Canadian news and documentary crews say that for the past two years American immigration officers have made it difficult for them to get into the US. Many crews have been denied entry. “Officials in the U.S. say they are enforcing a policy which allows them to bar foreign film crews who want to shoot ‘commercial entertainment’ in the US But Canadians say the policy is being widely used to delay film crews working on ‘information programs.’ ” – CBC
Author: Douglas McLennan
PROUD GRADS OF THE RSC
Movies like the “X-Men” are all about special effects, things being destroyed and shooting. So why do you need Royal Shakespeare Company-trained actors like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan for that? “Shakespearean actors need to make a living too; why should the Keanu Reeveses and Tom Cruises of the business grab all the money and the fame? And one can imagine that a Hollywood blockbuster like ”X-Men” gives actors such as McKellen and Stewart a few months to rest their well-trained acting muscles – the equivalent of reading a beach book after a year of classics.” – Boston Globe 07/16/00
A HOME FOR DANCE
Jacob’s Pillow began as a modest showcase for the choreography of modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn. Now it is one of the most intense hotbeds of international dance activity in the world, each summer presenting “ballet to butoh, modern dance to hip-hop. With companies from the United States, France, Japan, Ireland, Africa, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Canada, and The Netherlands, the festival’s current season is one of its most diverse to date.” – Christian Science Monitor
BALLET THAT’S BIG
The Bolshoi takes America by storm. But this is a different Bolshoi than the one we’ve seen before. “It is a different company now. Each time chooses its own dancers.” – New York Times
CRITICAL PATH
Martin McDonagh seemed to have it all three years ago. Coming from nowhere, suddenly “several of McDonagh’s ferociously comic and unsettling plays” won great reviews and top literary prizes in the US and Europe. But then there was a drunken squabble with Sean Connery at an awards ceremony, “some cranky critical backlash and a few damning interviews” and McDonough retreated. Now he’s back with a new play. – Seattle Times
PROUD GRADS OF THE RSC
Movies like the “X-Men” are all about special effects, things being destroyed and shooting. So why do you need Royal Shakespeare Company-trained actors like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan for that? “Shakespearean actors need to make a living too; why should the Keanu Reeveses and Tom Cruises of the business grab all the money and the fame? And one can imagine that a Hollywood blockbuster like ”X-Men” gives actors such as McKellen and Stewart a few months to rest their well-trained acting muscles – the equivalent of reading a beach book after a year of classics.” – Boston Globe
WATCHING THE PAINT DRY
Louis Andriessen’s opera “Writing to Vermeer”, getting its US premiere at the Lincoln Centre Festival is a long sit. “For all its visual beauty and technical slickness, this 100-minute opera (which ended its run on Saturday) is a dramatically neutral, philosophically and emotionally barren exercise in poststructuralist contemplation.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
NO TIME FOR THIS
“In his new book, ‘The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics’, Julian Barbour asserts that time simply doesn’t exist. This by itself is not so shocking. My friend Artie, for example, has always insisted that there’s only change, not time. Things move around; time may just be a way of noting that. But Barbour goes further. He says there’s no such thing as motion either. Instead, Barbour sees a universe filled with static instants – instants that contain “records” that fool any conscious beings who happen to find themselves encased in one into believing that things have moved and time has passed.” – Feed
HOW WE PAY FOR ART?
Berlin is rebuilding, and signs of change are everywhere – physical and cultural. “In Germany, where government funding had never been an issue before, it seemed odd to hear people complaining about how excessive subsidies were creating an atmosphere of dependency and waste among their artistic institutions.” – The New Republic
HOW CAN YOU IMAGINE I WROTE THAT?
A story in an Italian magazine purporting to be by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez on how he is dying of cancer, moved a publisher to contact Marquez’s agent to get reprint rights. The note back was incisive: “García Márquez is ashamed that this rubbish might be considered as a text written by him. It has gone around the world and I have no means of righting this usurpation of his name. It seems to proceed from a Colombian actor whom I hope I will never run into or I will insult him as he deserves.” – Sydney Morning Herald