“The internet sank its teeth into a now-defunct Winter Olympics event this week: ski ballet. And it makes sense. When you see footage of actual ski ballet competitions from years past it’s hard to deny the novelty of it all, while simultaneously taking in the raw athleticism and artistry of the event. There’s also an extremely ‘What the hell am I watching?’ quality to ski ballet. … But really, no words can truly do it justice.” (includes video)
Month: February 2018
Is The Sound Of The City Around You Making You Sick?
Concerns about hearing loss largely focus on excessive noise exposure. But environmental noise is just as unsafe. People living in cities are regularly exposed (against their will) to noise above 85 decibels from sources like traffic, subways, industrial activity, and airports. That’s enough to cause significant hearing loss over time. If you have an hour-long commute at such sound levels, your hearing has probably already been affected. Urban life also sustains average background noise levels of 60 decibels, which is loud enough to raise one’s blood pressure and heart rate, and cause stress, loss of concentration, and loss of sleep.
So Who *Was* Grant Wood, Really? Not The Yokel In Overalls He Wanted Us To Think He Was
“We should fear Grant Wood,” noted art critic Gertrude Stein once wrote. “Every artist and every school of artists should be afraid of him, for his devastating satire.” Novelist Jane Smiley travels to the places in Iowa where the painter of American Gothic (and much more) lived and worked – and writes about some of the things Wood wanted to hide.
Where Are The Hotbeds Of Theatre In America? Here’s A List
Collectively, the cities on this list are responsible for generating more than $112 million in wages for Equity actors and stage managers during the 2016-2017 theatre season. The market leaders are Central Florida – home to roughly 1,000 Equity members, many of whom work on Disney productions on a daily basis – Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Twin Cities, St. Louis, Milwaukee/Madison, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, Houston/Galveston, and Cincinnati/Louisville.
In Search Of The Real Tom Bodett
If you don’t know him from his old pieces for NPR’s All Things Considered or as a panelist on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, you’ve surely heard his voice on ads for Motel 6, a gig he’s had for more than 30 years. And that’s hardly all he does. “There were a number of years where people thought I owned the motel chain – there’s still some of that – and that left some people confused as to what I thought I was doing publishing books and voicing cartoons.” Let alone carpentry.
Ismail Kadare’s Long Journey Out Of Stalinist Albania
“From the start of his career, Kadare broke with the prescribed literary mode of socialist realism to write fiction rooted in history, myth, and allegory. But he never became a full-on dissident. Doing so probably would have meant execution. … He saw his books banned and experienced internal exile, but he also served as a minister of parliament. … He describes his own relationship to the dictator as a game of ‘cat and mouse’: He wanted to survive, remain in his homeland, and continue writing; [Enver] Hoxha ‘didn’t want to be seen as an enemy of writers.'”
Iran’s Only Female Conductor And Her 38-Year Struggle To Practice Her Art
“From the beginning, I’ve swum against the current – I wasn’t seen, the society didn’t make any effort to nurture my skills and the ruling establishment turned its back on me,” says 57-year-old maestra Nezhat Amiri. “But I’m still doing it, I’m showing that there are ways, and there will always be.”
E-Books Aren’t Stupid Or Uncreative – They’re Revolutionary
“I was a relatively late convert to the e-reader, getting my Kindle five years ago when it became clear that reading 600 pages of A Suitable Boy while breastfeeding wasn’t going to work,” writes author Erin Kelly (He Said/She Said). “Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry recently called ebooks ‘stupid’ – but last summer, they changed my life” as both author and reader.
Now There’s Another Campaign The Russians Are Messing With – The Oscar For Best Documentary
Russian media outlets and government officials, right up to President Putin, have been thunderously denouncing two of the nominees for Best Documentary Feature: Icarus, about the Russian doctor who blew the whistle on the country’s athletic doping program, and (perhaps more surprisingly) Last Men in Aleppo, about volunteer emergency medics working amidst Syria’s civil war.
Composer Julius Eastman Finally Gets A Publishing Deal (Too Bad He Died In 1990)
The
rediscovery of the distinctive Minimalist composer Julius Eastman … took a major step forward on Wednesday, when the publisher G. Schirmer announced it would restore, reconstruct, publish and promote his music.
The publishing deal will ensure that the recent Eastman renaissance – spearheaded by a dedicated group of former colleagues, scholars and family members – will continue and grow. And it promises to restore the neglected work of a gay, black composer to the modern-music canon.”