Art

Philadelphia Opera Leading The Streaming Pack

Compared with other American companies, Opera Philadelphia is laying claim to the mantle of making new material during the pandemic. Still, what’s most notable about OperaPhila.tv is not its mere existence, but the strength of the work on offer. – The New York Times
Tags: Art, Music, Philadelphia, 01.22.21

Why Storm The Capitol? “I Came To See The Art!”

“Faced with the photo evidence, Pham then allegedly admitted to climbing over torn-down fences to get inside. But still, he insisted his reasons were benign: He just wanted the rare opportunity to view ‘historical art,’ investigators said.” – Washington Post
Tags: Art, People, Pham, 01.22.21

Why Love Work? It Doesn’t Love You Back

Over the past few decades, this ethos of cheerless duty has been overtaken by the imperative to love your work. Graduation speakers, human resources departments, and motivational memes keep telling us we ought to merge passion with profession. But work remains stubbornly unlovable. Especially for workers in the United States, the hours are long, wages have not remotely kept up with productivity, and job security is minimal. – The New Republic
Tags: Art, Ideas, United States, 01.20.21

Amazon Sued For Price Fixing

The suit “alleges that the publishers pay high commissions and other costs to Amazon, which in turn increases the retail price of e-books sold on the platform. The lawsuit claims the five publishers account for 80 percent of books sold in the US, and calls the arrangement a ‘conspiracy to fix the retail price of e-books,’ which it argues is a violation of antitrust law.” – The Verge
Tags: Amazon, Art, US, Words, 01.17.21

A 10 Billion Pixel Scan of Vermeer’s Masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring: Explore It Online

We admire Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring for many reasons, not least that it looks exactly like a girl with a pearl earring. Or at least it does from a distance, as the master of light himself no doubt stepped back to confirm countless times during the painting process, at any moment of which he would have been more concerned with the brushstrokes constituting only a small part of the image. But even Vermeer himself could have perceived only so much detail of the painting that wou...
Tags: Google, Art, Facebook, Technology, College, Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, Seoul, Facebook Twitter, Vermeer, Pearl Earring, Jason Schneider, PetaPixel, Colin Marshall, Jan Vermeer, 21st Century Los Angeles

Why Conspiracy Theories Are So Attractive

Are conspiracy theories truly more prevalent and influential today, or does it just seem that way? – NiemanLab
Tags: Art, Ideas, 01.19.21

Why I Make Undergrads Read Unfinished Novels

Matthew Redmond teaches this class at Stanford in part “to disrupt what seems an obvious distinction between development and result, closure and continuity. On careful inspection, it is surprisingly difficult to tell what makes a novel, or any piece of writing, truly finished.” Yet there was another factor this past fall quarter, “a period defined by the constant escalation of COVID-19 deaths and a presidential election in which the losing candidate refused to concede. This was no time for stori...
Tags: Art, Stanford, Words, 01.22.21, Matthew Redmond

What It Took To Program Robots To Dance The Twist And The Mashed Potato

A video which became a viral hit last month “shows two of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid Atlas research robots doing the twist, the mashed potato and other classic moves, joined by Spot, a doglike robot, and Handle, a wheeled robot designed for lifting and moving boxes in a warehouse or truck. … [It took] almost a year and half of choreography, simulation, programming and upgrades that were capped by two days of filming to produce a video running at less than 3 minutes.” – AP
Tags: Art, Dance, Boston Dynamics, 01.21.21

The Lonely, Mysterious Death Of A Science Fiction Pioneer

“This past Saturday, about a dozen people from across the United States and Canada held a Zoom memorial for a man whose remains have been lying in an unmarked grave in Nova Scotia since last spring. He was Charles R. Saunders, and his lonely death in May belied his status as a foundational figure in a literary genre known as sword and soul.” – The New York Times
Tags: Art, People, Canada, United States, Nova Scotia, 01.21.21, Charles R Saunders

Hollywood Rediscovers The Limited Series

Once thought of as a relic of yesteryear, the limited series—or miniseries, depending on which generation you belong to—has rapidly shifted back into focus. – Fast Company
Tags: Art, Media, 01.20.21

One Composer’s Long Slog To Make A Giant TV Network Pay For Using His Music

Unbeknownst to the composer, waiting beyond a YouTube search for his name was a seeming subindustry that consistently used Kerry Muzzey’s music without his knowledge. ContentID surfaced roughly 20,000 videos for Muzzey in the first month—200 or 400 more got flagged every single day. – Ars Technica
Tags: Art, Music, Kerry Muzzey, Muzzey, 01.20.21, Giant TV Network

Vice President for Development, Grand Rapids Symphony

The Grand Rapids Symphony invites applications and nominations for the position of Vice President for Development, available in the first quarter of 2021. The Grand Rapids Symphony invites applications and nominations for the position of Vice President for Development, available in the first quarter of 2021.The Organizationhttps://www.grsymphony.orgNow in its 91th season, the Grand Rapids Symphony (GRS) is a highly acclaimed orchestra that presents more than 400 performances annually, reachi...
Tags: Art, New York, Jobs, Microsoft, New York City, US, America, Chicago, Ford, Michigan, Richard, Wall Street Journal, Expedia, Verdi, Grand Rapids, Forbes

Pandemic Lockdowns Were Supposed To Be A Chance To Rethink The Ways Theatre Operates. Has That Happened?

To an extent, yes, it has. Reporter Natasha Tripney talks with theatremakers around Britain about the positive developments — the success of streaming, increased engagement with communities, more egalitarian casting, long-distance collaboration — that started to arise during this public health disaster. –
Tags: Art, Theatre, Britain, Audience, Natasha Tripney, 01.21.21

"Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.... typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, propositions, and declarative sentences...."

