“More than a million were killed and many millions more displaced by Indian partition. [Eleven] authors consider its bloody legacy and the crises now facing their countries.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How America Lost Its Mind: Our Current ‘Post-Truth’ Moment Has Roots As Deep And Old As The U.S. Itself
Kurt Andersen: “The American experiment, the original embodiment of the great Enlightenment idea of intellectual freedom, whereby every individual is welcome to believe anything she wishes, has metastasized out of control. … Mix epic individualism with extreme religion; mix show business with everything else; let all that ferment for a few centuries; then run it through the anything-goes ’60s and the internet age. The result is the America we inhabit today, with reality and fantasy weirdly and dangerously blurred and commingled.”
Are Dancers’ Brains Wired Differently? Evidently So
Recent studies “reveal that dancers use multiple areas of their brains simultaneously while dancing: one part controls movement without expressive intention, another part imagines movement qualities and these parts work to execute movement while also making higher-level decisions.”
Peter Martins’s And Darci Kistler’s Daughter Arrested For Felony Burglary
Talicia Martins, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Bard College, and a friend allegedly broke into three storefront businesses in Camden, Maine and stole more than $1,000. Both have been charged with burglary and felony theft.
The ‘Chicago Picasso’ At 50
The towering, untitled sculpture was not universally popular when it was unveiled 50 years ago. “[It] might never have been in danger of being destroyed or being replaced with a statue of Cubs baseball player Ernie Banks (per the wishes of one alderman), but for several years, the word ‘controversial’ preceded any mention of the work in the press. … Children began using The Picasso as a slide almost immediately, making it a de facto interactive sculpture.”
$78,000 Of Debt For A Harvard Theater Degree That’s Not A Real MFA – And Alumni Blame Diane Paulus
“Despite being at the world’s wealthiest university, institute students receive modest financial aid and leave with a median of $78,000 in debt in exchange for a master of liberal arts degree from the Harvard Extension School.” Said one alum, “Getting this degree basically guaranteed that I wasn’t able to pursue it as a career because I immediately had to get a job to pay for the education I received.”
NBC News Profiles Rising Young African-American Conductor Roderick Cox
When he was a young man in Macon, Georgia, “it was clear he had a good ear and the passion, but for a while, the furthest point he imagined going in his musical career was becoming a band director. And then his worldview opened up” – thanks to Victor Yampolsky at Northwestern University. “Now two years into his role as associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, he’s come a long way from leading a convocation of action figures.”
Artist Puts Robot Spider On Cathedral – And Some Catholics Denounce It As ‘Demonic’
The animatronic arachnid, called Kumo, was created by French street theater company La Machine and brought to Ottawa for the Canada 150 celebrations. Late last week, it was was installed on the side of the capital’s Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica – for a visual juxtaposition with Louise Bourgeois’s bronze spider, Maman, just across the street in front of the the National Gallery of Canada. But not all believers thought the sight was cool.
Alan Gilbert Gets Chilly Farewell From New York Philharmonic Musicians At Their Final Concert Together
Things seemed amicable enough at Gilbert’s farewell concerts at Geffen Hall and in the New York City parks. But at a 70th anniversary concert for the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara last week, reports Mark Swed,”there was no acknowledgment of its music director from the orchestra during the bows – no tapping of bows on stands, practically no glances from the players at the conductor. … When [L.A.] Master Chorale Music Director Grant Gershon hugged Gilbert the stage suddenly became radiant, despite the orchestra musicians pointedly looking the other way.”
Shakespeare & Company’s Tina Packer Has Now Directed All 37 Of Shakespeare’s Plays
“I never thought consciously, ‘Oh, I’m going to do them all.’ But I started noticing a progression in his writing of the women. In the beginning they’re either shrews or sweet young things, but by the time he gets to his late plays, he says: ‘Guys, you have to go with what the women say. Otherwise we’re all lost.’ That really made me want to keep going.”