Yearly Archives: 2021
EU Green New Deal Includes Building A New Bauhaus
In September the EU launched "an ambitious and historic initiative to fund innovative scientific and artistic endeavours to abate climate change and allow Europe...
New Feature Film On Twyla Tharp
The documentary will feature interviews alongside select footage of Tharp’s more than 160 choreographed works, “including 129 dances, 12 television specials, six major Hollywood...
The Book Pirates Loved Voltaire
Booksellers often distrusted Voltaire, because by modifying his texts and multiplying the editions, he alienated their customers. No one wanted to pay good money...
Why Sherlock Holmes Has Become One Of Our Most Enduring Literary Characters
There are the endless literary takes. There are Anthony Horowitz’s sequels, or Andrew Lane’s tales of a teenage Holmes. Star basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...
Why Quarterbacks Say ‘Hut’ And ‘Hike’
Back in 2009, the NFL itself was wondering about that very question. So they asked Ben Zimmer, America's most famous lexicographer, to look into...
The Guy Who Moves Orchestras For A Living
Guido Frackers is the guy. "So I’ve seen the environment at least one year before. And we have a “bulldozer” who goes in 24...
While Bela Lugosi Slept, They Made A Whole Other ‘Dracula’ On The Set —...
"Shot in half the time the Lugosi vehicle was allotted, and on a much smaller budget, Drácula" — yes, it's the Spanish version —...
All The Work Went Away: TV People Talk About Careers During COVID
“At the start of the pandemic, no one had any work, so it wasn’t so much of a problem. At times it was even...
Video Opera And ‘Relevance’: Where They Meet And Where They Miss
"Recent case histories are alternately breakthroughs and models of artistic self-defeat. Which was which?" asks David Patrick Stearns. "The reverse of what I expected."...
Attacks On The Merits
The idea that the world is corrupt and unfair was the subject of medieval morality plays and sermons. They taught a vast population to...
How Do Great Cities Die? So Slowly That Most People There Barely Notice
It's not usually after a disaster: in those cases, great cities tend to rebuild and often become grander. (Think of London and Chicago after...
Want To Understand People Better? Scientists Look To Dogs
In a recent study of 217 Border collies that ranged in age from 6 months to 15, the team, together with the Clever Dog...
Who Was Mike Nichols When He Wasn’t Playing Mike Nichols? It’s Not An Easy...
"Making stories was how Nichols coped with the world. The biographical question is: why was there a need to cope? The answer is not...
With Their Theatres Closed, The French Turn To Puppet Shows
Performances for kids in schools are the only ones allowed under current COVID restrictions, so puppet shows are the only live theatre happening in...
Intimacy Coordinator Says She Gets More Resistance From Female Actors And Directors
"'My hunch is that, for some women, having me present means they have to examine their past experiences on set without an intimacy coordinator,'...
‘Salvator Mundi’ May Be by Leonardo, But Its Hand May Not Be
Two different studies — one by the Louvre, the other by an independent art historian and her AI researcher husband — find that the...
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Has A New Director (And She’s An Alum)
Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell dropped out of Juilliard at age 19 to join the company, where she danced for three years before moving on to 13...
Remember That Fake Gauguin The Getty Bought? They Were Warned
"The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was privately warned in 2002 that a Gauguin sculpture it had just bought for around $4m...
Furloughed Staff To Waterstones: Please, At Least Pay Us Minimum Wage! Waterstones: That ‘Would...
Britain's relief package for businesses closed by COVID provides 80% of a furloughed employee's salary, even if that salary is only minimum wage. Workers...
How Much Do Composers Get Paid For Commissions?
The reality is that many questions surround composer pay. Some people wonder why they’re not being paid more. Some people are surprised by the...
LA Theatre Raises $700K In A Single Online Fundraiser. Here’s How
It was with no small amount of happiness that Center Theatre Group this week said it had generated more than $700,000 through a single...
The Pandemic Has Brought Out The Medieval In Us
"Was there a connection between the sudden relevance of medieval anecdotes and an apparent increase in blackletter fonts on leftist social media? If plague...
How Do We Mitigate The Chaos Of Social Media?
"I think we’re witnessing, in real time, society grappling with the emergence of social media as a very powerful force. Experts who have been...
Binging Or Drip Drip Drip? The Pros And Cons Of Streaming
Are we really just pleasure-seeking audiences looking for that instant hit of media indulgence? As the effects of lockdown and zoom fatigue have exposed,...
25 Years Ago A Luddite And A Techno-Utopian Bet On Whether Technology Would Destroy...
“History is full of civilizations that have collapsed, followed by people who have had other ways of living,” Kirkpatrick Sale said. “My optimism is...
