Author: Matthew Westphal

Has So Much Ever Been Made Of So Little? A Look At Erik Satie’s ‘Vexations’

David Patrick Stearns: “Only a minute or two long, but repeated 840 times, Vexations is alternately called minimalist, Dada-ist, or Outsider Art when it resurfaces every few years. … [Igor] Levit’s late May performance, streamed from Berlin, is perhaps the highest-profile outing for this ghostly wisp of a piece that was posthumously discovered among the composer’s personal effects. Considering that [it] could easily have been dismissed as some discarded sketch, Vexations has achieved a degree of cultural clout that is, to say the least, highly unexpected.” – WQXR (New York City)

When Irony Died And Then Came Back To Life: An Oral History Of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue

“[It] wasn’t the funniest issue they ever did, but it would turn out to be incredibly successful because it reflected so many of the emotions that people were feeling after the attacks. The sorrow, the anger, the utter helplessness — all of this was captured by one headline or another, giving most everyone in the audience something to identify with. … Now, nearly 20 years later, the issue is widely considered to be an important part of comedy history — even an important part of the broader cultural history surrounding 9/11.” – Mel

Nicholson Baker Surfs YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithms And Winds Up In Some Ugly Places

“We’re told that after the 2016 elections Google made adjustments to YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, so as not to lead impressionable gun-owning zealots frictionlessly down tunnels of paranoia. … Even so, it remains true today that the more dark, wiggy videos you consume, the darker and wiggier your playlist becomes, until you inhabit a so-called ‘filter bubble,’ while Google makes ad money off of your addictive radicalization.” – Columbia Journalism Review

Kevin Rafferty, Co-Director Of ‘The Atomic Cafe’, Dead At 73

Along with his brother Pierce and colleague Jayne Loader, “[he] gathered archival material that had been created to ease Americans into the nuclear age and turned it into The Atomic Cafe, an acclaimed, darkly comic documentary film released in 1982.” Also notable among his six directing credits are Blood in the Face (1991, about far-right groups such as the Ku Klux Klan), The Last Cigarette (about the worldwide marketing of American tobacco products), and Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. – The New York Times

Immersive, Live, Virtual-Reality Theater Is Here (So How Is It?)

“The show, The Under Presents: Tempest, is a technological first: a live, scripted, participatory play that you attend, from home, using a virtual reality headset. After buying a $14.99 ticket (an in-app purchase inside an esoteric virtual reality game, The Under Presents), and powering up at a set time, you arrive in a virtual theater lobby, with your avatar clad in a black cloak and glowing mask. You can’t speak, but you can gesture. A live actor … leads you and six or seven other audience members to a firepit in the Hollywood Hills, then to Prospero’s island, then back to the firepit for marshmallows and a dance party. … Live actors and live audience members meeting in a shared space at precisely timed intervals. [It] sounds like theater. Sometimes, it even feels like theater. Is this a brave new world for live performance? Or just another app?” – The New York Times

Blockbuster King Tut Show In London May Violate Egypt’s Antiquities Laws

Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, a touring show conceived by “swashbuckling” Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and U.S. management and events company IMG, was pulling in big crowds at London’s Saatchi Gallery before the COVID lockdown. But new reporting suggests that the contract between IMG and Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities to provide artifacts for the show may be illegal. – ARTnews

Why Did America’s Biggest Summer Dance Festivals Cancel Way Back In The Early Spring?

The American Dance Festival in Durham, NC; Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA; and the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, ME all called off their summer 2020 events on the same day, March 31 — weeks before other summer festivals bowed to the inevitable. Why did those three decide so soon? As their execs tell Rachel Rizzuto, it came down to “necessity and courtesy.” – Dance Magazine

FBI Raids Alleged Art Forgery Factory Deep In The North Woods

“The raid Tuesday and Wednesday targeted … Donald ‘D.B’ Henkel, 60, a self-described artist who is accused in a sealed FBI search warrant affidavit of orchestrating a years-long conspiracy involving previously unknown paintings by well-known artists and counterfeit sports memorabilia. … Federal law enforcement officials are calling [the scheme] a national crime ring with conspirators operating in Metro Detroit and at least three other states.” – The Detroit News