The New Museum planned a whole festival about climate change. ” IdeasCity Bronx … was supposed to feature a series of discussion panels, artist talks, performances, and workshops,” but it ended an hour in after activists disrupted the very first panel. – Hyperallergic
Month: September 2019
Can Anyone Truly Explain Britain’s Strictly Come Dancing?
Not really, but let’s try: Strictly “is a lightheartedly competitive dance show that is still rigorously ruled by ancient stone tablets engraved with edicts and stored in a holy room at the back of the BBC archives; ones that producers are too scared to deviate from in case they bring down an ancient blood curse.” – The Guardian (UK)
How’s That Guardian List Of The Best Plays Of The 21st Century?
It’s “a deranged hodge-podge,” according to Andrzej Lukowski. The list of 50 shows “veers from resolutely mainstream to borderline obscure without a tremendous amount of sense or coherency. All the while, it, notionally, professes to be an authoritative overview of literally all the theatre in the world over the last almost 20 years.” Ouch. – The Stage (UK)
A Secret Shofar, Blown On High Holy Days In Auschwitz
Is the account of this shofar credible? Holocaust historians say it definitely could be. “The impossible was possible, both to the bad and the good.” – The New York Times
Zadie Smith On The Most Important Book Of The 21st Century
The author of White Teeth and Swing Time says we should all read a 700-page nonfiction book about technology and capitalism. “If a book’s importance is gauged by how effectively it describes the world we’re in, and how much potential it has to change said world, then in my view it’s easily the most important book to be published this century.” – The Guardian (UK)
Annette Kolodny, Ecofeminist Literary Critic And Scholar, Has Died At 78
Kolodny, who specialized in incisive and groundbreaking – or perhaps ground-mending, to be a bit more ecofeminist about it – essays, “was a prodigious author and scholar with many areas of interest, among them early American literature, Native American culture, women’s studies and feminist literary criticism.” – The New York Times
German Jury Revokes Book Award Prize Over Author Kamila Shamsie’s Boycott Of Israel
Shamsie says it’s an outrage that her support of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement would lead to this end. “The eight-member jury had decided on 6 September to make the British-Pakistani author their latest winner, citing writing that ‘builds bridges between societies.’ But when they learned of Shamsie’s support for the BDS movement, they announced that they would cancel their original vote and withdraw the award.” – The Guardian (UK)
Why Lizst Is Better In The Catacombs Than In Carnegie Hall
Well, at least his “Poetic and Religious Harmonies.” Why? Pianist Jenny Lin: “This is definitely a very private Liszt, one who’s retreated to his inner self. … I don’t think you could do this at Carnegie Hall. It would be weird.” – The New York Times
Climate Change As A Positive? Uh, Writers, What Are You Thinking?
They’re thinking we don’t have a choice; we must adapt. But “while everyone is experiencing the effects of climate change, it’s easy to write ‘Our undoing is also the making of our becoming’ when the ocean isn’t lapping at your front door.” – The Atlantic
Music Composed In Response To The Brett Kavanaugh Hearings
Composer Kenji Bunch had what he called a weird idea while watching the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings: Why not create music in response to “such a fraught moment, a watershed event”? He took his idea to Facebook, where other composers responded immediately. – Oregon ArtsWatch