Arts news

• Broadway Fires Its Harry Potter

  24-01-2022 23:13 via nytimes.com
  
  The show on Sunday issued a statement saying that James Snyder, who played the title role for about a year before the pandemic and then rejoined the show when it restarted last fall, had been terminated following a complaint by Diane Davis, the actress playing his wife, Ginny. – The New York Times
  
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• Having Trouble Focusing? Here’s Why

  24-01-2022 22:27 via washingtonpost.com
  Our brains aren’t designed to absorb so much at a time: In one study, 136 students took a test; some had their phones turned off, while others received occasional text messages. Those who received messages scored about 20 percent lower than those who didn’t. – Washington Post
  
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• Lee Godie Was Chicago’s Iconic ‘Bag Lady’ Artist

  24-01-2022 21:44 via nytimes.com
  
  Godie was a “weathered blond woman wearing a rabbit fur coat and men’s orthopedic slip-ons as she hawked her art on Michigan Avenue.” The short-tempered artist, whose work ended up in solo shows and museums, lived mostly on the streets. – The New York Times
  
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• Catch The “Vibe”

  24-01-2022 21:02 via thedriftmag.com
  
  Once, vibe, mood, and energy were watchwords of the counterculture. Today, this vocabulary has diffused beyond any niche group. – The Drift
  
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• Tinie Tempah puts modern heroes in portrait focus for BBC series

  24-01-2022 20:23
  
  In six-parter on BBC One, the rapper matches people with extraordinary stories to celebrated artistsAs one of society’s oldest art forms, portraiture was traditionally used to convey the power, importance and even wealth of a sitter. Now, one of Britain’s most successful rappers wants to help “change the narrative” around the art form – by shining a spotlight on contemporary heroes instead.In a new six-part series for the BBC, Tinie Tempah, who has had seven No 1 si
  
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• What We Learned About Teaching Music Online

  24-01-2022 20:02 via theconversation.com
  
  Going online has forced music educators to adapt existing ideas, or adopt existing technology, to discover, invent and share ways to reach students to keep music education alive. – The Conversation
  
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• Can American Audiences Still Do Ambiguity?

  24-01-2022 19:32 via theatlantic.com
  
  We want thinking and imagining lives that are active rather than passive, evolving rather than static. A flourishing shared cultural life is one in which the stories we are told, and the stories we tell about ourselves, are free-ranging and risky, not locked down and safe. – The Atlantic
  
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• Despite Omicron, LA Art Fairs Push Ahead

  24-01-2022 18:44 via latimes.com
  
  Typically this weeklong coagulation of art fairs in mid-February — dubbed Frieze Week — draws art makers, sellers, collectors and spectators from around the globe, which in turn spawns parties, performances, art talks and other Prosecco-infused art happenings citywide. – Los Angeles Times
  
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• The Value Of Stephen Sondheim’s Estate

  24-01-2022 18:01 via nypost.com
  
  The “West Side Story” songwriter’s assets totaled approximately $75 million, according to papers accompanying his 2017 will filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s court last month. – New York Post
  
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• The joke is on the Conservative party | Brief letters

  24-01-2022 17:48
  
  Islamophobia | Political graffiti | Snakes alive | Pride in Britain | Morning masksIt’s good to see that not everyone in Downing Street has lost their sense of humour. The proof? The quote in your story (Calls for Tory Islamophobia inquiry as PM drawn into Nusrat Ghani row, 23 January) by a No 10 spokesperson: “The Conservative party does not tolerate prejudice or discrimination of any kind.”Bill KirtonAberdeen• Driving west on the M62 towards Manchester, I noticed graffit
  
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• San Francisco Arts Organizations Wondering At Delays In City Funding

  24-01-2022 17:32 via kqed.org
  
  Over the past few months, arts administrators across the city have become increasingly distressed by the significant delays they’ve experienced while trying to get the money they were promised—and by the confusing communications they’re getting from the city’s granting organization itself. – KQED
  
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• Translator, Author, Cherished Friend A Great One Died 10 Years Ago Today

  24-01-2022 17:11 via artsjournal.com
  Carl was a “little magazine” editor, a radio playwright, German translator of more than 100 books (but principally of Charles Bukowski and William Burroughs, Nelson Algren and J.G. Ballard, also of Frank Zappa and Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), as well as a literary agent who spread the work of dissident writers even further. Le Regard d’Autrui, published posthumously in 2019, shows him to have been as magnetic a storyteller as any of the celebrated writers he tr
  
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• ‘It’s a slow catastrophe’: artists try to tackle the dangers of rising sea levels

  24-01-2022 17:08
  
  In two new exhibitions, shocking photography and video simulations give an idea of the effects of the climate crisisHow should culture respond to the climate crisis? Can it provide a wake-up call that isn’t so brutally loud and depressing that we don’t just smash the alarm clock and go back to sleep?Exhibit A in such debates right now is Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay’s comedy/disaster film about two astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) trying to warn that an
  
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• Abigail Disney Is Disgusted By Disney, And Made A Movie To Explain Why

  24-01-2022 17:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Disney and two of her siblings are executive producers on a new documentary that “positions the entertainment company that bears their name as ‘ground zero of the widening inequality in America.'” – The New York Times
  
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• A Ugandan Novelist Has Been Imprisoned For His Tweets, And May Have Been Tortured

