“Juuso got some paint in his paws and started to make marks with them. We noticed that he liked it,” says one of his keepers. “We just leave paint for him, some plywood and paper … He does all the work in his own time, when he’s alone, sitting and moving his legs on the paper.” (includes video)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Jill Soloway Says Male Directors Should Just Stop Making Movies About Rape (Then She Womansplains Why They Do It)
On a panel at Sundance, the writer/producer (Transparent, United States of Tara, Six Feet Under) said, “We get it, guys. You want us to stay inside because you want us to be afraid we’re going to get raped. We get it! Stop making movies and TV shows about rape. Let women make those movies if they want to.” Then she started talking about why she thinks Paul Verhoeven made Elle …
After Trump’s CIA Visit, Lookups Of The Word ‘Claque’ Spiked
As Merriam-Webster observes, “Claque means ‘a group hired to applaud at a performance’ or ‘a group of sycophants.'”
‘Alternative Facts’ Is The Perfect Euphemism For The Age Of Trump
Katy Waldman: “For one thing, the phrase calls to mind the snake-oil salesmanship that has animated Trump’s rise to power.” (Waldman cites the ’70s term alternative medicine.) ” The modifier’s connotation of gutsy, even glamorous independence also lends credibility to the rogue alt-right … Most of all, alternative facts evokes a total alienation from – and disinterest in – objective truth.”
Justin Peck’s New Ballet Is Not What It Was Before The Election
“[He] stops short of calling it a protest dance, but his newest ballet, The Times Are Racing, is certainly of the moment. The dancers wear sneakers, and T-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with words like Unite, React, Act, Protest and Fight.”
Houston’s ‘Nixon In China’ Accused Of Yellowface
The complaints about Houston Grand Opera’s current run of the John Adams opera include the casting of white singers as Chinese characters as well as caricatured stereotypes in Nixon‘s version of The Red Detachment of Women (an actual Communist propaganda ballet that uses caricatured stereotypes).
‘Minstrel Show’: Houston Chronicle Rips ‘Nixon In China’ For ‘Demeaning Treatment Of Chinese Culture’
“Instead of presenting Asians as human beings, we are offered a world of lazy stereotypes”, writes staff theater and opera critic Wei-Huan Chen about the opera’s version of the old Cultural Revolution ballet The Red Detachment of Women, “a representation of Asian people so nostalgic, so inaccurate and so out of touch with the way we talk about and view race in modern times that it at first evokes more confusion than disgust.” (That’s arguably a fair description of the original Red Detachment.)
I Wrote All The State Arts Agencies To Ask What Would Change For Them If The NEA Is Eliminated – Here’s What Happened
As Leonard Jacobs notes, “40% of the NEA’s budget, by statute, goes directly to state and regional arts agencies. … If the NEA didn’t exist, therefore, large chunks of state arts agency budgets would evaporate overnight.” So what were the agencies’ responses? The first, from a national unmbrella organization, was basically Don’t talk about this out loud!!
The Last Time We Fought For The NEA’s Very Existence: A Look Back At The ’90s Culture Wars
“[Here] are excerpts from the ARTnews archives that detail the [1989-91] struggle over NEA funding, including the controversy surrounding a Corcoran Gallery of Art Mapplethorpe show, Democratic representative Mary Rose Oakar’s response, and Republican senator Jesse Helms’s vow to avenge what he saw as a loss.
BroadwayCon Makes Peace With Actors’ Equity
“After a short dispute, Actors’ Equity Association has lifted its ‘do not work’ order on BroadwayCon, a convention for theater fans scheduled to begin Friday. The contract disagreement between the two parties was settled on Monday, paving the way for such performers as Josh Groban, Kelli O’Hara and Laura Osnes to appear at the event.”