“If this year’s Academy Award nominees for best score are any indication, new blood is beginning to course. Justin Hurwitz, who won the Oscar, is only 32 – and La La Land was his third score for a feature film. Mica Levi, 30, was nominated for her second feature, Jackie. Moonlight composer Nicholas Britell, 36, scored his first major film in 2015. But it’s not just the relative youth and wetness-behind-the-ears that are noteworthy. These composers, and several others, are shaking up the sound of Hollywood. Film scores are starting to have personality again.”
Blog
Extremist Found Liable For $3.2 Million For Destroying Shrines In Timbuktu
“On Thursday, the International Criminal Court ruled that former rebel Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, the man convicted of ordering the attack on the ancient landmarks in Timbuktu, was required to pay ‘individual, collective and symbolic’ reparations of up to $3.2 million (2.7 million euros). Al-Mahdi was jailed last September for nine years by the Hague-based court after he pleaded guilty to ‘intentionally’ directing attacks on nine historic Timbuktu mausoleums and its Sidi Yahia mosque.” He is the first person to be convicted of cultural war crimes by the ICC.
Arts And Culture Are Big Business In San Francisco: Study
“A new economic prosperity impact report, organised by the non-profit organisation Americans for the Arts, reveals that San Francisco’s arts and culture sector annually brings in $1.45 billion and supports over 39,000 full-time jobs. According to the report, the City by the Bay accounts for nearly 1% of the $166.3 billion generated by the sector nationwide.”
Art Institute Of Chicago Becomes Battleground In PC Wars Following Instructor’s Departure
“Michael Bonesteel, an adjunct professor specialising in outsider art and comics, … resigned this year after two Title IX complaints were filed by transgender students” and he was consequently stripped of some courses and required to revise his syllabus for another and have it approved. Since then, reports Jori Finkel, the School of the AIC has been receiving some serious pushback over alleged censorship.
Two Kennedy Center Honorees (So Far) Decide To Boycott White House Reception
“Dancer Carmen de Lavallade said on Thursday that she would be honored to attend the Dec. 3 ceremony at the Kennedy Center, buuuut … ‘In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our current leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House.'” Norman Lear is sitting out the party as well, and Lionel Richie is, for now, on the fence.
Architect Gunnar Birkerts, 92
“Birkerts was best known for light-filled modernist buildings that reflected the Scandinavian architectural tradition that influenced him. Many” – among them, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Corning Museum of Glass, the south wing of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, and the Latvian National Library – “were essays in bold curves or angular, irregular shapes.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.17.17
Resistance Insistence: Museums (& CultureGrrl) Grapple with Political Turmoil
Even before Saturday’s horrific game-changer, some art museums — including major “establishment” institutions — had begun dropping their guard, casting aside their habitual reluctance to risk offending the more conservative members of their culture-loving base and taking political stands. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-08-17
The Startling Rise Of Killer Technologies
“As biochemists concoct new life-extending medications, calls to Poison Control after swallowing the wrong pills or the wrong number of the right pills have recently doubled. We put a smartphone in every hand, and now more than 1,000 distraction-related crashes happen on our roads every day (also steadily rising). Kids and pets succumb to heatstroke inside cars that are more environmentally sealed than ever—we’re on track to set a new record for hot car deaths in 2017. Falling off of ladders? Even those numbers are climbing, and if you’re wondering how that could possibly be related to technology, well, read on.”
Writer Who Wrote About A Writer Murdering People Is Arrested For Murdering People
“I came up with the idea after reading some detective novels and watching crime shows and movies,” Mr. Liu wrote at the time. “The working title is: ‘The Beautiful Writer Who Killed.’” But what was assumed to be a fictional crime story took a turn into reality last week when Mr. Liu, 53, was arrested on accusations of bludgeoning four people to death 22 years ago.
Robot To Conduct Italian Orchestra And Bocelli In Concert
A Swiss humanoid robot is to conduct a Tuscan orchestra in the works of Verdi alongside Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. The robot, called YuMi, will be the closest a humanoid has come to mastering the nuances of a human orchestra director when he performs.