The music director (and son of Sophia Lauren), decamping for his family in Switzerland, led the organization for 11 seasons.
Month: April 2012
Television’s Good, But Don’t Count Movies Out
“Movies end, even obliquely, while television shows are specifically designed to go on and on, giving movies a satisfying narrative compactness and resolution that television can rarely match. The emotional gut-punch of a film such as the recent British thriller Kill List gains its power in part because when it’s over, that’s it, audiences are left reeling to grasp for themselves the death blow of the film’s moral sinkhole and sort through their own feelings without the cushion of more to come.”
Video Won’t Kill The Opera Diva – On The Contrary
“‘I think all opera companies suffer because of a certain level of misunderstanding about what we present, because a lot of people don’t know what we do,’ says Pickard. ‘And if this is the start of a greater understanding, and therefore a greater interest, which will lead to more people attending live performances, then that’s good for everyone.'”
PayPal Versus Erotica Writers (Don’t Bet On Anyone Against Angry Writers)
“This is the best time for anyone to be a writer. The opportunities for writers to reach readers with their words have never been better. This is just a golden age, an incredible time. All of the traditional gate-keeping systems have fallen away, and power is shifting from traditional publishers to the authors themselves. We’re witnessing a confluence of multiple disruptive revolutions happening at the same time.”
Where Would You Look For The Book Of The Dead? Australia, Of Course
“‘We are incredibly surprised that we had such a significant object in our collection,’ museum CEO Ian Galloway told Australian press.”
Bollywood Actress Kidnapped, Murdered By Other Actors
“Bollywood actress Meenakshi Thapar, who appeared in the Indian horror film 404, was kidnapped by two actors who later killed her on the set of her latest movie.”
Cleopatra And Antony’s Twins, In 33-Foot-Tall Form
“Cleopatra’s twin babies now have a face. An Italian Egyptologist has rediscovered a sculpture of Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, the offspring of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII, at the Egyptian museum in Cairo. Discovered in 1918 near the temple of Dendera on the west bank of the Nile, the sandstone statue was acquired by the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but has remained largely overlooked.”
When Did T.V. Shows Get So Mellow About Pot?
What the 1980s’ “Just Say No” campaigns spawned: A sea change. “The increasingly normalized depiction of marijuana use on television, taken in conjunction with the increase in American marijuana users, raises a chicken-or-the-egg question: Was TV making Americans more tolerant of marijuana use? Or was the increase in American marijuana users encouraging TV to depict the drug less negatively?”
From Life In An Orphanage To Star Turns All Over The Country
“It’s a very different life than she could have imagined when she was 4½-year-old Mabinty Bangura, living in an orphanage in violent, impoverished Sierra Leone. Young Mabinty had only one friend and was anything but a favorite with the ‘aunties’ who ran the orphanage, perhaps because she had vitiligo, a pigmentation condition that left white patches on her upper chest. One day, she found a magazine that had blown against the orphanage gate. In it was a picture of a ballerina in pointe shoes. She tore it out and kept it, and dreamed of dancing like that one day.”
Stepping Off The Tourist Path In Paris, Into A Treasure Hidden In Plain Sight
What are you missing when you go to Paris? St.-Étienne-du-Mont, an unassuming medieval/Renaissance church slightly off the beaten path. “Our lone Parisian survivor is in a class unto itself: not just the sole instance in Paris, but one of the few in the world, and a magnificent specimen of carved stone. It impels the eye. Looking at this gigantic wedding cake of a loft, one knows instinctively that one is in Paris.”