After several dry winters in Israel, the earth in the old Roman cemetery in Beit She’an, near the Sea of Galilee, was dusty and loose. So this year’s rains washed some of that earth away, and the sculptures were noticed by a passerby. — Haaretz (Israel)
Does “Catcher In The Rye” Still Resonate All These Years Later?
“The Catcher in the Rye” was not originally marketed as a book for teens, but they responded to it as their anthem: More than 65 million copies have been sold. I suspect, though, that the novel wouldn’t be such a phenomenon if it debuted today. – Washington Post
Montreal Music Critic Claude Gingras, 87
The longtime music critic for Montreal’s La Presse was from a different era, and was not shy to pronounce… – La Presse
Nirvana Versus The Designer Over The Smiley Face
The latest pop culture lawsuit that might make its way to a courtroom is the case of Nirvana and Marc Jacobs, with the band suing the designer over a smiley face image. – New York Magazine
When You’re A ‘Cable Guy,’ You See The Worst Of America
This story has everything: Cat urine, bathroom emergencies, women in lingerie, and, yes, the Cheneys. – HuffPost
The Civil Discourse In One Small Reddit Corner Of The Internet
Yes – this is on a Reddit forum, a site not known for its calm discussion of issues. But the Change My View forum, “founded in 2013 by Kal Turnbull, then a teenage musician in Scotland, is an online space that promotes respectful conversation between people who disagree with each other.” – The Atlantic
Podcasting Is The Perfect Way To Learn About Classical Music
The new “Aria Code” podcast by WQXR and the Met proves it. So why aren’t there a lot more classical podcasts? – The New York Times
Mick Jagger Is ‘Curating’ A New Rolling Stones Ballet
The ballet will be choreographed by dancer Melanie Hamrick, who is in a relationship with Jagger. – RTE (Ireland)
What’s It Like Being A Woman Movie Critic In The Era Of Online Harassment, And Also The MeToo Movement?
Manohla Dargis: It’s not that I’m noticing sexism more; I always noticed. It’s that I’m not gliding over the insults and insinuations, the snickering and unmotivated female nudity as easily — as resignedly — as I sometimes did. Years ago, I thought that accepting a certain amount of sexism in movies was the only way I was going to be able to continue loving them.” – The New York Times
There’s A Lot Of History Going On In Zines, And Zine Libraries Highlight Marginalized Voices
Fifteen years ago, Jenna Freedman “established the zine library at Manhattan’s Barnard College, where she is still zine librarian. Today, the collection consists of over 10,000 zines and focuses heavily on material created by marginalized communities, with topics as varied as mothers and daughters documenting holidays together to searing political collections about racism in punk rock.” – BuzzFeed
Netflix’s New Movie Is Interactive, And That Took A Major Leap In Software
Everyone’s talking about the new Black Mirror movie, Bandersnatch, partly because it’s a choose your own adventure movie – but how does that work, with Netflix? Whew: The network created an entirely new software called Branch Manager. “The final product — which looks like islands of flowcharts that branch out to include series of if-then options — creates an infinite number of variations to the story because of the ‘state tracking’ technology that tracks viewer choices as the experience progresses.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Mrinal Sen, Legendary Indian Filmmaker, Has Died At 95
“Along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, Sen was part of a troika of directors from the Eastern Indian state of Bengal that put Indian cinema on the global stage. During a tumultuous time in Bengal politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sen and Ray both made Calcutta trilogies, with Sen choosing to be overtly political.” – Variety
British Theatre Industry Leaders Make Some 2019 Predictions
Lighting designer Paule Constable sums it all up: “Theatre isn’t entertainment alone – it needs to challenge, to bring together, to reflect. There are so many complex issues to grapple with at the moment: diversity, sustainability, Brexit, pressure on resources, gender, representation. We need art to help us to think – to work out a way forward.” – The Stage (UK)
The Centuries Old, Heartbreaking, Beautiful Love Story Of Rembrandt And His Wife, Saskia
“Rembrandt was 28 when he married Saskia in 1634; 36 when she died, leaving him with a baby son and a sorrow so destructive he gave up painting in oils for several years. The measure of his loss is apparent, too, in the nature of these images of Saskia and their happiness, made before (and in one case after) her death. Here is the artist’s heart.” – The Observer (UK)