Why We’re Stuck In A Morass Of Racial Euphemisms
“Some would say that black people have a right to decide what they want to be called, and that that’s all there is to it. However, that answer is incomplete, and risks people merely classifying the matter as one more example of what Steven Pinker has artfully called the “euphemism treadmill.” We can do better than that.”
After A Decade Of Fluff: How The UK Fell In Love With Brainy Quiz Shows
“The appeal of tough TV quizzes is that sometimes, we want to be taxed. The lowest common denominator doesn’t always have to win. Difficult things can be fun. That competitive element, a touch of showing off on the sofa, doesn’t hurt either.”
German People’s Theatre Community Protests Appointment Of Tate Modern’s Director Chris Dercon
In June, 90 staff members and 80 freelancers of the Volksbühne sent one to the Berlin House of Representatives expressing deep concern that Dercon will trade long-established artistic standards for “a globally extended consensus culture with uniform presentation and sales patterns.” Volksbühne means “People’s Stage” and was established in 1914 as a working-class theater committed to the experimental.
Kung Fu Is Fading Away In Hong Kong
“The kung fu culture that [Bruce] Lee helped popularize – and that gave the city a gritty, exotic image in the eyes of foreigners – is in decline. Hong Kong’s streets are safer, with fewer murders by the fierce crime organizations known as triads that figured in so many kung fu films. And its real estate is among the world’s most expensive, making it difficult for training studios to afford soaring rents.”
Critical Disconnect – The “Best Movies Of The 2000’s” List Shows Gulf Between Critics And Audiences
“Critics can champion as many ferociously innovative films as they like, but if the audiences who actually feed the coffers of studios continue to ignore their recommendations, then the industry will simply keep delivering substandard, heavily franchised fare.”
The 450-Year History Of The True Crime Genre
“Between 1550 and 1700, British authors and printers produced an unprecedented number of publications that reported on capital crimes. As literacy rates expanded and new print technologies emerged, topical leaflets began to circulate among newly literate and semiliterate consumers.” It was a respectable genre, “consumed primarily by literate members of the artisan class and above.”
We Thought The Internet Would Liberate Us. Instead It Distracted Us From What Really Mattered
“By spreading a utopian view of technology, a view that defines progress as essentially technological, they’ve encouraged people to switch off their critical faculties and give Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and financiers free rein in remaking culture to fit their commercial interests.”
Meet The Jerry Seinfeld Of France (Who’s Just Moved To The States)
“Back in Europe, [Gad] Elmaleh, who has big blue eyes framed by well-worn laugh lines, is famous. Like, famous famous. His films rake in millions at the box office, he sells out arenas for one-man shows, and walking down the rues of Paris with him, which I’ve done, is a laborious task due to all the selfie-seekers.” What’s best about living in New York? “I love being anonymous, being in a place where no one cares.”
Why Bollywood Is The Heart Of A Nation
“There is something about a big, popular art form that dramatizes a society’s deepest tensions that I find desperately moving. In the West, this is the kind of heavy lifting that was once the preserve of the novel — think of Dickens and Balzac. But in India, Bollywood alone deals with our society’s inner tension, its fault lines and frictions.”
Religion Makes Its Way, Carefully, Into TV Drama
“As important as religion is in the lives of many viewers, television has had a tentative relationship with it. … But are things changing, and how? Here, the New York Times critics Margaret Lyons and James Poniewozik survey how television’s congregation has expanded and where there’s still room for improvement.”
Steppenwolf: 40 Years Of ‘Balls-Out’ Theater In Chicago
Company co-founder Jeff Perry: “Our group had an interesting mix of individual ambition, and even hubris, and love of group work. If we had started Steppenwolf in Los Angeles or New York, I don’t think we would have been left alone long enough to put down these roots.”
What Do Plain Old Museumgoers Think Of The Art They See? The Times Asked Them, And Here’s What They Said
“We tried to find out what goes on in the mind of the modern museumgoer, unscientifically, by staking out the Met Breuer and interviewing nearly 50 art gazers over the course of two months … they included students who said museums were like ‘eating your vegetables’ and romantics who cherish their lunch breaks, when they can hop in a cab to go steal a few quiet minutes in front of a beloved painting.”
Director Of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Sues Weinstein Brothers For Fraud
“[David Frankel is] alleging fraud and negligent representation as well as breach of contract over the size and scope of the October 2014 release in North America” of his film One Chance, “which stars James Corden as Paul Potts, a real-life shop assistant and amateur opera singer who won Britain’s Got Talent in 2007.”
Why Tennis Is Acing It On The Theater Stage
“‘It’s always hard to put a finger on why something is suddenly in the zeitgeist,’ said [Sarah] Ruhl, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. ‘I don’t know why it is happening with tennis in theater right now. But for me, while researching the Bush dynasty, I realized tennis is such a big part of their lives and a wonderful metaphor for family competition and sibling rivalry.'”