  24-01-2022 16:30 via lithub.com
  
  The EU special representative for human rights says, “I’m alarmed by reports of alleged torture and incommunicado detention of author [Rukirabashaija Kakwenza]. He remains in detention without trial, despite a court order for his unconditional release.” – LitHub
  
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• When The Art Connoisseur Is A Robot

  24-01-2022 16:00 via hyperallergic.com
  
  Artificial intelligence (OK, not an actual “robot”) is really, really good at identifying brushstrokes. “The researchers hypothesized that brushwork on a painting leaves behind a ‘fingerprint’ that largely lies beyond human powers of identification” – and they were correct. – Hyperallergic
  
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• Gainsborough’s Blue Boy: a cocksure kid who looks right through you – review

  24-01-2022 15:53
  
  National Gallery, London
  Sold in 1921 for a record price, this youth in blue and silver is back after 100 years away. Yet it’s as hokey a vision of English art as a Disney cartoon of a fox huntYou must remember Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy. It’s the painting that gets stolen from a rich man’s house in the 1929 Laurel and Hardy short Wrong Again. Trying to claim the reward, Stan and Ollie fetch a racehorse called Blue Boy instead and attempt to “leave it on the pia
  
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• We’re All Used To Streaming Theatre Now, But What About Augmented Reality Theatre?

  24-01-2022 15:45 via nytimes.com
  
  You know, hologram theatre in your kitchen or living room or … wherever. “Theater makers are naturally fascinated: They’re used to working in 3-D. … As soon as you bring a director or stage designer or choreographer into V.R., you see their brains whirring.” – The New York Times
  
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• Some Musicians Are Going Label-Free, Again

  24-01-2022 15:30 via bbc.com
  
  Why? Streaming royalties. – BBC
  
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• A Holocaust Museum In Virtual Reality

  24-01-2022 15:15 via fastcompany.com
  
  To be clear, one has to be at the museum to experience survivors’ personal stories in VR. But “pretty much across the board, viewing audiences have been moved by this in ways that they couldn’t have expected,” says Illinois Holocaust Museum CEO Susan Abrams. – Fast Company
  
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• A Holocause Museum In Virtual Reality

  24-01-2022 15:15 via fastcompany.com
  
  To be clear, one has to be at the museum to experience survivors’ personal stories in VR. But “pretty much across the board, viewing audiences have been moved by this in ways that they couldn’t have expected,” says Illinois Holocaust Museum CEO Susan Abrams. – Fast Company
  
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• I Swear We Are Still A Collective Of Humanity

  24-01-2022 15:00 via nytimes.com
  
  No matter what our language choices. Consider the word like: “The conversational ‘like’ strikes many as merely a messy hedge that The Kids use too much. But from the point of view of linguistic analysis, ‘like’ is a subtle and even kindly thing.” – The New York Times
  
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• When Two Stars Play One Part On The Same Stage

  24-01-2022 14:45 via nytimes.com
  
  Uma Thurman and Renée Fleming are both Penelope; it’s just that one speaks, and one sings. Thurman: “When you put language to music, it becomes very specific. … It’s a challenge that makes me feel like I’m doing things for the first time.”  – The New York Times
  
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• The Limits Of The Young Adult Label

  24-01-2022 14:30 via slate.com
  
  Selling books is complex, and author Malinda Lo, winner of the National Book Award for young people, says the label is just marketing. “I like very complicated people who make bad decisions because, you know what? Those are the ones who make the best characters.” – Slate
  
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• An Actress Takes Control Of The ‘Unsexy’ Side Of Movies

  24-01-2022 14:15 via latimes.com
  
  Dakota Johnson is now a producer. She says, “It’s not about control. It’s about contribution. It’s about collaboration. … It’s about really reaching for an idea and sticking to it and maintaining the integrity of whatever story is trying to be told.” – Los Angeles Times
  
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• A Tricky Case For The Lawyer Who Wrote The Book On Restitution For Nazi-Looted Art

  24-01-2022 14:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Stuart Eizenstat, who helped write the Washington Principles, is in an odd position. “The optics of his surfacing for the first time in a restitution case, not on the side of claimants, but of defendants, have surprised some experts in the field.” – The New York Times
  
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• Dear Audience, The Author Is Not Always The Novel’s Main Character

  24-01-2022 13:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Or perhaps ever. Rebecca Watson: “I really don’t believe there’s a correlation … but people try to map the piece onto the novel and interpret it as confessional. This novel was never an act of catharsis. It was a joyful act of creation.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Broadway Is Back, But What About Audiences?

  24-01-2022 13:30 via npr.org
  Recently, Broadway shows haven’t needed to cancel because of COVID cases in cast or crew, but there are a lot of empty seats – and three shows are closing in hopes of reopening in the spring. – NPR
  
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• When Your First Novel Becomes A Political Lightning Rod For The Side You Don’t Even Support

  24-01-2022 13:15 via nytimes.com
  
  Ana Iris Simón has been “stunned not only by the success of her book, but also by how an ultranationalist and conservative audience … embraced Feria as an ode to Spain’s traditional family values” – which, she says, it is not. – The New York Times
  
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• Super Bowl Half-Time Dancers Aren’t OK With Rehearsing And Performing For Exposure

  24-01-2022 13:00 via latimes.com
  
  Of course: “Field cast participants — aspiring dancers, actors, singers and musicians recruited from local drill teams as well as theatrical, community and athletic groups — are expected to be grateful for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” But wait; it’s 2022. – Los Angeles Times
  
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