Yearly Archives: 2021
Orlando Ballet Director Robert Hill Steps Down After 13 Years
"Through years marked by mold infestations, financial turmoil, leadership changes and homelessness, artistic director Robert Hill was the constant face of Orlando Ballet. …...
Maki Kaji, Who Brought Sudoku To The World, Dead At 69
"Kaji created the puzzle to be easy for children and others who didn't want to think too hard. … Sudoku championships have drawn some...
Great Tapestry Of Scotland Gets Its Own Gallery Space
Wait, Scotland has a historical chronicle done in needlework like the Bayeux Tapestry? Yes, but this one wasn't completed until eight years ago, and...
Children’s Book About Same-Sex Parents That Caused Row In Hungary Is Now In Russia
"(Weeks) after a Hungarian bookshop was fined for selling a children's story about … a child with same-sex parents, the same book has been...
A Trick To Get Beneath The Words
"On the first day of every month, I pick a poem, and then I read that poem every day that month." - The New...
Time To Re-Question The Idea Of Cultural Appropriation?
The very concept of “cultural appropriation” is misbegotten. As I’ve previously argued, it wrongly casts cultural practices as something like corporate intellectual property, an...
An Epic Battle For Control Of Hollywood
The bigger question facing studios, streaming services and talent agencies: How should stars and filmmakers be paid for movies and TV shows now that...
Francis Fukuyama Famously Declared The End Of History. Well…
For Fukuyama, the demise of the Soviet Union testified to the “total exhaustion of viable systemic alternatives” to––and thus, the “unabashed victory”––of “economic and...
Why Thinking Rationally Is Such A Challenge
It’s not that we don’t think—we are constantly reading, opining, debating—but that we seem to do it on the run, while squinting at trolls...
We Process Historic Events With Images. Afghanistan Is A Complicated Image
Phil Kennicott: "Countries, like travelers, want to make sense of things, which is why we reach for an image — a quick metaphor, a...
Director Of Salt Lake City’s Largest Theatre Company Resigns After Lies On His Résumé...
Christopher Massimine came to the Pioneer Theatre in 2019 after seven years at National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, where he doubled the budget and oversaw...
National Company Of “Wicked” Hires “Director Of Social Responsibility”
Working closely with labor unions and other production partners, Christina Alexander will implement strategic procedures related to hiring practices to identify qualified candidates from...
Co-Founder Of Snopes Caught In Plagiarism Scandal
David Mikkelson and his then-wife started Snopes.com in 1994 in "a quest to debunk misinformation online." But a BuzzFeed investigation has found that he...
My Conversations With Suzanne Farrell
"Farrell is the only dancer who could inflect solos with such a dense and bewildering array of ideas that I felt I needed at...
Thomas Quasthoff Is Singing Again — But Only Jazz
The acclaimed bass-baritone experimented with jazz (including one album) before he made a surprise retirement announcement in 2012. Now, at age 62, he says:...
Barbara Kruger On Being An Artist, A Consumer (And Not Being A TikTok Star)
"We live in this digital universe. Digital life has been emancipating and liberatory but at the same time it’s haunting and damaging and punishing...
Curtis Institute Lets Go Its Longtime Star Oboe Teacher
Richard Woodhams, who retired after 40 years as the Philadelphia Orchestra's principal oboist in 2018, was told by the music school that his teaching...
Theatre’s Employment Problems
The harsh reality of layoffs and rehiring has sparked much confusion and pain among theatre workers, especially the technicians whose shops have sat empty...
Another Glass Ceiling Breaks As Black Female Leaders Arrive At Dance Companies
Sarah Kaufman talks with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago artistic director Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell; Dionne Figgins, Eliot Feld's successor at Ballet Tech; UNC School of the...
Deepfakes Are Now Being Used In Business Presentations
Some bigwigs at EY (formerly Ernst & Young) have started using AI-assisted videos of themselves to impress customers. One partner, for instance, used the...
Robber Steals A Monet, Then Drops It As He Tries To Escape
The thief grabbed Monet's The Voorzaan and Westerhem Island (1871) from the Zaans Museum, just north of Amsterdam, on Sunday morning. When a passerby...
R. Murray Schafer, Canada’s Leading 20th-Century Composer, Dead At 88
"(He) composed a large body of music in all genres — symphonic, chamber, opera, choral and oratorio — and was best known for his...
Hachette Will Pay $240 Million To Buy Leading Indie Publisher
No, they're not spending that kind of money for a literary press. Workman Publishing is the company behind the Page-a-Day calendars and the Brain...
New Zealand Goes Into Full Lockdown
After months with no restrictions and no locally transmitted cases of COVID, the appearance of one new patient has prompted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern...
How Napoleon Systematically Plundered Europe’s Art
These were not smash-and-grab operations. He sought out experts to advise him on which cultural treasures to ship back to Paris. Napoleon wanted to...
