“His subsequent turn to many modes of contemporary dance has been criticized as an opportunistic move that had the unfortunate side effect of making these idioms seem like a refuge for diminished athletic capacity. But Baryshnikov says that he has come to feel that ballet ‘is kind of a dead art, a bit, in my view,’ and actually his interest in modern dance long predates the end of his ballet career.”
Tag: 05.19.10
England’s Cultural Sector Must Make ‘Rational Argument’ For Arts Funding
“Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey has called on the cultural sector to help it make a ‘rational’ argument to government about the importance of funding for the arts, in order to avoid heavy cuts in this autumn’s spending review.”
Stanford University (Of Course) Builds A Bookless Library
“Box by box, decades of past scholarship are being packed up and emptied from two old libraries, Physics and Engineering, to make way for the future: a smaller but more efficient and largely electronic library that can accommodate the vast, expanding and interrelated literature of Physics, Computer Science and Engineering.”
Might Scottish Opera Downsize Its Orchestra?
“Scottish Opera … management called for talks with the Musicians’ Union over the future of its orchestra. Alex Reedijk, general director of the national company, has arranged talks with representatives of its 53-strong, full-time ensemble next week, because he believes the orchestra is under-utilised.”
Philosophy For Your iPhone
“What’s the meaning of life? There’s an app for that. AskPhilosophers.org, a Web site that makes philosophers available to answer questions, is going mobile, creating a free downloadable app for mobile devices.”
Why Orson Welles Should Not Be Your Role Model
“[He is] seen as a man who once had it all in terms of power and freedom … [Yet] Welles stubbornly insisted on keeping his freedom long after he had to relinquish his power, which makes him a troubled role model at best. Some people who continue to envy the power he once had wind up resenting the freedom he continued to exercise, especially when it became the freedom to hold back his work for one reason or another.”
Why Johnny Can’t Write
“When you teach English to college students, you quickly realize two things. First, many seem to have received little writing instruction in high school. … [Second,] correcting students’ papers is tremendously time consuming. … If it takes me all weekend to correct 40 papers, how can a high school English teacher begin to tackle 120 papers (four sections, 30 students per section) in a detail-oriented way?”
Barnes & Noble Gets Into The Digital Self-Publishing Biz
“The service, which will launch this summer, will allow authors and publishers to convert their digital files to the ePub format, which is used by Barnes & Noble’s Nook and other e-reading devices. PubIt! titles will be sold on BarnesandNoble.com’s e-bookstore, and will be available for browsing inside the brick and mortar stores through the Nook.”
Jerry Brown Backs Appeal Of Norton Simon Museum Win
“[T]he issue in the friend-of-the-court brief that Brown filed on behalf of Marei Von Saher” is “the constitutionality of a 2002 California law that would save her from having her case thrown out on the grounds that she failed to file her stolen property claim within the usual three-year statute of limitations.”
Allen Ginsberg, Shutterbug
“Knowing that [his friends would] one day be famous, Ginsberg documented their lives — their travels, late nights and meandering walks. And he did it all with a second-hand Kodak camera, using nothing more than the instructions on the film packets.”