The original Lesbian poet “was massively admired in antiquity,” her works collected into nine papyri at the great Alexandria library. But almost none of it survives: only two complete poems and about 200 fragments. “Sappho has a pretty astonishing reputation, given how little survives. … [And] she has been the subject of some extraordinary fantasy over the years, the starting point for ‘biography’, fiction and sheer titillation.”
Tag: 01.11.10
Why Do Major Keys Sound Happy And Minor Keys Sad?
“The answer – in part – seems to be that the patterns of pitches in major keys mirror those of excited speech, whereas minor keys parallel subdued speech. That suggests that language shaped our musical expression of emotion.”
Phyllis Diller’s Art Parties
“Then came the Gong Show years, and, as Diller’s bookings dried up, she began to paint. Late at night, she’d throw on a pink smock, put some Gershwin on the stereo, and work up an ink or acrylic sketch of a castle, a few daisies, or Alex Trebek. In 2003, when she was eighty-six, she began holding ‘art parties,’ several times a year, to sell the work.”
Who Built The Pyramids? Not Slaves
Tombs discovered recently at Giza indicate that the builders ate meat regularly and were paid and respected for their work, “so much so that those who died during construction were bestowed the honor of being buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs.”
Victoria & Albert Museum To Open Scottish Outpost
“The centre, called the V&A at Dundee, will be the focal point of a major redevelopment of Dundee’s waterfront similar to schemes to regenerate other once-ailing ports and industrial centres such as Gateshead, Salford, Leeds and Liverpool with prestigious arts and cultural venues.”
Audience Rebels Against Changes To NH Music Festival
“In the end, mutiny won out. A group of tenacious, concert-going retirees around Lake Winnipesaukee told the famous, big-city outsider not to mess with their popular New Hampshire Music Festival. And he blinked first.” That outsider was none other than renowned orchestra manager and former ArtsJournal blogger Henry Fogel.
Does A Snappy Name Diminish A New Idea? Probably.
“A clever title makes a work easier to recall, and research has linked that sense of ease with feelings of favorability. … [But] people usually invest effort to understand important information, but also mistakenly infer the reverse – namely, that information that requires effort to be understood is important.”
American Publishing’s Translation Deficit
“Why is it so hard for foreign authors to get published in the US? … There are a number of explanations for this phenomenon, very few of which have to do with stereotypes of American readers as being culturally insulated or lacking curiosity about the outside world.”
Why UK Artists Must Agitate For Better Funding
“We need to be vocal now, rather than waiting until the election campaign is properly under way. Whichever party is in power this time next year, it will need to understand that arts cuts may result in short-term gain but long-term damage – not just to the arts economy, but to a range of wider economies, social as well as financial.”
Why Is MOCA Putting An Art Dealer In The Director’s Chair?
The selection of Jeffrey Deitch as MOCA’s new director “is inevitably framed as daring and audacious, but the appointment of a businessman to run a nonprofit in fact feels reactionary — a profoundly conservative response to the fiscal mismanagement of the museum’s prior administration, which nearly toppled MOCA in 2008.”