“He’s extremely sure of what he believes in, so much so he doesn’t need to push it on people. He’s very open and non-dogmatic. His confidence about how good he is gives him a “fuck you” quality. People are clearly not going to take his career away from him because he speaks his mind.” – The Guardian
How The ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cue Cards Get Made
“Wally Feresten, who runs the cue card department for the show and has been there for decades, explains everything from how cast members can tell their lines apart, why they’re written in a certain way and with certain spacing, how they’re positioned, and how they pull off the trickiest camera shots with them.” (video) — Gothamist
Why Ritual Is So Important: It Works
“No culture and few individuals live without ritual. … And here’s the thing. Rituals work – even for people who say they do not believe in them. [Researchers have found that] rituals alleviate grief, reduce anxiety, increase confidence, … [and] aid self-control.” Jay Griffiths examines the power of ritual in action, especially on an island where one sees it everywhere. — Aeon
There’s A Fundamental Problem With Trying To Justify Why The Arts Are A “Good” Thing
Carter Gillies: “Either we say that improving health, wellbeing and social outcomes is our proper motivation, or we admit that the value of the arts is different to this. If instrumental benefits are what truly matters, then it may be necessary to sacrifice some art that doesn’t meet these criteria. We can hold on to the ideal of instrumentality, or to art that does not show evidence of instrumental benefits. But we can’t have it both ways.” – Arts Professional
Iran’s Greatest Movie Director Is Becoming A Global Star
Asghar Farhadi on the impact of censorship in Iran: “Each director finds his own way of dealing with it. It’s claimed restriction can lead to even greater creativity. I believe that’s true in the short term, but in the long term it destroys creativity.” – The New York Times
Margo Rodriguez, Who Turned The Mambo From Nightclub To Popular Craze, Has Died At 89
Rodriguez, together with her husband Augie, brought the mambo to life on TV, including on The Ed Sullivan Show and Broadway Tonight. “At the height of their fame, they danced in London for Queen Elizabeth II and at the White House for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.” – The New York Times
National Opera House Boss Fired For Allowing Computer Game Tournament In Building
The Kyrgyz National Opera and Ballet Theatre is funded from the always-strapped budget of Kyrgyzstan, a small and mountainous ex-Soviet republic wedged between China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. So director Bolot Osmonov took the opportunity to make some extra money by renting the premises out for a national tournament of Dota 2, a notably violent online video game. Alas, pearls were clutched in horror and Osmonov lost his job. (And this wasn’t even the first time that sort of thing happened.) — Global Voices
Iran’s Leading Filmmaker Turns His Lens Onto The Wider World
Asghar Farhadi has won two Best Foreign Language Feature Oscars in five years: in 2017 for The Salesman and in 2012 for A Separation, which became the most profitable Iranian film in history. He ventured to Spain to make his latest film, Everybody Knows, starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, but he continues to live and work in Iran, even as his compatriot filmmakers have been silenced by the authorities or have fled into exile. — The New York Times Magazine
Charles Dutoit Hired For Substitute Gig At National Orchestra Of France, And Controversy Ensues
The Swiss conductor lost his various positions during the winter of 2017-18, after several women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment and assault. Now the Orchestre national de France has engaged him for this weekend’s concert performance of Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust after scheduled conductor Emmanuel Krivine withdrew on short notice. It’s Dutoit’s highest-profile performance (outside of Russia) since the scandal broke, and there has been pushback on the decision to hire him. — AP
UK Decriminalizes Pornography Made By Consenting Adults (Only Now?)
