“Depending on your mood, and the circumstances in which you were reading, your response can go either way. Book reviewers will recognise this sensation. You read deep into a book. Your verdict might traverse a range of opinions. Then you start to write about it, and you discover what you think. It’s a capricious process.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Explaining Broadway’s Hostility To Enron
Michael Billington: “[O]ne reason for the attacks is the entrenched American view that visual pyrotechnics and razzle-dazzle are the special province of the musical. … It’s permissible for Wicked or Legally Blonde to deploy expressionist techniques but, on Broadway at least, plays are expected to conform to the realist rules.”
Baby In Tow, Alpha Mummy Investigates Opera For Infants
“Oscar, who wakes up every morning yelling ‘Mu-mic! Mu-mic!’ has musical tastes that range from Tosca to the whirring beat of the Magimix. But he’s stymied by the fact that babies are not, as a rule, welcome in the concert hall. … And so Oscar and I toddle off to Baby O….”
Ten Thoughts On Picasso’s Record-Smashing Nude
Peter Plagens: “7. Money stories in the art world translate something that most people don’t understand (e.g., why is Picasso considered all that good?) into something they do understand–a sum of money. The bigger the sum of money, the ‘sexier’ the story in the bargain.”
Brits Thrive On B’way As Americans Falter In West End
Although La Cage aux Folles, from London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, “could even beat last year’s [Tony Awards] triumph, when Billy Elliot waltzed off with ten awards, the most intriguing underlying trend is the continuing success of British plays going to New York — and the relative failure of the traffic in the opposite direction.”
When Cockroaches And Bones Are Found Materials
A growing number of artists “have gone natural, … scavenging the world’s vivarium and rummaging through the life sciences in search of materials, ideas, cosmic verities, tragicomic homilies, personal agency, a personal agent, a way to stand out in the crowd.”
For Conceptual Art, The Internet Is Fertile Soil
“Now, there is a slight problem with being a conceptual artist these days: You won’t get paid. But this levels the field and takes the art of money out of the field of serious art. The only conceptual artists who would conceive of making money on the Internet are a lowbrow species known as hustlers.”
Why Don’t More Men Work In Publishing?
“Could it be the low pay, low status and ridiculous hours? (Remember that book editors seldom get to read manuscripts in the office — that’s what weekends are for.) Apart from a handful of celebrated figures, it’s the rare editor who gets paid more than a secondary school teacher in a middle-class district.”
All Publicity Is Good Publicity (With A Copy Editor’s Help)
A CNN copy editor sprang into action when he spotted errors in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ about-to-be-unveiled star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “‘Um, excuse me,’ I said to the workmen, ‘but I’m pretty sure that star is missing an O. And a hyphen.’ They were startled, and a little unsure what to do – after all, the ceremony was in four hours….”
Google To Start Selling E-Books This Summer
“The company is hoping to distinguish Google Editions in the marketplace by allowing users to access books through a broad range of websites using an array of devices, unlike rivals that are focused on proprietary devices and software. … It will also allow book retailers–even independent shops–to partner with Google Editions on their own sites, sharing the revenue.”