No, We Had ‘Hamlet’ Right Already, Says Skeptical Professor About New Theory

“I envy Gary Taylor his confidence. I am increasingly coming to think that the most useful new discoveries about Shakespeare are the negative ones.” Jonathan Bate, who edited the complete First Folio for the RSC, has his doubts about Gary Taylor’s theory. (James I’s Danish queen, for one, might not have found Hamlet very flattering. And there’s documentary evidence Taylor’s overlooking.)

Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.02.17

7 Audience Development Resolutions for 2017
“Your beliefs become your thoughts; Your thoughts become your words; Your words become your actions; Your actions become your habits; Your habits become your values; Your values become your destiny.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Together, let’s make these resolutions for 2017: … read more
AJBlog: Audience Wanted Published 2017-01-01

Patti Smith’s New Year’s Eve vow: “We must not behave!”
Grey-haired but loose and limber — funny, fierce, profane and poetically incantatory — Smith celebrated her 70th birthday in the city of her origin as if for all boomers and our progeny. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-01-01

Monday Recommendation: Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Cyrille Quartet, The Declaration Of Musical Independence (ECM)
Andrew Cyrille, a bold drummer, long since established his audacity and the independence underscored in the album title. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-01-02

What will remain
My posting about the sad fate of my beloved Uncle Paul, who vanished without trace from my life when I was a boy, brought me a fair amount of correspondence, including … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-01-02

12 Plays of Xmas: 6 Pal Joey by O’Hara, Rodgers & Hart
Book trouble – it’s the curse of the musical. One of my most slaveringly anticipated shows of the past winter was David Bowie’s Lazarus, but the book by Enda Walsh was an embarrassment of … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2017-01-01

 

A Practical Real-World Debate About Public Money And The Role Of Artists

Ohio’s Cuyahoga County voters approved a cigarette tax to fund artists. So the question was how to allocate those funds. The country’s arts commission decided that the program would

emphasize community engagement over studio practice. Originally, the proposal was to have a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization replace the Cleveland-based group that had administered the individual artist grant program since its inception in 2008.

But artists got upset that criteria emphasized change over artistic merit.

Artists who work at making art in their studios and exhibiting it in galleries—as opposed to creating community engagement programs, seeking partners, and other social practices—feel like that kind of guideline writes them out. It pits one type of artist against another. And it feels not like public support, but like government direction.

The protests led to a community meeting at which there seemed to be broad agreement that the arts should advance racial equity and be a force for reflecting and improving the community. But where does the quality of art factor in, and who defines it? With voter-approved money on the table and a need to show that the money is being spent effectively, agreeing on how that happens is both a practical question but also a philosophical debate about the role of art and artists in their community.

Today’s AJBlog Highlights 01.02.17

Monday Recommendation: Andrew Cyrille Andrew Cyrille Quartet, The Declaration Of Musical Independence (ECM) Andrew Cyrille, a bold drummer, long since established his audacity and the independence underscored in the album title. This collection is notable for subtlety and daring … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-01-02

12 Plays of Xmas: 7 Egor Bulychev by Gorky I’ve seen a lot of Chekhov. I mean, a lot. Last year, I marvelled at Vanya at the Almeida and spent a day with the National Theatre’s Young Chekhov trilogy. I can almost sing … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2017-01-02

Patti Smith’s New Year’s Eve vow: “We must not behave!” Patti Smith, Dec 31 2016, Park West Chicago. Photo by Lauren Deutsch. Ushering in 2017 with Patti Smith and band at Chicago’s Park West New Year’s Eve was inspiriting for us of a certain age and … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-01-01

7 Audience Development Resolutions for 2017 “Your beliefs become your thoughts; Your thoughts become your words; Your words become your actions; Your actions become your habits; Your habits become your values; Your values become your destiny.” – Mahatma Gandhi Together, let’s make these resolutions for 2017: Iread more
AJBlog: Audience Wanted Published 2017-01-01

What Neurologists Are Learning From 125 Years Of Movie-Watching

“Over 125 years, the global filmmaking community has been engaged in an informal science of vision, conducting a large number of trial-and-error experiments on human perception. The results are not to be found in any neuroscience or psychology textbook, though you can find some in books on cinematography and film editing, and in academic papers analysing individual films. Other insights are there in the films themselves, waiting to be described. In recent years, professional scientists have started to mine this rich, informal database, and some of what we have learned is startling.”

Way Out There, Where Art Meets Science And They Converge

We evolved here, on this spinning planet, we grew from abiotic material to life, became complex, and eventually, after billions of years, became us. You. Me. Our sense of beauty and wonder and curiosity turned our gaze to the sky and allowed us to discover the pieces of Universe that were our origins, looking back across countless light years to how we came to be. This in turn inspires art, prose and music, a unique outlook and perspective on nature that we can share and appreciate. The science created the art, and the art informs the science. Perhaps one could exist without the other. Perhaps. But together they are more than either individually or summed.

Critic, Writer John Berger, 77 – Questioned Relationship Between Art And Society

Susan Sontag once described Berger as peerless in his ability to make “attentiveness to the sensual world” meet “imperatives of conscience”. Jarvis Cocker, to mark a recent book of essays about Berger, said: “There are a few authors that can change the way you look at the world through their writing and John Berger is one of them.”

Reconsidering JS Bach And His Relationship With God

Many of us grew up with an Enlightenment Bach, a nondenominational divinity of mathematical radiance. Glenn Gould’s commentary on the “Goldberg Variations” spoke of a “fundamental coordinating intelligence.” One German scholar went so far as to question the sincerity of Bach’s religious convictions. But the historically informed performance movement, in trying to replicate the conditions in which Bach’s works were first played, helped to restore awareness of his firm theological grounding.

Can You Make A Dance About Race And Politics That’s Also Truly Good Art? This Man Can

“The ideal, of course, is a piece in which the artistic qualities – in dance, those would be shape, tempo, rhythm, attack, etc. – are such as to elicit a feeling that you recognize as being on the side of justice. But you never know whether that’s really justice or just your wish for a piece you admire to share your politics.” Joan Acocella writes that choreographer Kyle Abraham manages to transcend the dilemma.