The Crown Prosecution Service announced, “We do not propose to bring charges [under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959] based on material that depicts consensual and legal activity between adults, where no serious harm is caused and the likely audience is over the age of 18.” (That law will remain on the books, though.) — The Guardian
Why The Academy Likes ‘Vice’ So Much More Than Critics And Audiences Do
“Vice’s copious failings … are exactly the sorts of things that the Academy reveres. Oscar voters love films that pretend to tackle Serious Issues but in fact exploit them as stages for personality operas and starry performances. Look no further than Green Book.” — Slate
Pam Tanowitz Named First Choreographer In Residence At Bard Fisher Center
“For the position, a three-year residency to begin in February, Ms. Tanowitz will create three commissioned dances, including a collaboration with the New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns; she will also develop a digital archive of her work.” — The New York Times
Baritone Sanford Sylvan Dies Suddenly At 65
Admired as much for his unusual communicative gifts (especially in American English) as for his warm and gentle voice, Sylvan began his career in Boston’s chamber and early music scenes and first became known for his performances in Peter Sellars’s 1980s Mozart stagings. He was a favorite of John Adams, who wrote the song cycle The Wound-Dresser for him, and two of his most famous opera roles were as Chou En-Lai in Nixon in China and the title role in The Death of Klinghoffer. — NPR
Now *Here’s* A Career For A Retired Ballerina: Aerialist
“When Ariana Lallone left Pacific Northwest Ballet after nearly 25 years, … [she] knew that she wanted to keep performing. Eight years later, look up, and there she is — an aerial artist with Teatro ZinZanni, dancing midair high above the dinner-theater audience, with a hoop as her partner.” — Seattle Times
Chinese Immigrant Author Withdraws Her YA Fantasy Novel After Accusations Of Racist Portrayals
Amélie Wen Zhao asked her publisher to withhold her book Blood Heir after voices from the Young Adult Lit Twitterverse (which is notorious for drama) attacked it for “anti-blackness” in its depiction of an enslaved group. Aja Hoggatt offers an explainer on the controversy. — Slate
Australia’s Richest Book Prize Goes To Refugee Interned In Offshore Camp
Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani composed his first book, No Friend But the Mountains, one text message at a time from inside the Manus Island detention center in Papua New Guinea, one of the offshore centers where Australia places refugees who try to reach the country by sea. Now that book has won the A$100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature. — The Guardian
Dušan Makavejev, Director Of ‘WR: Mysteries Of The Organism’ And ‘Montenegro’, Dead At 86
“His films, known for scenes of nudity and explicit sex, often centered on the sexual liberation of a female character. … Makavejev’s work — part of a ‘Black Wave’ of filmmaking in his country — also was raucously subversive, anti-bureaucratic and frequently banned by authorities. He audaciously attacked dogmas, whether they came from the East or the West. Not surprisingly, he was treated as royalty at film festivals.” — The Hollywood Reporter
The Powerful Role Of Gossip In Ancient Greece
While Aristotle suggests that gossiping was frequently a trivial, enjoyable pastime, he also makes clear that gossiping could have malicious intent when spoken by someone who has been wronged. This evaluation of words as weapons in the hands of the wronged is particularly pertinent when thinking about how the Athenians made use of gossip in the law courts in Athens, because Ancient court cases were based heavily on character evaluation of those involved in the case rather than on hard evidence. – Aeon
How Instagram Is Changing Book Covers
At a time when half of all book purchases in the U.S. are made on Amazon — and many of those on mobile — the first job of a book cover, after gesturing at the content inside, is to look great in miniature. That means that where fine details once thrived, splashyprints have taken over, grounding text that’s sturdy enough to be deciphered on screens ranging from medium to miniscule. – New York Magazine
One Of The Biggest Technological Breakthroughs Of The Past 50 Years? Weather Forecasting
“A modern five-day forecast is as accurate as a one-day forecast was in 1980,” says a new paper, published last week in the journal Science. “Useful forecasts now reach nine to 10 days into the future.” – The Atlantic
Hollywood Needs Saving. This Year’s Sundance Has Some Ideas About That
In 2019, Sundance is arguably more mainstream than ever. Many options at the festival this year are the kinds of projects major studios used to make all of the time—crowd-pleasing comedies, true-story adaptations, and teen romances. With Hollywood now consumed by brand management, major franchises, and mega-budgeted blockbusters, independent producers have become the caretakers of the midsize movie. – The Atlantic
How An Out-Of-Work Ballerina In The Great Depression Became One Of America’s Most Famous Women
The young lady née Helen Gould Beck found herself stranded in Chicago when the ballet company she was touring with collapsed, and the only job she could get was as a stripper at a nightclub in the Loop. She ended up as a star attraction at the 1939 World’s Fair, known for her fan dance and her “bubble dance” with a 65-inch balloon (and nothing else) — an act she toured with for years afterward as Sally Rand. — The Oregonian
9 Deformed Sonnets for My Old Friend
The artist Norman Ogue Mustill was an extreme dissenter. Nothing pleased him more than reaming out the human race. His collages stopped you dead with their vicious satire.. But Mustill is little known, his work unseen, his praise unsung. — Jan Herman
How Indie Films Went Mainstream
What was new here was that formerly fringe filmmakers were now getting big crossover deals and gushy reviews, redefining indie cinema in the public consciousness. This began a snowball effect with other newer and younger would-be writers and directors. Sundance and Cannes 1989 were the first major “Yes We Can!” moments for those who had had studio and network gates slammed in their faces in the past or who’d never had the confidence or connections to go that far in the first place. – The American Conservative
An Argument: Why Cultural Appropriation Is A Good Idea
Graham Daseler: “The good news is that cultural appropriation is here to stay, no matter how many angry Twitter mobs come to kill it. Critics of the practice can’t even state their grievances without stealing the artifacts of at least half a dozen cultures. The expression itself is a prime example. The word “culture” comes to us by way of French, while “appropriate,” meaning “to take,” was plundered from Latin by Middle English. This, if nothing else, demonstrates how futile it is to try to stop the tsunami of culture or to build fences around it. There is nothing more human—or, one might equally argue, humane—than the desire to copy, emulate, and learn from people who are different from ourselves. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” – The American Conservative