“If Jack Gill has his way, this will be the year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally acknowledges stunt work at the Oscars.” Or are the actors and studios too worried about damaging actors’ reputations?
Month: April 2012
Changing The Faces Of Dance In Los Angeles
Renae Williams Niles, one of the most powerful dance people in L.A., “is highly regarded for her business acumen and knowledge of the art. Her unpretentiousness and sunny disposition have also won her fans. And she is an anomaly in the field: A rare female executive at a large multi-disciplinary performing arts facility who is young (38), African American, a former dancer (with the Lula Washington Dance Theatre) and a homegrown Angeleno (since age 13).”
If You ‘Just Have A Gut Feeling,’ Can You Still Be A Scientist?
“The implication is that being ‘scientific’ means completely digesting and testing every idea before deciding whether it’s right or wrong. But sometimes we have to make fast decisions based on prejudice, or we’ll never get anything done. Is that OK, or does it fundamentally undermine what we’re trying to achieve?”
Which Musical Instrument Is The Best? (Can This Question Possibly Be Answered?)
“Take a look, if you have the strength, at the 12,000 entries in the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1985). Then consider that the next edition will have 20,000. The standard symphony orchestra, parading a mere 14 or 15 varieties of instrument, begins to look as limited as a supermarket cheese counter.”
Food (Waste) Porn: Pretty Enough To Make Us Stop Throwing So Much Away?
“Pichler approached his project as if it was an advertising photo shoot for a high-end brand. He started with common items from the supermarket, like cheese, strawberries and cauliflower. After letting each food fester for a few weeks, he arranged it in his studio for a luxurious portrait.”
Acting, Alone (Or, How Maybe Mike Daisey Isn’t The Anti-Christ)
“I’m still in suspense. Where’s the smoking gun? I keep thinking that someone or something else was betrayed and no one has noticed. I know this sounds stupid, but I gotta ask: Did Mike Daisey act alone? For such a big betrayal he must have had accomplices, right? I mean people helped him put this piece on. Did they commission him? They certainly encouraged the guy.”
Making Art In Relative Isolation – And Putting It Everywhere
“Even in stable times life can be hard for artists in West Africa. Not that art ever stops being made. Cities like Abidjan, Dakar in Senegal, and Bamako in Mali are saturated in it. Murals cover public walls and the sides of trucks and buses. Pottery, metalwork and weaving, in styles new and old, fill open-air markets. Portraits of jazzy beauties, Sufi saints and culture heroes (Che, Mandela, Obama, Madonna) are for sale everywhere.”
Editing (British) Vogue: Not All About the Clothes
Alexandra Shulman hasn’t had a movie (or two) made about her, like her U.S. counterpart Anna Wintour, and she’s not worried about being a fashion leader in her personal life. “The way I dress could be political, but it’s not. I made a decision very early on that editing Vogue couldn’t be about what I wore. I didn’t want to set myself up to be something that I couldn’t deliver.”
No Black Girls. What’s Up WIth That?
“The problem I have with [Lena] Dunham is that the vision of New York City she’s offering us in 2012 – like Sex and the City in 1998 and for that matter Friends in 1994 – is almost entirely devoid of the people who make up the large majority of New Yorkers, and have for some time now: Latinos, Asians and blacks.”
Joss Whedon, Creator Of Buffy And Firefly, Is (Finally) On A Roll Again
Whedon has two Hollywood movies hitting theatres now and in coming weeks, and one of them is the biggest sequel of the summer – The Avengers. How did he suddenly go from T.V. series genre guy to Hollywoodland? (Hint: It wasn’t so sudden.)