The opera hasn’t had a costume sale for nine years, and people snapped up tickets quickly. Not everything is on sale, of course: “Pieces of the Dutch National Opera’s recent history — the sweat, drama and flecks of fake blood — may end up at other opera houses or in the closets of avant-garde dressers. The house plans to keep its prized pieces for its archives.”
Month: February 2018
How The New ‘Black Panther’ Movie Approaches African History, And What’s Untold
Actor Lupita Nyong’o appears in the Marvel superhero movie. Her father, a politician in Kenya, writes about why he believes the film will be more than a superhero movie to the continent of Africa: “Just imagine an African nation that was never colonised, had its own civilisation and decided to develop on her own steam by empowering her people without leaving the women behind. What would such a nation be capable of doing, especially when it discovers that it has some precious minerals that it can sell to the outside world and use the wealth to modernise society without destroying her own culture and way of life?”
Uma Thurman Finally Talks About – And Makes Accusations Against – Harvey Weinstein
Quentin Tarantino doesn’t come off very well, either. Thurman says, “I went from being a creative contributor and performer to being like a broken tool.”
Some Deep Thinking About What Enjoyment Is
Philosophers have puzzled over the question of what enjoyment is, proposing competing accounts of pleasure, but we can take a straightforward view that enjoyment is a distinctive state of finding an experience pleasurable. The hallmark feature of pleasure, in turn, is its feel-good quality. An enjoyable experience feels good. And it can be distinguished thus from a painful one, which feels bad. Does then the transitory nature of enjoyment undermine its worth? Or might that very brevity of enjoyment be part of its importance in human life?
Fueled By Leonardo Sale, Christie’s Sales Rose 26%, to £5.1 Billion In 2017
Despite global economic and political uncertainty, 2017 was a strong year for the top end of the art market, with data-driven reports pegging the growth at 25% across auction houses.
French Court Takes Up Case Of Facebook Taking Down Account Over Courbet Nude
Facebook fought for five years to avoid being taken to court in France over the case. But lawyers for the Facebook account-holder say “the deactivation of the account two and half years after it was opened, and just after L’Origine du Monde was posted, cannot be a coincidence.”
Chicago Sun-Times Suspends Film Critic Richard Roeper
“Roeper was one several prominent journalists, sports stars, politicians and celebrities who had paid to increase their Twitter followers with fake accounts, according to a New York Times report published over the weekend. Roeper’s Twitter following currently numbers over 225,000, but it was not specified by the Times report how many of those followers were fake.”
Chicago Sun-Times Axes Long Time Theatre Critic Hedy Weiss
Weiss did not respond to a request for comment, but she told friends she was notified weeks ago that her position was being eliminated. Weiss had been covering theater and dance for the Sun-Times since 1984 (which actually makes it 34 years).
Why You Should Still Collect DVDs
“I’m not against digital media, and I think it’s certainly a fine way to have access to your films without taking them with you. But when you become solely reliant on digital sources, you have fewer options than you think, and you’re certainly not getting the best version of the movie available. All of this is troubling because streaming is dominating the landscape.”
Grammys In The Crosshairs After Last Week’s Malethon
Having apparently learned nothing from the many men forced to walk back tone-deaf commentary during the #MeToo movement, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow almost immediately made things worse. He responded to the hashtag by urging women to “step up.”