“The unknown becomes known, the outcasts come inside, the strange becomes ordinary. You can see changes to the ideas about whose rights matter and what is reasonable and who should decide, if you sit still enough and gather the evidence of transformations that happen by a million tiny steps before they result in a landmark legal decision or an election or some other shift that puts us in a place we’ve never been.” – Literary Hub
Month: September 2019
Confessions Of A Sex Scene Coach: How Movie Sex Has Changed In The #MeToo Era
Alicia Rodis was struck by how much more care went into staging physical interactions that were violent or dangerous than into staging those that were sexual. For a fight scene, choreographers mapped out every beat, helping actors work through each movement in slow motion, over and over, until they were automatic. In stunt work, a focus on safety was considered “nonnegotiable.” Why weren’t sex scenes governed by the same approach? – The Atlantic
Why Do The Same Images Show Up On Book After Book?
The book cover design world, it turns out, has something of an all-star squad of stock and archival image that show up on book covers time and time again. James Morrison, an editor, designer, and avid reader who lives in Adelaide, Australia, has been tracking the squad for about two decades. – Eye On Design
French Architects Attack Plan For A Makeover Of Paris Gare Du Nord Train Terminal
The award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel as well as historians and town planners wrote an open letter to Le Monde saying the €600m (£540m) renovation plan to create a glass structure – with tens of thousands of square metres of shops, walkways, split-levels and 105 escalators – was a “serious urban error” that would deform the historic building, fail Parisians and befuddle travellers. – The Guardian
The Scientist Who Believes Plants Can Talk
Last year Dr. Monica Gagliano published a heady and meandering memoir about the conversations with plants that inspired her peer-reviewed work, titled “Thus Spoke the Plant.” She believes, like many scientists and environmentalists do, that in order to save the planet we have to understand ourselves as part of the natural world. It’s just that she also believes the plants themselves can speak to this point. – The New York Times
This Taiwanese Comedian Takes On The One Topic Others On The Island Won’t Go Near
His weekly satire program, The Night Night Show, has been on television for not quite 18 months, and already Brian Tseng has become a big star. Why? Likely because he’ll talk and joke openly about mainland China, a subject most Taiwanese avoid. – 1843 Magazine
Linda Ronstadt On Her Life With Parkinson’s
“I have a form of Parkinsonism that doesn’t respond to standard Parkinson’s meds, so there’s no treatment for what I have. It’s called P.S.P.—Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. I just have to stay home a lot. The main attraction in San Francisco is the opera and the symphony, and I make an effort and go out, but I can only do it a few times a year.” – The New Yorker
When A Cell Phone Goes Off During A Play, Keep Quiet And Let It Ring, Says Chicago Tribune Critic
Chris Jones recounts what happened at a recent Broadway performance of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal when a cell phone went off, repeatedly, and seemed to make Tom Hiddleston cry without breaking character. It was a powerful. ambiguous moment — until the audience began to call out the phone and its owner. – Chicago Tribune
The Disconnects Of This Year’s Booker Prize Finalists
“Given the thematic unity of this year’s prize – from long- to shortlist, there has been an emphasis on experimentation and engagement with the present day – it’s not immediately obvious where divergence of opinions will begin; as ever, it’s a pin in a donkey’s tail.” – The Guardian
How A Small-Town New England Summer Festival Became A Major Feeder For New York’s Theatre Season
“Seven transfers in one season puts [the Williamstown Theater Festival] at the top of the list of New York stage feeders; no single theater, let alone one that’s lit only 50 days a year, comes close. And yet the achievement does not mean that the festival has strayed as far from its original vision as that might suggest.” As Williamstown artistic director Mandy Greenfield tells Jesse Green (who once worked there himself), “We’re not chasing Broadway. We’re chasing a way of working.” – The New York Times