Yes, Let’s Keep On Talking About Who ‘Gets’ To Write What, And Why
“A writer has the right to inhabit any character she pleases — she’s always had it and will continue to have it. The complaint seems to be less that some people ask writers to think about cultural appropriation, and more that a writer wishes her work not to be critiqued for doing so, that instead she get a gold star for trying.”
Fine, Let’s Talk About Sombreros And Lionel Shriver
Francine Prose: “Like much of Shriver’s talk, this paragraph contains a kernel of truth encased by a husk of cultural and historical blindness. It seems clear that one part of the fiction writer’s job is ‘to step into other people’s shoes.’ But to paraphrase Freud, sometimes a hat is more than just a hat. Sometimes it is a symbol—and a racist one, at that.”
The Writing Life, And All Of The Self-Sabotage It Includes
“I am locked in a battle between self-doubt and self-discipline, and the former usually wins. I have the concentration of… oh, I like your shoes. It is so much easier to plummet down the sinkhole of Twitter.”
Monty Python’s Terry Jones Diagnosed With Dementia
“Jones, who is from Colwyn Bay in north Wales, was a member of the legendary comedy troupe with Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman. He directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life and co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Gilliam.”
The Intimate Details Of Theatre Poster Design
“I wanted something that you would look at, and without having it hit you heavily, you would understand it came from the ’20s and ’30s. We wanted to show a certain modernity that had style.”
Rolling Stone Sells Almost Half Of Itself To An Investor From Singapore
“BandLab’s investment provides Rolling Stone with the opportunity to expand into the live event, hospitality and merchandising businesses in Asia—areas where BandLab has experience. Its flagship product is a digital platform for creating and sharing music.”
The 32-Year-Old ‘Fixer’ Of Pop Songs
“His is a story of why endurance and persistence are essential in the music business – even if your career seems only to consist of blind alleys at the start.”
This Week in Understanding Audience: Baby Boomers Reinvent The Movie Experience
This week: Baby boomers are breathing new life into movie theatres… Dance clubs are languishing as millennials stay away… Netflix reveals at what point we get hooked on TV series… How the audience changes when admission is free… The Ticket bots strike again on Broadway.
Five Stories/Trends From This Week’s ArtsJournal: How The Arts Speak To Real Life
This Week: Why is it so hard to tell if American theatre is thriving or not?… Have art and technology had a falling out?… Perhaps TV is the solution to our political polarization… The music industry seems to be finally getting it together… A cautionary tale about getting swallowed up by the online world.
Should The Minnesota Orchestra Start Looking For A Successor To Osmo Vanska?
“Much remains uncertain about the future, with orchestras everywhere battling to stop declining attendance figures. In these rapidly evolving circumstances, the relatively short three-year extension to music director Osmo Vänskä’s contract, announced in May 2015, was probably the sensible option for management and conductor. It does, though, snap sharply into focus the real possibility that Vänskä could be gone by August 2019.”
Images Of Los Angeles That Go Far Beyond The Postcards
“In the photographs of Anthony Hernandez, there are no swaying palm trees or cinematic sunsets. Instead, for half a century, this born-and-bred Angeleno has trained his unblinking lens on another L.A. — a city of the aged, of the working class, of the destitute.”
Jordanian Writer About To Stand Trial For A Cartoon Is Shot Dead Outside Of Court
“Hattar, a Christian, was arrested on August 13 after posting a caricature on his Facebook account that depicted a bearded man in heaven smoking in bed with women, asking God to bring him wine and cashews.”
Baby Boomers Are Returning To The Movies, Reshaping Cinema Again
“More than the actual films though, it is the surrounding experience at the cinema that is pulling this generation through the doors. ‘Event cinema’, such as live-streamed ballet and opera, ‘is particularly valued’ by older people.”
San Francisco Might Want To Push This Woman Out Of Museum Management – But She’s Not Ready To Go
“Her coal eyes flashed when she was asked to identify the anonymous wag who had told a reporter her run had come to an end. ‘I have no idea, and I’d like to kill them,’ Ms. Wilsey said. No one was going to run her out, she added. She would remain, overseeing politics and fund-raising. And to her detractors she would like to say: ‘You will look like a bunch of idiots. And I am going to laugh myself silly.'”
Is The Era Of The Nightclub Over?
“Even though an estimated half of venues have closed within the past decade, dance music industry figures insisted the scene is in rude health, with people instead choosing all-day events in parks, raves in pop-up spaces and festivals for their weekly freakout.”
