Author: Matthew Westphal

George R. R. Martin Does *Not* Need To Finish Writing The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Books, Thank You

Since HBO’s Game of Thrones started in 2011, Martin has finished only one more book in the series of novels on which the series is based, and the TV scripts have now outrun the storylines Martin himself created. Fans are not happy: “The internet’s favorite joke since around 2012 has been to yell at Martin whenever he’s found to be doing something other than furiously typing. The animating theory of the joke is that it’s his duty – his imperative – to finish the story he began. Guess what? It’s not.”

Freud’s Favorite Fresco (And What It Taught Him About Memory)

“In the small Italian town of Orvieto in 1897, Sigmund Freud had a revelation. In the town’s cathedral, before a depiction of the Last Judgement by the Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli, the 41-year-old psychoanalyst felt he had found ‘the greatest’ depiction of the theme he had ever seen. The intense and violent fresco, which carries an odd sexual energy, was seared into his mind. Yet upon his departure, ‘to his immense frustration, Freud could not recall the name of the artist.'”

The Thalidomide Baby Who Grew Up To Be A Rock Drummer, Tae Kwon Do Black Belt, TV Actor, And Richard III

“As an actor-producer [Mat Fraser] has been responsible for such deliberately provocative projects as Thalidomide!! A Musical and the first ‘cripsploitation’ action-movie Kung Fu Flid: Unarmed but Dangerous.” Richard III would seem an ideal role for him, but after he moved to New York and got a role on American Horror Story: Freak Show, he thought it was a role he’d never play: “To be honest I’d begun to feel a bit like yesterday’s cripple. I wasn’t sure if I’d be offered a straight acting role in England again.” (He was.)

Leisure And Arts In North Korea (Yes, They Do Have Them, More Or Less)

Reporter Laya Maheshwari: “I travelled to North Korea in September last year [and] attended the state’s showpiece film festival in Pyongyang, and visited a pizzeria, a water park and a pub, as well as other destinations in and around the capital. In many societies, lights going out in an auditorium induces a sense of anonymity and spontaneity. Sure enough, the hours I spent in a North Korean cinema provided my most natural encounters with locals.”

Enough With The Non-Review Reviews! Critics, If You’re Gonna Break A Review Embargo, Do It Openly

Comparing the London Times‘s outrage-inducing review of Benedict Cumberbatch’s first preview performance as Hamlet with The Telegraph‘s “news reports” on early previews of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Angels in America, Time Out London theatre editor Andrzej Lukowski declares, “If you’re going to be a dick about it, do it in style.”

Is Athens Becoming The Next Berlin?

Thanks to the still-struggling Greek economy, rents are low and there’s plenty of vacant space. Artists love those things, and they’ve started arriving in Athens from elsewhere in Europe. What’s more, Documenta is holding part of this year’s events there, the first time the festival has left Kassel in Germany. On the other hand, there’s not much of a contemporary art culture there yet, and few collectors. Alastair Sooke pays the city a visit.

This Museum Put A Neuroscientist On Staff To Rethink The Audience Experience

“[Tedi] Asher’s initial one-year appointment is part of a broader strategy at the Peabody Essex [in Salem, Mass.], which over the next five years will completely redesign its galleries, incorporating neuroscience to devise multisensory exhibitions, unexpected gallery spaces, stories, and interactive features to heighten audience engagement.”