The Painful Secrets Of Harold Pinter
Harold Woof was childhood buddies with Pinter, and his book"paints a nostalgic but unsentimental picture of his boyhood friendship with Pinter in east London and of the other members of the 'Hackney gang' – a small band of firm friends who met at Hackney grammar school in the early 1940s. As Jews, Woolf and Pinter were sometimes set upon by local fascist thugs, Woolf recounts, but Pinter, who was a talented schoolboy sportsman, gave as good as he got." … [Read More]
JK Rowling Is Europe’s Highest-Paid Celebrity
Rowling is the only celebrity on the list who is chiefly known as a writer, although British chef and television personality Gordon Ramsay, who is ranked at No. 6, is the author of several books. The rest of the list is dominated by musicians and athletes. … [Read More]
United Airlines’ Latest Victim: Ai Weiwei
On Tuesday, the artist was supposed to fly to São Paulo for a special screening of his documentary Human Flow. But the United ground crew at Newark airport refused to let him board the plane, insisting - because they misread the paperwork - that his (entirely valid) Brazilian visa had expired. … [Read More]
Google Is Building A Smart City – In Toronto
“Sidewalk Labs promises to embed all sorts of sensors everywhere possible, sucking up a constant stream of information about traffic flow, noise levels, air quality, energy usage, travel patterns, and waste output. Cameras will help the company nail down the more intangible: Are people enjoying this public furniture arrangement in that green space? Are residents using the popup clinic when flu season strikes? Is that corner the optimal spot for a grocery store? Are its shopper locals or people coming in from outside the neighborhood?” … [Read More]
Toronto’s Museum Of Contemporary Art Gets A New CEO After A Year Of Trouble
Heidi Reitmaeir’s appointment marks the end of a long fallow period for the institution, which, after closing its doors in its previous Queen Street West location in 2015, has endured construction delays and high-profile changes in leadership along its path to reinvention. … [Read More]
Art Galleries Move Into An LA Neighborhood And Residents Protest Gentrification (But It Isn’t Quite So Cut-And-Dried)
When a number of largely white-owned art galleries started opening here over the past few years, a familiar narrative began to emerge: new businesses and more affluent tenants moved in, followed by rent rises that forced out longtime residents. But while many young activists in Boyle Heights have loudly and aggressively protested the art galleries, Guadalupe Rosales – a successful artist and Boyle Heights native committed to preserving the history of her neighbourhood – doesn’t find the issues around gentrification to be quite so cut and dry. … [Read More]
I Made My Students Surrender Their Cellphones In Class. This Is What Happened
"Initially, 37 per cent of my 30 students – undergraduates at Boston University – were angry or annoyed about this experiment. While my previous policy leveraged public humiliation, it didn’t dictate what they did with their phones in class. For some, putting their phones into cases seemed akin to caging a pet, a clear denial of freedom. Yet by the end of the semester, only 14 per cent felt negatively about the pouches; 11 per cent were ‘pleasantly surprised’; 7 per cent were ‘relieved’; and 21 per cent felt ‘fine’ about them." … [Read More]
Kirkus Changes A Book Review And A Storm Of Questions Erupts
Would Kirkus’s reviewer have changed her mind independently, even if the review hadn’t been pulled for evaluation? Or did she feel pressured to alter what had proven to be a deeply unpopular opinion when asked if she wanted to, even without explicit instructions to do so? What is clear, though, is that the choice to un-star American Heart reflects something noteworthy about Kirkus’sframework for critique — one in which a book’s value is determined not just by the quality of its storytelling, but also by its politics. … [Read More]
Jean Nouvel Talks About His New Abu Dhabi Louvre
The building is a giant dome that lets some light through. When tests were carried out in Stuttgart, Germany, and on a scale mock-up in Abu Dhabi, Nouvel found that even the 5 per cent of sunlight he intended to allow through was too much. In the finished museum, “Only 1.8 per cent of light goes through all layers of the dome,” Hala Wardé says. “We reduced the light to achieve the effect and level of comfort we were seeking.” … [Read More]
LeVar Burton Wins The Right To Use “Reading Rainbow” Tagline
You may remember the news in early August of a strongly worded lawsuitfiled by WNED, the PBS affiliate in Buffalo, New York, that owns the Reading Rainbow brand, against Burton and his digital reading company RRKidz (recently renamed LeVar Burton Kids), for “theft and extortion” regarding a series of alleged trademark violations — including promoting his podcast as “a Reading Rainbow for adults” and his repeated use of a catchphrase he used on-air for over 20 years but didn’t technically own. … [Read More]
How Would You Explain Opera? Here’s One Attempt
One would think that in an era of immersive realities, opera would have tried to aim for higher levels of verisimilitude, would have become grittier and true to life, but in the age of cinema, the opposite happened. Twentieth-century opera became more amorphous, less plot-driven. Watch something like Nixon In China, with its listless, meandering scenes and droning, repetitive music, and you will start yearning for a king disguised as a peasant and a letter given to the wrong princess. Opera does not attempt real social commentary or naturalism well: it is a heightened reality, a dream. Opera is crazy and intense like dreaming, another heightened reality, and we often wake from dreams wishing we could enter them again. … [Read More]
The Loneliness Of Elizabeth Bishop
"In 1974, Elizabeth Bishop seemed to have all the things a poet could want: a teaching position at Harvard, a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a first-look contract with The New Yorker, which almost always decided to publish her work. And yet she was inconsolably unhappy. 'When you write my epitaph,' Bishop said to the poet Robert Lowell, 'you must say I was the loneliest person who ever lived.'" … [Read More]
What It’s Like To Spend Two Years In ‘Hamilton’
