“There is a strong synesthesia that takes hold of the reader when food is described in literature. … But the corollary of this is that no cherries will ever taste as delicious as the ripe cherries in The Snow Queen and no Martini will ever be able to match James Bond’s in Casino Royale, shaken or stirred.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
When Short Is Too Short: Sixty-Second Plays
“[I]sn’t theatre one of the few places left where we can escape the pace of modern life? Call me a traditionalist, but I want to take my time with theatre. It isn’t an amuse-bouche, it’s a slow-roasted main course.”
Uh, New York? What About Met’s Tosca Upset You So?
“New Yorkers are a big bunch of weenies. … This muscular, clear-sighted and often powerful staging of a familiar repertory standard – marred, admittedly, by a handful of small but painful directorial missteps – is all it takes to arouse the collective ire of New York’s opera crowd?”
Mocked By Jay Leno, Chanticleer Gets Its Revenge
In a YouTube video, the male vocal ensemble “sings an ethereal version of the ‘Carol of the Bells’ with appropriate lyrics paying homage to Leno’s ‘gigantic chin’ and mentioning ‘watching Leno give his f- monologue.'”
Alastair Macaulay: Let’s Stop Scapegoating The Nutcracker
“It’s sadly true that there are ballet companies whose only annual performances are of ‘The Nutcracker,’ and that almost every American ballet company relies on its ‘Nutcracker’ performances as its most reliable draw. … But let’s not blame the ‘Nutcracker’ [for the field’s troubles] just because it is the cash cow of American ballet.”
Still Usable? Dickens’ Toothpick Fetches $9,150 At Auction
“An authentication letter from Dickens’s sister-in-law says the author of Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol used the toothpick up to his death in 1870.”
Fresno Metropolitan Museum Appears On Brink Of Closure
“The problem is the same one that has plagued the museum since its downtown building reopened in November 2008 after a three-year, $28 million renovation: too many expenses, not enough money. Met officials said … donations and grants, the lifeblood of any nonprofit, privately supported museum, have slowed to a trickle.”
As Oldsters Fret, Square Dancing Courts Youth
“The push has some purists grumbling that the true square-dancing tradition … is being ruined. In particular, older dancers complain that young people are too loud and don’t respect traditional clothing or music. Despite the complaints, leaders stress that they must update or die.”
Would Hirshhorn Bubble Steal Oxygen From The Art?
“[T]he problem with this project, or with any other grand museum project you could name, is that it risks making activity and action the museum’s central goal, with contemplation pushed to dismal second place. Art museums ought to be about three things: Art. Art. And more art.”
House Votes To Muffle Commercials’ Ear-Splitting Volume
“Irritated by loud commercials, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., drafted the measure after discovering it was a common complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
Right now, the government doesn’t have much say in the volume of TV ads. It’s been getting grievances about commercial loudness for decades.”