Yearly Archives: 2021
The Science Of Pleasure
It goes way - way - beyond dopamine. "You could say that dopamine is to happiness what petrol is to a car; it’s an...
The Era Of The Big Comedy Film Is Over
TV shows, TikTok, live mini-shows, Instagram Stories, and memes - comedy has changed. Even the second Borat movie, though it was made and was...
An Opera By The Dean Of Black American Composers Finally Retakes The Stage
William Grant Still's one-act Highway 1, U.S.A. has barely been seen since its 1963 premiere, but it's being brought back to life this summer...
Australia’s National Arts Policy Needs A Rethink
After the terrible effects of COVID-19 on the arts, what should Australia do next? One think tank says the country, where arts funding dropped...
Oh, Great — Now Going Back To Movie Theaters Will Become Part Of The...
Owen Gleiberman: "To go or not to go? To believe in the primacy of the communal, cathartic big-screen experience or to see it as...
Remembering Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Famed Canadian Architect
Oberlander, who died at the age of 99 in May, had a long, rich career whose influence continues to grow. She was "an early...
Why ‘The Great British Baking Show’, ‘Project Runway’, And Other Reality TV Competitions Have...
"Rather than offering an escapist vision of a world unravaged by pandemic, I've taken reassurance from the way these shows offer an escapist vision...
There Is No Such Thing As Renaissance Philosophy
The facts just don't bear it out. "It’s questionable that there ever really was a ‘movement’ other than in the mind of 19th- and...
Getting New York’s Comedy Clubs Reopened Is No Laughing Matter
With capacity restrictions, social distancing rules, other safety measures, and eager-but-nervous audiences and performers, venues from mighty Caroline's to tiny Stand Up NY have...
Lois Ehlert, Illustrator Of Colorful Books Like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, 86
Ehlert created 38 books for young children as an author and illustrator. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which she illustrated with her signature collages, has...
Raimund Hoghe, Who Created Dances For His Own Nonnormative Body, Dead At 72
Five feet tall and born with a curved spine, he was a young journalist interviewing Pina Bausch when she asked him to work with...
Liam Scarlett’s Death Did Not Happen The Way Everyone Presumed It Did
The British choreographer, aged 35, died in April, one day after the Royal Danish Ballet announced it was cancelling its staging of his Frankenstein...
When ISIS Made Off With A Magritte Nude (Which Made It Back Intact!)
In 2009, a pair of thieves got into the René Magritte Museum in the Brussels suburb of Jette, located in the artist's former home,...
These Unpublished Charles Schultz Cartoons Are About (!!) Adults
Here's the story of a set of seven comic strips, called "the Hagemeyer strips" after their main character, set in an office, with protagonists...
At 4,300 Years, This May The World’s Oldest War Memorial
"A huge burial mound holding the corpses of at least 30 warriors in Syria could be the oldest war memorial ever discovered, dating back...
These Protesters Faced Down The Colombian Cops By Voguing
As a crowd marched in Bogotá against poverty and police violence, three twenty-something queer folks whose dance video had gone viral a couple of...
Arts Groups To UK: Thanks For Offering Us Relief Funding — Now Could You...
"Hundreds of arts organisations that received grants in the Culture Recovery Fund's second round are still waiting for money to be paid out, causing...
Los Angeles Is The United States’ Largest City-State
Or else it's something else. But it's no mere city. "Los Angeles fits the city-state frame well, certainly better than it does a lot...
The Two Women Who Preserved The Stories Of The Tulsa Race Massacre
The first, Mary E. Jones Parrish, was a relative newcomer to Tulsa when the events of May 31, 1921, went down. She was an...
Some Indoor Theatres Have Migrated Outside For Their First Reopening Season
The earliest decision-makers were not at all sure this was the direction to go. Ask then-newly installed interim director Shirley Serotsky at the Hangar...
Opera Singer Adrian Angelico Says The Art Form Helped Him Come Out As Trans
Angelico specializes in trousers (or pants, in the US) roles. He says that one day, he finished a rehearsal at covent Garden and realized...
Ai Weiwei’s Thoughts On China, Colonialism, And Controversial Statues
On culture wars as a symbol of democracy: "It’s not only democracy, it’s about art as symbols of our existence. You know, whenever we...
Newark’s Quirks: Examining the Museum’s (& Sotheby’s) Art Sale Shenanigans
In my previous post on the Newark Museum of Art’s dicey deaccessions, I didn’t analyze the overall sale totals, my customary practice when covering...
One Potential Fix For That Cecil Rhodes Statue At Oxford
Turn him to face the wall in shame. That way, those who demand the statue stay get their demand met, but the implication is...
Swiss Ballet School Fires Director And Manager, Suspends All Classes
An investigation reveals psychological abuse, abuse of power, nepotism, and "serious pedagogical dysfunctions" at the Rudra Béjart School, "leading the Board to terminate the...
