“[She was] a novelist and memoirist who recounted her bittersweet Jewish roots in New York as a rabbi’s daughter in Hell’s Kitchen and her turbulent marriage to the literary critic Alfred Kazin.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.29.17
The Enduring Memory Of A Friend
A friend from the military chapter of my life asked if I would republish a story that first ran on Memorial Day weekend five years ago. Presented with pleasure at the memory of an … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-28
Comic Timing Is Something Most Of Us Completely Misunderstand
“It may be that our sense of the importance of comic timing comes more from how we perceive jokes than from how they’re delivered. And, for comedians, the timing after the punch line” – as opposed to before, which is what most laypeople assume – “is what really counts.” Thomas MacMillan explains.
Private Prison Sued For Censoring Inmates’ Reading Material
“A private Utah-based corporation that runs the North Central Correctional Complex in Marion, Ohio, has been sued by the nonprofit Human Rights Defense Center for blocking inmates from receiving books on ‘criminal justice policies, legal research, health care issues and other similar topics.'”
Movie Theater Plans Women-Only Showing Of ‘Wonder Woman’ – And (Some) Men Flip Out
The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin had the idea, and it sold out so fast that they added a second date and plan to extend the idea to other cities. What’s more, the Austin Drafthouse’s social media person deftly handled all the male butthurt on Facebook. (includes examples of butthurt)
The Universal Remote Control: A Brief History
“[It’s] a device that made millions of devices that work similarly but are slightly different bend to its will. In the age of IFTTT, Alexa, Zapier, and Siri, this device has a surprising amount of value and deserves to be studied. And,” writes Ernie Smith, “I’m just the guy to do it.”
‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’: How Playwright Lucas Hnath Put Together The Script
It was by no means a matter of presenting a finished piece to the director and cast: in fact, the actors – especially Chris Cooper, who’s used to working in film – were astonished at how much they were allowed to shape their characters’ lines. Peter Marks reports on the process, which leaned heavily on what Hnath calls “scraps.”
‘Of Course It’s A Sculpture – It’s A Downward Sculpture Rather Than An Upward Sculpture’ – Anish Kapoor Talks About ‘Descension’, His Whirlpool
“One thing that makes it a sculpture is that there’s obviously artifice to it. It is artifice posing as a natural phenomenon. It’s obviously been made, but the fiction is that it hasn’t been made. That tension is an important part of the work.”
Why Don’t More Ballet Companies Have Female Artistic Directors? Wendy Whelan Has An Idea
“I often get calls when a spot opens up, but I don’t see myself in that position. I believe myself to not be a director because of the system. Having a male artistic director is a tradition that’s passed down, and it becomes ingrained and it’s like, ‘Oh, fuck off.’ It’s a fake system. It’s hard to break it down unless you talk about it, and I think talking about it will slowly open it up, but even a feminist ballerina like me can still realize that I can be biased at times without knowing it.”
Did The NEH Just Surrender To Its Own Abolition?
Earlier this week, in response to the budget the Trump administration submitted to Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities released this statement: “The White House has requested that Congress appropriate approximately $42 million to NEH for the orderly closure of the agency. This amount includes funds to meet [existing] matching grant offers … as well as funds to cover administrative expenses and salaries associated with the closure.” Is the NEH giving up on its own existence? Not really, no, as Jillian Steinhauer reports.