Author: Matthew Westphal

The Mystical Monumentality (Or Monumental Mysticism) Of Louis Kahn

Martin Filler: “How odd that the towering genius of architecture during the third quarter of the twentieth century – when his most conventionally successful colleagues prized innovation over tradition, analysis over intuition, and logic over emotion – was a mystically inclined savant who sought to reconnect his medium with its spiritual roots. Indeed, he ran wholly counter to prevailing images of the modern architect.”

‘Cli-Fi’ – Novels, Movies, And TV Imagine The World After Climate Change

“What quicker way to make ordinary people into heroes and villains than to turn the weather against them and destroy everything they know?” Science Speculative fiction novelist Anna North looks at how works of fiction are envisioning the all-too-real possibilities of what could happen to Earth and its people as the stuff humans have been putting into the air keep accumulating.

After Backlash From Filmmakers, Sony Backs Down (Somewhat) On Its Plan To Issue ‘Clean’ Versions Of Movies

When Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that it would create versions of its films scrubbed of profanity and adult scenes (roughly like airline versions) for home viewers, it took only four hours for the Directors Guild to remind the studio that it needed the director’s permission for each title. (Judd Apatow tweeted a profanity-filled response of his own.) Sony didn’t spend much time arguing back.

So What Exactly Is “Dance Theater”, Anyway?

“Is it Pina Bausch’s raw examinations of everyday life? Is it performance that mixes movement and text? Is it dance that tells a story? Dance Magazine talked with four choreographers who use elements of dance and theater – but whose work escapes easy categorization – about playing with narrative, integrating movement and words, and what ‘dance theater’ means to them.”

The Decades-Long Journey To A Workable Version Of Lou Harrison’s Opera ‘Young Caesar’

Harrison’s score was always recognized for its good qualities, but the story of the youthful Julius Caesar’s possibly-mythical affair with a foreign king was plagued by an overlong, repetitive libretto to which Harrison refused cuts. John Rockwell tells the story of the 46-year-long effort to create a Young Caesar that could captivate and hold an audience.

‘Indecent’ Is Closing On Broadway; Bitter Playwright Blames Ben Brantley And Jesse Green

Paula Vogel tweeted, “Brantley&Green 2-0. Nottage&Vogel 0-2. Lynn, they help close us down” and gave the two New York Times critics the hashtag #footnotesinhistory. The “Lynn” of the tweet, Lynn Nottage, whose play Sweat is also closing its Broadway run, replied by describing Brantley and Green as “the patriarchy flexing their muscles to prove their power.”

Playwright A.R. Gurney, 86

“In his hands, the conventions of the drawing-room comedy became the framework for social analysis. … With its focus on the quirks and barely concealed anxieties of the privileged class, Mr. Gurney’s work was often likened to that of the novelist John Cheever and the playwright Philip Barry. His settings were often the stately homes of the well-to-do. His characters included self-satisfied corporate executives, crusty academics, imperious dowagers and bewildered teenagers on the cusp of adulthood.”

‘A Horse Walks Into A Bar’ Wins Man Booker International Prize

“David Grossman’s ‘ambitious high-wire act of a novel’, A Horse Walks Into a Bar, set around a standup comic’s rambling and confessional routine in an Israeli comedy club, has won the Man Booker International prize for the year’s best fiction in translation.” … Grossman, a bestselling writer of fiction, nonfiction and children’s books who has been translated into 36 languages, will share the £50,000 prize with his English translator, Jessica Cohen.”