Earlier this month, a jury found Hugo Ihosvany Rodriguez not guilty of the alleged rape of a fellow Ballet San Antonio dancer in March of 2017. He was still being held for trial on a separate charge involving another woman later the following July. Last week, that case was quietly dismissed due to a missing witness.
Peeling Back The Paint (Virtually) On Brueghel’s Paintings
“What would happen if you peeled back the layers of a masterpiece by one of art history’s greatest painters? Dead bodies might suddenly appear. Take, for example, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s large-scale festival scene, The Battle Between Carnival and Lent.”
EU Set To Double Its Culture Spending
“European politicians have added an extra billion Euros to the EU’s proposed culture budget for its next funding round, meaning that the current allocation would double from 2021. … The new position would take funding for the Creative Europe programme from the €1.4bn currently available to €2.8bn for the years 2021-27.”
Arts Columnist For Britain’s Daily Telegraph Found Dead At Age 33
Florence Waters had been reported missing last Monday; her body was discovered outdoors on Thursday evening. An artist in her own right, Waters had contributed articles to the Telegraph on books and film as well as visual arts, and she was previously the paper’s online arts editor.
Is Shame A Sign Of A Failure Of Moral Standards?
Most philosophers agree that shame is about failing to live up to our moral ideals, but stories such as Lucy Grealy’s and others’ seem not to fit this definition. For example, it’s common for people who suffer from mental illness to feel shame. People who experience povertyfeel shame because of it. It’s also common for women to feel shame more often than men, and for black people to feel shame more often than white people. To argue that all these people must feel shame because, deep down, they feel like moral failures, we’re assuming that entire populations are suffering from delusion. Maybe the problem isn’t that these cases are irrational. Maybe the problem is that shame isn’t about ideals in the first place.
Human Rights Activists, Citing Pablo Neruda’s Rape Of A Maid, Protest The Naming Of An Airport After The Poet
Neruda, in his memoir, described raping a maid when he was in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1929: “After the woman ignored his advances, Neruda says he took ‘a strong grip on her wrist’ and led her to his bedroom. ‘The encounter was like that of a man and a statue. She kept her eyes wide open all the while, completely unresponsive,’ he recalled. ‘She was right to despise me.'”
How Did ‘The Favourite,’ One Of The Year’s Most Original Screenplays, Ever Get Made?
The original screenplay for this movie, centered around three women leads in early 18th-century England, was written two decades ago. But getting financing? Hm. “It was very difficult … because not only was it a story where there were three female leads, but there was also a gay angle. There was always interest, but it wasn’t an easy pitch.”
What Did British Theatre Do During – And For – The First World War?
It started with recruiting: “Music hall stars of the day such as Marie Lloyd, Phyllis Dare and Vesta Tilley believed they were doing their bit for the war effort by exhorting – and sometimes shaming – the men in the audience into joining up. ‘We don’t want to lose you / But we think you ought to go,’ went one not very subtle refrain.”
What Drives The Art Auction World
In the big sales, financial guarantees do – so that the New York art world can feel reassured it’s moving at least $2 billion worth of art.
The World’s Greatest Song Partnership Is Three Decades In, With No Signs Of Stopping
Christian Gerhaher, a baritone, and pianist Gerald Huber, who have performed together for 30 years, “have become bywords for sensitivity, cerebral depth and seeming perfection in a lieder repertory that they have made their own.”
Instagram Is Changing Many Things, Including Architecture
Is this a problem? “The idea of ‘doing it for the ’gram’ has moved from the preserve of Like-hungry teens to board meeting discussions and multimillion pound budgets.”
A Choreographer Says Even – Or Maybe Especially – Holiday Ballets Can Lead To A Love For Dance
Grady McLeod Bowman, who choreographed Fort Worth’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Holiday Musical and Parody Spectacular, says of the show, “The goal is for the love of dance to spread throughout the entire theater.”
Wait, *What* Happened To A Planned (But Controversial) Banksy Show In Brussels?!
Um, wow. This did not go to plan: “A Belgian court proved just how unauthorised the exhibition may have been by ordering bailiffs to seize the art, valued at over £12m. After five hours, and some careful handling, the pieces, including a version of the famous stencil mural Girl With Balloon, were driven away at midnight to an unidentified secure location, where they will sit out of the public eye until another court hearing in January.”
How Far Has Comedy Come Since The ’90s – And Can It Get More Progressive Still?
Some might think comedy hasn’t actually changed that much – remember Andrew “Dice” Clay? Is he that different from Louis CK? – but it has, and “for some of that, we have to thank the influence of UnCabaret, the alternative showcase that celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Theatre at Ace Hotel with a mostly all-star showcase that spent almost as much time looking inward at what it means to have a conscience in comedy as it did eliciting obvious laughs.”
The Woman Who Grades The Movies Is Retiring
Yeah, you probably have had a beef with her at some point. “For 30 years, she has watched movies — at least 12,500, she figures — and assigned grades of G to NC-17 so parents can make decisions about what is appropriate viewing for children. For 18 of those years Graves has served as the ratings system’s chairwoman, sparring with boundary-pushing filmmakers who call her too prudish, and, at the same time, defending her process to activists and parents who deem her grades too permissive.”
The Royal Shakespeare Company Has Backed Down, For Now, On A Plan To Lay Off Its Theatre Door Staff
But too bad for the fire safety staff: “While stage door staff will be retained in a revised role, the RSC said it was continuing with a proposal to merge the fire and safety officer roles, with the fire officer role ‘absorbed into the security roles,’ which are contracted out.”
The Bach Pop-Up Shop That Even Sells Condoms
The condoms note that J.S. fathered 20 children, but more to the point, “Inside the shop, a Juilliard-trained pianist, Evan Shinners, is playing five hours of Bach each and every day — for more than 30 straight days, even on Thanksgiving — and presenting evening concerts with guests.”
Weekend Listening Tip: Maria Schneider & The SRJO
Jim Wilke tells us that his Jazz Northwest broadcast on Sunday will present Maria Schneider conducting the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. The program comes from his recording of the second of Ms. Schneider’s concerts with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.
A First? Digital Avatar Stars In Ballet
Miami-based production company Magical Reality Group believes is the first time the live technology has been applied to a dance performance. This technology is used a lot in film and video games but not live dance.
Bob Dylan At 77
The musician turned 77 this year, a similar age to many of the artists who recently have announced retirement such as Neil Diamond, Joan Baez, Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Paul Simon. Even though Dylan hasn’t so much as hinted at ending his career, it’s difficult not to take his line as some sort of protest when he sings‚ “I ain’t dead yet.”
Literature Has Often Inspired Movies. But Poetry?
“It’s not often that a poet gets to see their words on a movie theater screen. So much of being a poet is very isolating, sitting in your pajamas over a notebook for 14 hours on end, so it’s cool to get to do something with poetry that’s very collaborative.”
Reassurances The Art Market Is Still Expanding?
About last week’s auction sales: For these marquee New York sales, $2 billion seems to have become the figure that reassures a wider world that top end of the art market is humming, if not actually booming. Last week, that feel-good figure was achieved with the help of material not normally seen in Impressionist, modern and contemporary sales. Prices were also propped up, wherever possible, with hundreds of millions of dollars in financial guarantees.
Jamaica Proposes Reggae For World Heritage Status
Jamaica, where the sound first gave a voice to the oppressed and the hopeful, is now seeking a new honor for the genre. As early as Monday, Unesco will announce a decision on the country’s application to put reggae on the world body’s list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.