“Currie had said he would resign because he felt administrators did not support him after he read King & King, in which two princes fall in love and get married. He has said he read the book after a boy in his class was called gay in a derogatory way and told he was acting like a girl.”
Historic Church In Nantes, France Wrecked By Fire
“A huge fire has destroyed part of the 19th Century basilica of Saint-Donatien in the French city of Nantes. The blaze broke out on Monday after morning Mass, with worshippers evacuated from the building.”
Do Corporations Have Minds?
“Not really. But we often think and talk about them as though they do, and that is cause for concern.”
Nek Chand, 90, Creator Of India’s Most Beloved Sculpture Garden
“Having embarked on a mission to turn waste into beauty, Chand used broken crockery, iron foundry clinker, electric plug moulds, fluorescent tubes, bicycle frames, bottles, glass bangles, shells, cooking pots and smashed up bathroom fittings to create his wonderland” – the Rock Garden of Chandigarh.
U.S. Giving To Arts And Culture Up 9.2 Percent
“Americans’ donations to arts and culture rose 9.2% in 2014, the highest increase in nine categories tracked by Giving USA, an annual report on charitable contributions. Overall, however, arts and culture commanded a modest share of the philanthropic pie.”
Banff Center Shelves Ambitious Expansion Plans To Build On Strengths
“The Banff Centre is an internationally renowned arts incubator – and that is a reputation Price, on the job for about three months now, wants to cultivate and own. The centre also presents artistic programming, operates a conference centre and offers leadership-development programs.”
Why We Cling To The Culture Of Our Youth
“Baby boomers pursue perpetual youth into retirement. Gen-Xers hold fast to their skateboards, their Pixies T-shirts and their Beastie Boys CDs. Nobody wants to be an adult anymore, and every so often someone writes an article blaming Hollywood, attachment parenting, global capitalism or the welfare state for this catastrophe.”
Destroyed Buddhas Of Bamiyan Are Reborn As 3D Projections
“With the clearance of both [Afghanistan’s] government and UNESCO, the temporary revival was the most recent consideration of how to honor the memory of the statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, while respecting the gaping void left by their demolition.”
Graffiti Artists Sue Developer Of New York Street-Art Mecca For Whitewashing Their Murals
“Nine artists are suing Jerry Wolkoff, the owner of the 5Pointz site in Long Island City, Queens, for destroying their murals when his company G&M Realty had the building whitewashed in November 2013.”
The Hardest Things About Making An Amy Winehouse Documentary
“[Director Asif Kapadia] maintains that the documentary is a faithful depiction of the events that led to Winehouse’s death in 2011 at her home in London, and that his only agenda was to tell the truth. We spoke with him recently about the biggest challenges he faced in getting the film to theaters.”
A Museum Of Death (Two Of Them, Actually)
“Imagine cases of letters from Jeffrey Dahmer, funerary garments that clothe a corpse for casket viewing, ornate Tibetan kapala skulls, crime scene photographs, an autopsy video, and oddball items like underwear Aileen Wuornos wore on death row.” (Not to mention Dr. Kevorkian’s Thanatron.)
A New $6 Million “Sleeping Beauty”? But Why?
“I agree that the dancing is stamped with the spirit of the times. ABT has given us a piece of history, and there is value in that. Ballet historians are soaking this moment up. But for some of us, it’s like seeing lithographs of dainty ballerinas come to life. In this Sleeping Beauty I missed dancing that extends into space; I missed the directness that Balanchine has given us. Dance evolves for a reason. It adjusts to how cultures and bodies change.”
Nobody Bought Harper Lee’s Letters At Auction
“Christie’s had estimated a sale price of between $150,000 and $250,000, but bidding started at $80,000 and ended at $90,000, far short of the reserve price.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.15.15
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Rethinking Multimovement Form
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Road movie
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Combat Gender And Racial Bias In Publishing By Reorganizing The Bookstop
“Since reading McDougall’s article, I have changed the way I approach my job, as have several of my colleagues at Foyles. I am reading more books in translation, more books by writers from different racial or cultural backgrounds to my own and vastly more books by women. As a result I have included more books in these categories as my staff picks, not to achieve quotas, but because they are bloody good books.”
The Simple Sandwich Made Women’s Lives Much, Much Easier
“1883’s Practical Housekeeping demands that, when picnicking, women ‘be up at five o’clock in the morning to have the chicken, biscuits, etc., freshly baked.'” And then came the sandwich.