Remember The ‘1812 Overture’? What Happened To The Whole ‘Light Classical’ Repertoire?
“What is disappearing, some say, are the light classics that once were staples of mainstream classical concerts that, around the middle of the last century, migrated to pops” and which pops orchestras have now abandoned in favor of classic rock and the like. Says conductor John Mauceri, “If you’re going to do a Mahler symphony as the centerpiece of a concert, you don’t have any room for von Suppé or Offenbach.”
Julian Fellowes On Writing ‘Downton Abbey’ Singlehandedly And What Happens To The Crawleys After The Finale
“Far more of those houses survived than people realize, and often with the families that were in them. It’s often down to luck, and the cleverness of the people in charge. … My own belief is that Mary, whether you like her or dislike her, is a hard worker, and she’s practical.”
Rudy Van Gelder, Dean Of Jazz Recording Engineers, Dead At 91
“[He was] perhaps the most influential recording engineer in the jazz genre, who brought to vivid life the sounds of such legendary artists as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard,” and was responsible for many of the Blue Note label’s most important discs.
Are Pay-What-You-Will Nights Good For Theater Companies?
Charleston’s theater community is one of many where the debate continues. Says one artistic director, “People are driven by ticket costs. The reason we do it is to eliminate a barrier to participation.” Another argues that pay-what-you-will “devalues the art.”
Starting A Ballet School In The Most Conservative Part Of Egypt
Says co-founder Marco Adel, “We continue to be assailed and threatened on social networking media for opening this school. Those who criticise us say this school is against traditions. They claim it also spreads debauchery and encourages nudity. This is not true at all because art develops humans and refines their morals.”
The Best New Public Library Of 2016?
That’s what the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions decided, and Slate design writer Kristin Hohenadel agrees. It’s in a seemingly unlikely spot: the working port area of Denmark’s second city.
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Degas vs. Manet. Matisse vs. Picasso. Freud vs. Bacon. Pollock vs. De Kooning.
What’s The Solution To LA’s 99-Seat Theatre Stalemate?
Whenever I have waded into this debate, making the argument that the best solution to the stalemate would be some sort of compromise that would provide a feasible economic path for those institutions that have benefited from the old plan while paving the way for a new era in the city’s theater ecology (one more conducive to institutions being able to pay their artists, compete for new plays and widen their audiences), a few passionate theater folks write to remind me of the state of L.A. theater before there was what used to be known as the “Equity Waiver.”
Film Is Gone. So How Do We Save It As Historical Record?
“Most of its history, cinema was medium-specific — it was shot, processed and distributed on film. The movies we watch today, by contrast, are rarely made through mechanical and photochemical processes, but with computer code, with strings of zeros and ones: bits… What happens to an art when its foundational medium disappears? We don’t yet know, because it’s happening right now. If you care about movies, you should be wondering.”
The World’s Highest Paid Actors
“Combined, the top 10 men on the list earned $457 million, more than double the top 10 women’s $205 million pay. Additionally, 18 actors reeled in more than $20 million, versus four on the actresses’ side.”
Perm Was To Be A New City Of Culture. Until Russia Put A Stop To It
“We realized that we had this unique chance to make Perm into a place where people would want to live, but there is always this fear in Russia that creative freedom makes people too difficult to control.”
The Web At 25 – Lots Of Unfulfilled Promise
“Sure, you can upload your own videos to YouTube, which is owned by Google. But will they show up in anyone’s search results? You can publish your manifesto, but will anyone see the links to it you post on Facebook? It’s as though everyone now has a printing press, but there are only two stores in town that sell newspapers. If you want to find an audience, you have to go through them.”
Is There Anywhere In The US Where People Speak With A ‘Generic’ American Accent?
Well, there are places where people think they do. Linguists may beg to differ.
Ruling On Doig Painting Authenticity Is Still A Cautionary Tale For Artists
“To protect themselves in future, artists and dealers may have to look to a technological solution, especially if the art is a physical artifact. One possibility is genomic watermarking embedded in the painting, sculpture, print or installation.”
Hunter S. Thompson’s Widow Returns Elk Antlers He Stole From Hemingway
“‘He was embarrassed that he took them,’ Anita Thompson told The Associated Press on Thursday, noting the deep respect her husband had for Hemingway’s work. ‘He wished he hadn’t taken them. He was young, it was 1964, and he got caught up in the moment.'”
Leslie Jones, Anatomy Of A Troll Attack
“The horrific hack, which happened more than a month after peak Ghostbusters backlash, just goes to show the depths of racism and misogyny reserved for black women in the public eye.”