“A slave who ran away from Maryland, was drunk when the crime was committed. Thinks his confinement will promote the welfare of his soul.” Rebecca Onion, Slate‘s history maven, looks at these documents from the Eastern State Penitentiary, now a monument just down Fairmount Avenue from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Norman Lear Says He’s A Conservative – A ‘Bleeding-Heart Conservative’
“You will not mess with my First Amendment, my Bill of Rights, my Declaration of Independence, my Constitution. I underline the ‘my’ in terms of the way I feel about it. That’s the way this country was born, that’s what it’s dedicated to. It has not served up equal justices yet, … but under the law, we are promised equal justice under the law, equal opportunity. So I think that’s as conservative as you can get.”
You Know What Theatre Criticism Needs? More Hatchet Jobs, Like In The Old Days
Matt Trueman: “The sad truth is that a proper old-fashioned panning is good for a critic – and, by extension, good for criticism. … Hard hits get hits [i.e. page views]. It’s the critical equivalent of slowing down at a crash site. Because a great critic going full-pelt, venting his or her vitriol on to the page, is a thing of real beauty. Dark, splenetic, grisly beauty, but beauty nonetheless.” (He thinks hatchet jobs are good for theatre, too.)
The Art Of Stage Makeup, By The Makeup Designer For The Musical About Makeup Moguls
Angelina Avallone (War Paint) explains it all to (and tries out some of it on) the previously clueless Kurt Andersen. (audio)
England’s State Arts Funder Should Be A ‘Development Agency’, Says Report By Its Bosses
“Arts Council England (ACE) must operate as a development agency and focus on developing financially sustainable arts organisations, a wide-ranging review by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has concluded. For ACE to fulfil this role, the review presents a series of recommendations …”
ABT’s Hard-Working Dancers Had A Seedy Old Lounge Area – And Then Architectural Digest Stepped In
“There were stained futons that you wouldn’t even let your college freshman sit on,” said Amy Astley, the glossy mag’s editor-in-chief and a ballet fan. A donor took care of construction costs, and Astley convinced the designer and all the furnishings suppliers to donate the rest. Here’s the story, with before-and-after pics.
Maybe Dropping The Turner Prize’s Age Limit Wasn’t Such A Good Idea
The Art Newspaper‘s Ben Luke argues that limiting the prize to artists under 50 was a crucial element in the Turner Prize’s success in drawing wide attention to emerging talent (the stated reason for the award’s existence), and that eliminating that limit will make jurors’ jobs much more difficult.
Who Was The Worst-Dressed At The Met Gala? The Naked Guy In A Glass Box
It was Russian performance artist Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, who has pulled this stunt performed this piece several times before. (Yes, he was arrested. And no, he’s not the guy who nailed his scrotum to Red Square.)
Orchestra Of St. Luke’s Next Chief Conductor Will Be –
Bernard Labadie, founder of the Quebec City-based chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy. He takes over from Pablo Heras-Casado at the podium of New York’s leading freelance orchestra in 2018. Michael Cooper talks to Labadie about his plans for the band and his recovery from lymphoma.
Colson Whitehead’s ‘The Underground Railroad’ Leads Nominees For Top Science Fiction Prize
Sure, Railroad qualifies: it’s a historical novel, but it’s also a steampunk fantasy. The nominee authors are an unusually diverse lot: in addition to Whitehead (an African-American male), there are three (white) females, an Israeli male, and a transgender Korean-American.