Category: AJBlogs

Changes
This month I reach what the Social Security system thinks is my “full retirement” age. Knowing this was coming, I have been reflecting on the future of both Engaging Matters and of my business, ArtsEngaged. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-06-05

Brubeck And Desmond Through Fresh Ears
A new Rifftides reader, Orsolya S., joined us recently. Now and then she sends comments, an activity we encourage among all readers. Her latest communique concerns a recording that has been exciting … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-06-05

The Moody Splendor of the Moors
I was corresponding by email recently with Jay Jeff Jones, an American expat playwright, journalist, and poet, who is working on a new edition of Jeff Nuttall’s Bomb Culture, a long-out-of-print classic about British counterculture … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2018-06-05

More delight
In my last post, I called out with great delight a performance of Scheherazade, conducted by Leif Segerstam, in which Segerstam and the orchestra shouted at the climax. Exhilarating! I blogged about it, not to … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2018-06-05

 

Color Wins The Day At the Cooper-Hewitt
Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color, now on view, is exactly the kind of exhibition I expect and like to see from the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum – which, frankly, came as a bit of a surprise. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-06-04

Punk, Indie Rock and Power Pop With Chris Stamey
Though he’s hardly a household name, North Carolina’s Chris Stamey has been just alongside many of the key developments in left-of-the-dial rock music over the last four decades. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2018-06-04

Tweets in search of a context: punching out
One problem with working at home and setting your own schedule, especially for writers, is that it can prove to be quite hard to shut the shop down and take time off. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2018-06-04

Monday Recommendation: Roberta Piket
Roberta Piket, West Coast Trio, 13th Note Records
The seasoned New York pianist traveled west to record with a sterling rhythm section of veteran Los Angeles players. The bicoastal combination clicked. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-06-04

 

Shostakovich and the Cold War

Design Credit: Mimi McNamara “It is difficult to detect any significant difference between one piece and another. Nor is there any relief from the dominant tone of ‘uplift.’ The musical products of different parts of … read more

AJBlog: Unanswered QuestionPublished 2018-06-01

The Bookers: Performing Arts in Los Angeles

It was on returning back to town in 2016, after a year away, that I was startled to see how much the performing art scene had changed since I originally landed here in the … read more

AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2018-06-01

Deaccession Deception: Baltimore Museum’s Castoffs Leave Holes in Its Collection

Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said all the right things in explaining his decision to deaccession seven of the museum’s works in order to purchase works “created from 1943 or later, … read more

AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-06-01

Replay: Nat King Cole appears on Person to Person

Edward R. Murrow interviews and visits the home of Nat King Cole and his wife Maria on Person to Person. This segment was originally telecast by CBS on November 1, 1957: (This is the … read more

AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-06-01

Berkshire Museum’s Murky “Transparency”: Parsing the Half-Truths in Its “Open Letter”

If this is transparency, we can only wonder what opacity looks like. The Berkshire Museum today posted an open letter to its community that is intended to show its “commitment to transparency, cooperation, outreach,” according … read more

AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-05-31

Streaming What We Breathe

Quantum Wordsfor Bill OsborneUntitled drawing © by Gerard Bellaart. Click to enlarge.Stealthy quantum words phantoms of expectation and suicides of time riddle us with springs and traps. Self-delusion streaming what we breathe we … read more

Berkshire Museum’s Murky “Transparency”: Parsing the Half-Truths in Its “Open Letter”
If this is transparency, we can only wonder what opacity looks like. The Berkshire Museum today posted an open letter to its community that is intended to show its “commitment to transparency, cooperation, outreach,” … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-31

 

The pyramid and the wheel
There are countless ways to categorize collective human action (by legal entity, by sector, by formal/informal structure, by tax status, by geography, and on and on). But sociologist/political-scientist/historian Johan Galtung suggests there are essentially two … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2018-05-30

Recent Listening, In Brief
Keeping up with the ceaseless flow of jazz albums is impossible, but it’s a pleasure to try. Here are short reviews of a few relatively recent releases. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-30