"Thayne Jasperson, who plays the British loyalist Samuel Seabury, is the only cast member still in his original role. Emmy Raver-Lampman, by contrast, started as part of the ensemble on Broadway, left the show in April 2016 for SpongeBob SquarePants, returned as an ensemble member in the Chicago production of Hamilton, and is now playing Angelica Schuyler in the first national tour. She and Jasperson talked to TheaterMania about their experiences with the musical and how it's changed since the summer of 2015." … [Read More]
Important New Study Reveals Mental Health Toll On Musicians
Previous research showed that more than 70% of musicians have experienced anxiety and panic attacks. The “precariousness and insecurity” of a career in music can be psychologically damaging, the new report claims, resulting in many experiencing “constant stress” around finding work and being financially stable. … [Read More]
Minneapolis Police Dept. To Start Running Bookmobiles
"Community policing officers will carry books while they are making their rounds on the city's North and South sides. They'll still respond to certain emergencies, but won't be dispatched to calls for help, freeing them up to visit neighborhoods without libraries and give away books to anyone who wants them. The program is the first of its kind in the country, organizers say." … [Read More]
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The Getty Leadership Institute – Apply Now for 2018 Programs
Executive Education for Museum Leaders: The Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University is now accepting applications for GLI 2018 and NextGen 2018 programs. Join a dynamic and diverse … [Read More]
Director, Presenting – Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. Banff, AB Canada
Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity is seeking a dynamic and collaborative Director of Presenting who will be responsible for building and developing a presenting calendar which delivers on … [Read More]
New Internationally-Focused MFA Program in Dance
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS | SCHOOL OF DANCE PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA USA www.uarts.edu/mfadance new internationally-focused mfa program including both year and low residency cohorts summer 2018 :: … [Read More]
Banff Centre Leadership Programs | Register Today
Hone your creative leadership approach and make your unique contribution to society. Banff Centre is a champion of arts and creativity, and Banff Centre Leadership programs prepare and empower … [Read More]
You Should “Know Yourself”? Um, Not Necessarily A Great Idea…
This whole ‘knowing thyself’ business is not as simple as it seems. In fact, it might be a serious philosophical muddle – not to say bad advice. … [Read More]
Mary Cochran, Dancer With Paul Taylor And Chair Of Dance At Barnard, Dead At 54…
Known for what Dance magazine called "her verve, charm and daring," Cochran performed with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1984 to 1996 and led the well-regarded dance department at Barnard College from 2003 to 2013. … [Read More]
Puerto Rico’s PBS Station Is Shut Down…
Sistema TV in San Juan has been taken off the air because, following Hurricane Maria, the university holding its license decided to cease all non-academic activities. … [Read More]
Brown University’s New Orchestra Director ‘Relieved Of Duties’ Just Before His First Concert…
"'Brandon Keith Brown is no longer serving in the role he took on this summer when he joined the university as visiting assistant professor of music and orchestra conductor,' said Brown spokesman Brian Clark. 'As for the reason, I am not at liberty to disclose details related to personnel, which we do not consider public.'" (That doesn't mean the students won't talk, though.) … [Read More]
Classical Music Has Its Own Bunch Of Mini-Harvey Weinsteins…
"One big problem is the mindless adulation bestowed on famous conductors and directors. Such sycophancy doesn't lead just to the tolerance of abuse, it mythologises the misdeeds so that they become part of the mystique surrounding 'the maestro'." (For example, Georg Solti, who'd seduce his way through the female choristers at the Royal Opera house and buy them white fur coats afterward.) And, writes Richard Morrison, "that was decades ago, but what has changed? In one acclaimed present-day ensemble female violinists rise up the ranks if they sleep with the conductor. It's as simple, and jaw-dropping, as that." … [Read More]
Inside The Weinstein Company When The Stories About Harvey Broke…
"As they gathered, someone mentioned that The New Yorker story was up. The assembled employees read in silence. They listened to the tape. They knew that voice too well. Some began to shake, and many of them wept as they contemplated the roles they might have played as accomplices, unwitting or not." Dana Goodyear talks to current and former employees, many of whom insist that they knew Harvey Weinstein was "a bully, a screamer, a yeller, a thrower, a pig - not that he was a rapist." … [Read More]
This Might Be The Most Appalling Thing Any Woman Has Yet Said About Harvey Weinstein…
Russian actress Lyubov Tolkalina said in an interview, "Isn't it beautiful when a man of such great power sexually harasses you? ... What does it matter how you got the part? It's good for everyone: he feels good, they feel good, and most importantly the viewers feel good." … [Read More]
Canadian Opera Co. Extends Alexander Neef’s Contract To 2026…
"This means that by 2026, Neef will be the longest-serving General Director of the COC (18 years), after Richard Bradshaw." … [Read More]
As ISIS Loses Territory, It Steps Up Looting Of Antiquities…
"Members of IS are definitely involved in sales," says one scholar, "particularly now that the so-called state is rapidly unravelling." However, there's little independently verifiable evidence of the scale of the ISIS trade in stolen antiquities - not to mention the fact that there are plenty of fakes mixed in with the genuine artifacts. … [Read More]
This Mosaic From Caligula’s Pleasure Boat Spent 45 Years As A Manhattan Coffee Table…
The 2000-year-old piece was once part of an elaborate mosaic floor in one of the Roman emperor's floating palaces on Lake Nemi south of Rome. Somehow it ended up in the Park Avenue apartment of an antiques dealer. "Last month, prosecutors seized the mosaic, saying they had evidence it had been taken from an Italian museum before World War II." … [Read More]