“[T]he pilot who safely ditched his jetliner in the Hudson River received a standing ovation Saturday from the audience at a Broadway performance of ‘South Pacific.’
At the end of the classic revival, the show’s stars introduced Capt. Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger as the pilot who set down the disabled plane within reach of rescue boats last month, saving the lives of all 155 people on US Airways Flight 1549.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Five Random Things Congress Hates About The Arts
Christopher Knight channels Washington. At No. 4 on his list: “Culture is girlie, not manly.”
The Kindle 2: Where’d The Magical Sparkle Pixie Go??
Live blogging, via text, photos and video, with the new gadget in hand: “Hey, it’s downright iPod Touchy. Nice rounded aluminum back with a plastic top. Will it stay on the toilet seat?”
Shepard Fairey, Seizing His 15 Minutes, Sues The AP
“Shepard Fairey, the artist whose ‘Hope’ image of President Barack Obama was added to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, sued the Associated Press over the news company’s copyright challenge to the artwork. Fairey seeks to ‘vindicate’ himself after the AP earlier accused him of copying the AP photograph on which the artist’s red-white-and-blue image of Obama is based, according to a complaint filed today in federal court in New York.”
For All The Lincoln Hoopla, Ford’s Theatre Is Still A Theatre
“‘I have a simple programming principle,’ said the Theatre Society director Paul Tetreault. ‘I try to imagine what Lincoln would have enjoyed seeing.’ This spring brings, somewhat amusingly, ‘The Civil War,’ a musical.”
At Oscar Wilde Bookshop, Decades Ago, Plotting The Future
“One of the subtler pleasures of the movie Milk is its vivid portrayal of those small rooms where the conspirators of the gay liberation movement first came together. Sadly, one of those sanctums, the Oscar Wilde Bookshop, announced it was closing last week, after 42 years. As it happens, the place has a direct link to the film: Its founder, Craig Rodwell, was an early boyfriend of Harvey Milk, at the time a closeted actuary in Brooks Brothers drag.”
Please, Make Insulting Chick Flicks Go Away
“Simone de Beauvoir famously announced that ‘One is not born a woman, but becomes one,’ in her 1949 treatise The Second Sex. She might have added: ‘But it takes Hollywood to turn one into an hysterical fashion-mongering man-craving anorexic caricature.’ … The good news, for right-thinking women everywhere, is that the contemporary cardboard chick flick may yet eat itself without any help from feminist producers or activist audiences.”
The Drummer As Outsider
“Drummers live on their own planet. Anyone needing further understanding should only look to hockey. In hockey, it’s the goalie that differs. Having to wearing a painted mask is just the beginning of it.” A new art exhibit examines the mythology of the drummer.
Who Belongs In The Shakespeare Birthplace Hall Of Fame?
“Judi Dench and Leonardo DiCaprio are in, David Tennant and Peggy Ashcroft are provoking furious argument, and Helen Mirren didn’t even make the shortlist for the Shakespeare champions of all time – 13 names to fill a new hall of fame in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s visitor centre at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.” The Guardian is taking an online poll to choose the 13th name from the shortlist.
National Mall Restoration Gets Shut Out Of Stimulus Aid
“Two weeks ago, columnists across the land were rhapsodizing about the glories of the National Mall, where about a million people had just witnessed Barack Obama’s inauguration. … But that was then. Last Wednesday, when the House of Representatives passed the $819 billion economic stimulus bill, Democrats caved in to Republican critics and stripped $200 million for restoring the Mall out of the measure.”