel for its rhythms, the cadences and locations that will soon become familiar to me. That is, I’m looking for a kind of recognition. A reference point, if you will.”