“When Google’s robot told us, in so many words, that what we so naively took for literature was actually something closer to porn, we wondered, naturally, what AdSense’s aesthetic standards were.”
Tag: 09.26.13
Baritone Thomas Quasthoff Moves Into Stand-Up Comedy
Until his retirement from the stage last year, Quasthoff was one of the most admired concert singers alive. Now he and variety artist Michael Frowin have launched a satirical cabaret act called Keine Kunst (No Art) in Berlin’s West End.
St. Petersburg’s Art Scene Hitting Bottom, Says Hermitage Curator
“St Petersburg’s contemporary art scene is at ‘a low point’, said Dmitri Ozerkov, the head of the State Hermitage Museum’s contemporary art department. … The decline, he said, ‘is connected to the fact that many have left for Moscow, or gone abroad, for various reasons that we won’t discuss now’.”
Why Esperanto Won’t Ever Catch On: There’s No Esperanto Culture
“People may learn English or German or Chinese to get a job. But they also learn languages to experience travel, food, film, music and literature. … So to be motivated to learn Esperanto, you have to be motivated not by a living and breathing culture, but by an ideal of international harmony. That ideal has to compete with French food, Italian fashion, Brazilian music, Spanish nightlife, American rock’n’roll, Japanese film, and so on.”
Where Samuel Clemens Really Got The Name “Mark Twain”
It was not, as our schoolteachers once taught us, from a measure of the water’s depth on the Mississippi. It wasn’t from the riverboat captain that Clemens himself claimed to have taken it from. It wasn’t even from (as the story went) his bar tab at the Nevada saloon he used to frequent. The name came from someplace that, for Clemens at that time, was even more disreputable.
Seriously, Academics, Do You Have *Anything* Left To Say About Shakespeare?
“In performance, Shakespeare can safely be left to look after himself. His plays deal in primal emotions and obviously have a broad appeal. … But what about the parallel academic industry of Shakespeare studies?”
Restoration Of 12th-Century Castle Wins 2013 Stirling Prize
“It has been home to three queens of England, served as a parliamentary garrison during the civil war and was a raucous hotel and bar, before it was ravaged by fire one particularly rowdy night in 1978. Now the fortified remains of Astley Castle near Nuneaton in Warwickshire have been declared the best building of the year – winner of the 2013 RIBA Stirling prize.”
DC Is A Great Theatre Town. Here’s How It Happened
“In just 10 short years, Washington’s theaters have undergone a transformation unlike any in the city’s history.”
North Carolina Students Will Get Free Copies Of Banned Book
“After the county’s board of education banned Ralph Ellison’s 1952 classic on black identity from school libraries, former Randolf County resident — and current New York-based Poets & Writers editor — Evan Smith Rakoff arranged for Vintage Books to donate copies of the novel, which local high schoolers can pick up for free starting September 25.”
Is Crowdfunding The Next Shot (Or Kick) The Arts In Australia Need?
“In the US, Kickstarter funds more arts-related projects than the National Endowment for the Arts. Could a similar thing happen in Australia? Could crowdfunding make up the shortfall in artistic budgets or help more emerging artists? Or will even more demands for spare dollars just weary arts supporters?”