Art Here and Now
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Categories: The Press, Theatre | 1 Comment

After I wrote the post about Young Frankenstein yesterday, I ran into this post – Are Blogs Making The Time-Honored Preview Obsolete?
It’s common practice for the press to refrain from reviewing shows when they are in previews. If you do a search on Technorati or Google for “Young Frankenstein musical”, however, you’ll see that [...]

Categories: Cinema, Dance, Featured, Music & Sounds, Theatre, United StatesComments Off

The Producers and Hairspray both began as movies, became musicals, and then turned into movie musicals. I have little doubt the new musical Young Frankenstein will follow the same footsteps.
It’s still in previews and has its flaws, but mostly it’s a lot of fun. From some really funny moments to a giant Frankenstein [...]

Categories: Economics, Featured, Japan, Painting, SculptureComments Off

International art collectors are warming up to a new breed of daring Japanese artists that are no longer beholden to Western styles.
Mentioned in the article is a Contemporary Arts Fund. I’m not sure how well known this is, but there are funds (like mutual funds) created by financial organizations that own artwork instead of [...]

Categories: Cinema, Featured, Moving Pictures, Philosophy, Short Films, Television, United States | 3 Comments

A common view of people involved in meditation of any kind is that they’re wimpy. They live in the clouds and forests among birds and silence, stay in big quiet stone buildings and don’t do much that actually affects the world. They’re just not realistic. “That’s nice and everything, you’re not hurting [...]

Categories: Fiction, TelevisionComments Off

“How you uh, how you comin’ on that novel you’re working on? Huh? Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Gotta, gotta nice litte story you’re working on there? Your big novel you’ve been working on for 3 years? Huh? Gotta, gotta compelling protaganist? Yeah? Gotta obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? Gotta [...]

Categories: Big Business, Featured, Installation Art, United StatesComments Off

For the past few months, 12 7-Elevens in the United States were converted to real life Kwik-E-Marts, the very 7-Eleven-like stores featured in The Simpsons. The 12 stores have outsides changed to Kwik-E-Mart logos and colors, staff inside wears Kwik-E-Mart shirts, and the store sells Squishees, Buzz Cola, Krusty-O’s and pink doughnuts.
Before this actually [...]

Categories: Japan, Music & Sounds, Short FilmsComments Off

Japanese artist Cornelius often performs in stadiums back in Japan. So I felt lucky to see him in a venue with only about 50 other people. When I first saw the show advertised, I thought it was a mistake because it was in such a small space. Cornelius has been called “The [...]

Categories: Big Business, Cinema, Featured, JapanComments Off

Right now, within a 10 block radius of my apartment, there are about 15 condo projects going up. The average price for a condo is about $350,000, double what the average person in the city could afford. Yet they keep rising from the ground, many times taking down or absorbing perfectly good apartment [...]

Categories: Sculpture, United KingdomComments Off

I loved the multi-story slides at the Tate Modern in London. I figured they were art (being an art museum and all), but I didn’t learn until later that they were sadly only temporary.
The slides were created by German artist Carsten Höller.

Learn more from Tate Modern.

Categories: Dance, Featured, Germany, Music & Sounds, Short Films, Theatre | 1 Comment

Throwing stuffed animals at each other while jumping on second hand furniture in between stripteases doesn’t count as art most of the time, even though it’s a helluva lot of fun. But Berlin choreographer Constanza Macras and company Dorky Park weave together an enticing performance that’s both fun and sexy while technically challenging. [...]

Categories: China, Dance, FeaturedComments Off

The Beijing Modern Dance Company created the piece Red Light set to the music of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. It toured the U.S. back in 2005, and has haunted me ever since.
For most people in the United States born after the 80’s, The Wall is something you see and listen to in high school. [...]