“For readers, 2009 was a year of miracles that brought massive price cuts on popular titles, and unprecedented choices in how to consume them. It was not the year the book died – not yet. It was the year ‘long-form content’ finally threw off its cellulose shackles….”
Tag: 12.29.09
Dali’s Ballet Backdrop, Out Of Carnegie Museum’s Closet
“An enormous stage curtain created by Salvador Dali for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was unfurled yesterday at the Carnegie Museum of Art for the first time since the museum acquired it 33 years ago. The purpose: to evaluate its condition, photograph it for the museum’s internal use and figure out how to display it.”
Do Fragmented Media Mean Loss Of Cultural Touchstones?
“New technologies have given us access to countless channels for music, television and film — and we can sample them whenever we find it convenient. But as the options multiply, are we losing our sense of a common culture?”
Romeo And Juliet, As People Misremembered It
A new version of “Romeo and Juliet” is based “on the fuzzy recollections of people who read it in high school. … The result is a hilarious mishmash of half-recalled quotes, mixed-up plot points and wild digressions — all performed in the traditional Shakespearean style.”
A Common Human Tendency: Procrastination Of Pleasure
Researchers “have begun to explore the strange impulse to put off until tomorrow what could be enjoyed today. Why, for instance, is it so hard to find time to visit landmarks in your own backyard?”
Matt Turney, Graham Dancer For Two Decades, Dies at 84
“Matt Turney, a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, died on Dec. 20 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. … Tall, serene and lyrical, Ms. Turney did not fit the stereotype of the Graham performer.”
In Cuba-US Relations, Both Sides Try Arts Diplomacy
“[A] movement by [Cuban] artists, scholars and businessmen to change United States policy toward Cuba from the bottom up” has an American counterpart: “the Obama administration has quietly expanded cultural and academic exchanges as a way of reaching out directly to Cuban people. Many of those who participate try to avoid politics.”
Addams Family Producers Recruit Jerry Zaks For Revamp
The musical “began its pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago this month and received several positive reviews from critics — but also a pointedly tough one full of criticism from that city’s most influential theater critic, Chris Jones of The Chicago Tribune, who concluded that the show ‘needs to be funnier and more visually spontaneous.'”
Poet Dennis Brutus, Who Fought Apartheid, Dies At 85
The South African’s “first collection of poetry was published while he was still in prison. Sirens, Knuckles and Boots was printed in Nigeria as he was forbidden to teach, write or publish at home. His writing was celebrated for its lyrical intensity and his earlier works for their narrative complexity, although some critics found his later political works akin to sloganeering.”
In ’09’s Tighter Art Market, Some Works Thrived At Auction
Among the top 10: “Henri Matisse’s 1911 still life of cowslips, ‘Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose’ from the collection of late couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge fetched 35.9 million euros ($45.6 million), an artist record, at a Christie’s Paris auction on Feb. 23.”