"Most human activities depend upon the concept, where its nature as a concept is assumed rather than being a subject of discussion; these include most of the sciences, law, journalism, and everyday life.... Most commonly, truth is viewed as the correspondence of language or thought to a mind-independent world." From "Truth," a Wikipedia article I stumbled upon, via "The McNamara Fallacy," as I was writing the last post, which ended with my saying I needed to start this new post, because "Truth...
Tags: Art, Law, Washington, Wikipedia, America, Joe Biden, New York Times, Philosophy, John F Kennedy, Propaganda, Jfk, Biden, Trump, Nixon, Susan Glasser, Glasser

Manet Painting Unseen For 140 Years Headed To Auction

“The oil on canvas painting, named after the dog, a griffon called Minnay, is one of a series of eight dog paintings Manet produced between 1875-1883. The animal belonged to Marguerite, whose father was Gauthier Lathuille, the owner of a cabaret and later restaurant that featured in other Manet paintings.” – The Guardian
Tags: Art, Visual, Marguerite, 01.21.21, Gauthier Lathuille

Audiences Won’t Come Back Until Folks Are Vaccinated (But They Still Want Masks): Study

The survey of 3,300 frequent attenders (most over 60 and almost all over 40) found that, now that COVID-19 vaccines are being given to the public, more than two-thirds expect they’ll be comfortable at indoor performances by June. (The rest say not until 2022.) More than three-quarters said they’d be willing to pay more to make up for revenue lost due to social distancing. – American Theatre
Tags: Art, Issues, Audience, 01.21.21

Mirga Will Leave City Of Birmingham Symphony After Next Season

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the young Lithuanian woman whose considerable reputation began developing while she was an assistant conductor at the L.A. Philharmonic, became music director of the CBSO in 2016. In what she describes as “a deeply personal decision” — she and her partner have two young children and a home base in Austria — she has extended her contract in Birmingham for one season and will step down in the summer of 2022. – Gramophone
Tags: Art, Music, Austria, Birmingham, CBSO, Mirga Gražinytė Tyla, 01.22.21

Georgia Towns Sue Netflix To Make Them Pay Cable Fees

Three municipalities in Georgia are suing Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video providers for as much as 5 percent of their gross revenue in the district — joining a nationwide group of towns and counties that want these services regulated more like cable TV. It’s a small but growing front in the war over cord-cutting, challenging regulators to decide which matters more: the increasing role streaming services play in American media diets or their significant practical differences from tradit...
Tags: Art, Media, Georgia, Netflix Hulu, 01.20.21

Cannes Film Festival 2021 Will Happen, But May Be Postponed To July

“With the Cannes Lions [advertising convention] still on track to run June 21-25, it’s feasible that the Cannes Film Festival could be assembled in time to roll out in early July. One industry insider says it would take only a few days or roughly a week to set up the film festival.” – Variety
Tags: Art, Media, Cannes Lions, 01.21.21

Art Basel Postponed To September 2021

“In another blow to Art Basel and its owner, MCH Group, the art fair’s organizers have postponed its flagship edition in Switzerland for the second year straight due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Basel fair, which usually takes place in June, is now scheduled for September 23 through 26.” – Artnet
Tags: Art, Switzerland, Basel, Art Basel, Visual, MCH Group, 01.21.21

Biden Axes Trump’s ‘1776 Commission’ On History Curriculum

“President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order to dissolve the 1776 Commission, a panel stood up by President Donald Trump … as an apparent counter to The New York Times’ 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning project aimed at teaching American students about slavery that Trump, speaking last fall, had called ‘toxic propaganda.'” – CNN
Tags: Art, Joe Biden, New York Times, Donald Trump, Issues, Trump, 01.21.21, Biden Axes Trump

Salonen And San Francisco Symphony Open Streaming Platform

“The new on-demand streaming service, dubbed SFSymphony+, is scheduled to launch on Feb. 4 with a chamber program curated by Salonen as part of the orchestra’s SoundBox series. … Membership is priced at $120 for the entire season, or $15 for individual episodes. Some of the programming … will also be offered for free.” This is planned as a long-term part of the Symphony’s activities, not just a substitute for the live concerts cancelled due to the pandemic. – San Francisco Chronicle
Tags: Art, Music, San Francisco, Salonen, 01.21.21

The Bidenification of the Oval Office.

  And now I have the answer to the question we had when we watched him sign those executive orders on Day 1: Who's that a bust of in the most prominent place right behind the desk, looming amongst the family photographs? Answer: Cesar Chavez! [Author: [email protected] (Ann Althouse)]
Tags: Art, Law, Biden, Oval Office, Cesar Chavez, Ann Althouse, Interior Decoration

Director of Civic Alliances at The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York City

We are eager to build civic alliances between a broad range of community organizations and The Perelman. Community organizations with whom we will have relationships both include and expand beyond those near our site in Lower Manhattan and those that are geographically based. We will seek relationships with a broad array of communities throughout all five boroughs, ranging from those rooted in neighborhood to occupation, age, ability/disability, faith, sexual orientation and gender identity,...
Tags: Art, Jobs, New York City, World Trade Center, DCA, Perelman, Lower Manhattan, Bill Rauch, Emily Calderin, Ronald O Perelman Performing Arts Center, Perelman Community

A Google designer takes us inside Search’s mobile redesign

The beginning of a new year inspires people everywhere to make changes. It's when many of us take stock of our lives, our careers or even just our surroundings and think about what improvements we can make. That's also been the case for Google designer Aileen Cheng. Aileen recently led a major visual redesign of the mobile Search experience, which rolls out in the coming days. “We wanted to take a step back to simplify a bit so people could find what they’re looking for faster and more easily,” ...
Tags: Google, Design, Molly, Google Search, Search, Aileen, Aileen Cheng Aileen