Sure, it’s easy (and safe) to presume that Twain would have mocked the 45th President mercilessly. Yet, argues Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “Twain would have found Trump the showman – the pre-2016 version – a fascinating figure.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How The Hirshhorn Spent Two Years Preparing For The Yayoi Kusama Show
It’s not just that those mirrored, carefully lit Infinity Rooms are tricky to put together. There was the matter of carefully training guides and volunteers, crowd control on a scale unprecedented for this museum, and logistics for an all-white room that visitors are meant to cover with colored dots (it has to be white again by the next morning).
New NPR Guidelines Wrestle With Conflict Between Transparency And Reporter-Funder Firewall
Traditionally, the network took care to keep reporters from even knowing what donors or organizations might be funding coverage of the stories they work on. But it’s difficult to do that at the same time you’re trying to be clear to listeners about who’s providing the money to support the reporting.
A Lost Opera By Franz Liszt Has Turned Up, And You Can Hear Part Of It
“An excerpt from a largely forgotten Italian opera that Liszt began in 1849 will, belatedly, get its premiere this summer. You can listen to part of the work, based on Lord Byron’s Assyrian tragedy Sardanapalus, here.”
Russia Gives Disney’s Live-Action ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Adults-Only Rating
And yes, it’s because Gaston’s sidekick, LeFou, is depicted as gay. (At least the movie wasn’t banned for violating the law against aiming “gay propaganda” at minors, as the author of the law had demanded.)
The Flapbooks Of 16th-Century Venice (They Were Oh-So- Naughty)
The city’s ingenious publishers came up with the perfect souvenir for a wealthy tourist to bring home from what was then a famously libertine city.
Afghanistan’s Answer To ‘American Idol’ – It Could Make You Famous, But It Could Also Get You Killed
“The show’s judges drive around in armored vehicles. The contestants are provided with safe housing inside a compound for the duration of the show. Audience members go through multiple security checks.” Reporter Mujib Mashal visits the set and meets this season’s two favorites, a rapping barber from Mazar-i-Sharif and a 16-year-old girl whose widowed mother defied the rest of the family to get her daughter entered.
A Ballet School In Conservative Upper Egypt
A dancer from the Cairo Opera Ballet travels 150 miles south every weekend to teach students (some boys as well as girls) who come from up to an hour away to the Alwanat Centre in Minya.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.06.17
A Small Company with Big Ideas
The New York Theatre Ballet performs in Saint Mark’s Church, March 1 through 4. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-03-06
Monday Recommendation: Joachim Kühn Trio
Joachim Kühn New Trio, Beauty & Truth, ACT … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-03-06
Pauses that refreshed
TV commercials rank high among the clearest and most vivid memories of my boyhood. … On occasion, the music for a commercial was so well-written and well-executed that it lodged forever after in my consciousness. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-03-06<
The Flour War: How One Greek Town Celebrates Its Mardi Gras
On “Clean Monday,” residents of the village of Calaxidi cover their houses with plastic and then hurl bombs full of colored wheat flour at each other. (It’s like Holi, but with more calories.) The tradition is said to go back to an act of defiance against the ottomans in 1801. (video and slideshow)