Fort Worth Symphony Cancels All Concerts Through Early November
“The musicians, who are represented by the American Federation of Musicians Local 72-147, lambasted management’s decision to cancel concerts scheduled for more than a month away.”
Can An Old Dance Theatre Do New Tricks?
“The theater looks a certain way, the curtain goes up on a company, and whatever happens on a stage can be vastly different from week to week. However, the experience itself of attending the Joyce has grown to be somewhat regular, and this is a way to challenge that.”
What Happens When A Novel You’ve Been Working On For Seven Years Finally Gets Published?
Yaa Gyasi: “This novel was an attempt for me to say: We cannot look away when something like this is happening. We can’t look away. We don’t get to.”
An Explainer: Why Your Social Media Feeds Exploded With Grief Over The Great British Bake Off
“Contestants never say things like ‘I didn’t come here to make friends.’ There are no irritating product placements and — perhaps most incomprehensibly to American audiences — no material riches to be won. That’s right: The winner of ‘The Great British Baking Show’ wins a title and an engraved cake stand, and that’s it.”
Is This Quiet Rule Change A Death Knell For Canadian TV And Movies – And Actors?
“I began thinking about the ship of Theseus. The vessel in question was an ancient Greek ship kept afloat for generations by the replacement of any rotting plank and it is famous as a philosophical paradox: If every plank has been replaced, is it still the same ship?”
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The International Ambassador For Louisiana Roots Music
“Dural took up the accordion in 1978 and founded Buckwheat Zydeco a year later. In 30 years of touring and recording he took zydeco to unexpected physical and musical places. From his take on Bob Dylan’s ‘A Night Like This’ for Australian TV in the ’80s, to ‘Hey Joe’ on David Letterman’s Late Show in the ’90s, to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in May, Dural was a welcoming presence who made his audiences happy.”
An Actor Who Had To Hide Her Pregnancy Is Now A Break-Out Star In ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’
“I’m sick to death of being asked to go on panels about why there aren’t more women in the industry. We all know there aren’t enough. It’s time we stopped saying, ‘Isn’t it a shame?’ I want to see actual physical change.”
The First U.S. Dancer To Train In Cuba This Millennium
“I love the culture here. … The kids here enter into the school to become ballet dancers. They’re not doing it for a hobby so therefore the training is really, really intense.”
Bug-Infested Zombie Partisans, Or, What T.V. Tells Us About Our Politics
“When you talk about the Democrats and the Republicans and Trump and Clinton and Bernie Sanders, inevitably, conversations blow up, and people become enraged. If you’re talking about Game of Thrones, you can use it essentially as a language that everybody speaks, that you discuss those same things, and not end all your friendships.”
Award-Winning Inuit Artist Found Dead At 46
“Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna offered his condolences to Pootoogook’s family Friday afternoon on Twitter. And Nunavut MP Hunter Tootoo tweeted that Canada has ‘lost great artist & great woman.'”
How ‘Thelma And Louise’ Changed Geena Davis’ Life
“I go to meetings at the guilds and networks and studios and production companies and present the research in a private and collegial way. And the reaction is fantastic, because they’re shocked and horrified, and they want to make change.”
When Margaret Atwood Rewrites Shakespeare
“Shakespeare refuses to be boxed in. Not only do we know very little about what he really thought, felt and believed, but the plays themselves are elusive. Just when you think you’ve got a meaning nailed down, your interpretation melts like jelly and you’re left scratching your head. Maybe he’s deep, very deep. Or maybe he didn’t have a continuity editor. And Shakespeare will never turn up on a talkshow and be asked to explain himself, the lucky devil.”
Is This The Golden Age Of Playwriting?
“Or … is something else true? Is it actually a bear market? Is our theatre in a moment of peril?”
Tristan Und Isolde Is The Ultimate Opera
“As well as enlarging – or perhaps subverting – the subject matter of opera, Tristan und Isolde also marked a turning point in the history of music. The opening chord in the prelude, the so-called Tristan chord, is seen by some as the beginning of modern music, introducing chromaticism, dissonance and, according to the composer Arnold Schoenberg, even atonality.”
A Century After It Was Proposed, The National Museum Of African American History And Culture Opens
”There were some who said it couldn’t happen, who said ‘you can’t do it,’ but we did it,’ said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who led the charge to make the museum a reality. ‘This place is more than a building. It is a dream come true.'”