Odd ducks and different buds
‘You must have been quite an odd duck as a boy,’ I said to Barry Humphries, as the entertainer described his unusual devotion to Berlin cabaret artists, fostered in stuffy suburban Melbourne. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2018-05-29

From stage to screen
Time was when hit plays on Broadway and London’s West End were routinely turned into big-budget films. Most of the time, alas, the plays in question were recast and “adapted” within an inch or two … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2018-05-29

 

‘Meeting Jim’ (Who’s Having the Time of His Life)
I’ve never met Jim. We’ve only corresponded by email about the strange case of Orwell’s typewriter. But I know that Jim Haynes is a man for all reasons — pleasure, food, sex, mind, books, theater, life … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2018-05-28

The Return of the Posies (Guest Columnist)
LAST night I caught the Seattle-area band the Posies at the Bootleg Theater, which has gradually become one of my favorite places to see a show in Los Angeles. Out with me was a … read more

AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2018-05-26

 

Jeff Sultanof On An Important Film Reborn

Composer, arranger, educator and jazz authority Jeff Sultanof occasionally honors Rifftides with his insights. This is one of those happy occasions. Jeff has seen a restoration of  King Of Jazz, a pioneering … read more

AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-05-25

 

My week with swans

I’ve spent a week thinking about swans. Ballet swans, mostly, with feathery bodies, aching hearts. Last Thursday, Liam Scarlett’s richly imagined Swan Lake opened at the Royal Ballet, replacing a 31-year-old version and offering … read more

AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2018-05-25

AAMD Sanctions Berkshire Museum and La Salle University Art Museum (& what it should do next)

We knew this was coming (for what it’s worth). The Association of Art Museum Directors today issued this statement: The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) announced today that its Board of Trustees has voted … read more

AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-05-25

“Shaftsbury” Shafted; Church Besmirched: The Berkshire Museum’s Lose-Lose Auctions

The Berkshire Museum’s deplorable disposals have not gone well. Even its board president, in a statement issued yesterday (see below), conceded that the museum was “disappointed” with the results for the 13 works offered at … read more

AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-05-24

Crazy delightful

One of my students emailed a link to something I loved, loved, loved. It was a performance of Scheherezade, conducted by the ineffable, absolutely unqiue and wonderful Leif Segerstam. At the climax of which — … read more

AJBlog: SandowPublished 2018-05-24

“Shaftsbury” Shafted; Church Besmirched: The Berkshire Museum’s Lose-Lose Auctions
The Berkshire Museum’s deplorable disposals have not gone well. Even its board president, in a statement issued yesterday, conceded that the museum was “disappointed” with the results for the 13 works offered at … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-24

Crazy delightful
One of my students emailed a link to something I loved, loved, loved. It was a performance of Scheherezade, conducted by the ineffable, absolutely unqiue and wonderful Leif Segerstam. At the climax of which — and I hope you’re ready for this! … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2018-05-24

Jack Reilly, RIP
Bill Charlap reports that the pianist Jack Reilly died of a massive stroke yesterday in at his home in New Jersey. Mr. Reilly, 86, was an accomplished classical pianist who returned … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-24

Landmark
It’s been quite a while since Mrs. T and I paid a visit to a museum, but we felt we couldn’t afford to miss out on seeing American Post-Impressionists: Maurice & Charles Prendergast, which is … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2018-05-24

 

Gloom at the Top: Why Megabucks Auctions Are Broken (and how to fix them)
The thrill is gone. For several of the highest-estimated properties in the recent series of Impressionist, modern and contemporary sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the “auction fever” of yesteryear has given way to single-bid transfers … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-23

Oh, Yes, Tom Talbert’s Music…
In Monday’s posting revisiting an early Rifftides piece about Tom Talbert (pictured ca. 1956), the staff was remiss in not including examples of Talbert’s music. Let’s remedy that. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-23