The claim: The event takes up an incredible amount of time and money, and the symphony says “our understanding of our role in the community has begun to change.” Therefore, “the staff is evaluating [Free Music Day] and a lot of other programs to determine if they are the best offerings for listeners and performers.” – The Tennessean
Blog
The Director Happily Tackling Six Hours Of Shaw
Kimberley Rampersad was a dancer who started to sense that dance jobs would dry up – and it was time to move into directing. Now, she’s got Man and Superman, all six hours of it, on her plate, thanks to her previous work – and to Mark Rylance. – The New York Times
An Author Won A Prize For Her Debut Novel, And She Split The Prize With The Other Nominees
Olivia Laing won a £10,000 prize for her novel Crudo over the weekend. But Laing said, in her acceptance speech, “Crudo was written against a kind of selfishness that’s everywhere in the world right now, against an era of walls and borders, winners and losers. Art doesn’t thrive like that and I don’t think people do either. We thrive on community, solidarity and mutual support and as such, and assuming this is agreeable to my fellow authors, I’d like the prize money to be split between us, to nourish as much new work as possible.” – The Guardian (UK)
Orwell Is Being Rewritten Into Newspeak (On Amazon)
Sure, some of this is funny – “One edition of Animal Farm: A Fairy Story referred to itself on the back cover as Animals Farm: A Fair Story. The preface referred to another great Orwell work, Homage to Catalonia, as Homepage to Catalonia – but overall, not so great (or funny). “Until recently, improving Orwell was not a practical business proposition. Then Amazon blew the doors off the heavily curated literary world.” – The New York Times
How Fandom Endangers Women Musicians
Singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus: “Music is magic, yes, and many people use it as an outlet for their animal emotions, but I just wish people would let loose their feelings while still keeping their behavior under control.” (Examples of said behavior include a man chasing a musician down the street, screaming, “I would never chase you!”) – Nylon
Phone Booths Are Mostly Dead, But Not All Dead, In Spain
Is the phone booth a thing of art? Of commerce? Or is it just a piece of trash from an older age – a piece of trash no one, including the phone companies, wants to deal with? While Spaniards use their mobiles to call someone around 100 million times a day, and use WhatsApp for messages 125 million times a day, the number of phone calls from or between pay phones is a low 6,180. And then there are the reasons to use them: The authorities say it’s “to send a threat, claim a debt in an unorthodox way or for a date between lovers or adulterers who must hide their relationship. The advantage of the phone booth over the mobile is that the calls leave no trace.” – El País
The Weirdly Compelling Time-Lapse Video Of Milwaukee Construction Crews Moving A Symphony Wall
No, really, go watch the crews move the wall – moved so more musicians could eventually fit on the stage-to-be – and enjoy: “It took about six hours for construction crews to move a seven-story 625-ton wall 35 feet that will eventually be part of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s new home.” – WTMJ-TV (Milwaukee)
The Dutch, Overwhelmed With Tourists, Have Been Fighting Back
Here’s the deal: “Some 19 million tourists visited the Netherlands last year, more people than live there. For a country half the size of South Carolina, with one of the world’s highest population densities, that’s a lot.” – The Atlantic
Annabella Sciorra May Yet Testify In Weinstein Trial
Sciorra has said that Weinstein attacked her in 1993, which is outside of the statute of limitations – but the prosecutors want her to be able to tell the jury her story anyway. “Prosecutors hope that Ms. Sciorra’s testimony will strengthen the case, particularly the predatory sexual assault counts, by establishing a pattern of behavior.” – The New York Times
Dance Podcasts Are Proliferating, And Here Are Dance Magazine’s Top Three
Do you want a serious look at the world of dance; a more lighthearted, behind-the-scenes glance; or some potentially weird but eclectic and innovative podcasts involving hosts and guests? This list tells you which one to download for that commute to the studio (or, er, the office). – Dance Magazine