“Ernest Hemingway having a drink, astronaut John Glenn in his Mercury spacesuit, even the US Constitution are among the GIF glimpses of American history released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on GIPHY. The collection launched last month as a shareable portal into the National Archives Catalog.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.13.16
Rejoicing
Well, I think it’s thrilling that Bob Dylan won his Nobel prize. One of the most profound artists alive today. Someone who goes very deep in me. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-10-13
Colliding Ideas
Tere O’Connor Dance appears at the Joyce Theater in the second week of NY Quadrille. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-10-13
Other Places: Brilliant Corners … Neglected Ballads
On Brilliant Corners trumpeter, active blogger and close listener Steve Provizer not only names ballads that he believes don’t get enough attention, he also presents them in performance. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-10-13
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The Rise, Fall, And Resurrection Of India’s Oldest Surviving LGBT Magazine
“For over a decade [from 1990], Bombay Dost challenged social taboo by helping readers come out and come into their own. Fulfilling that mission wasn’t easy, and the magazine briefly shut down in 2002 due to logistical difficulties. When it returned in 2009, Indian law had briefly become more hospitable to gay people. Today, however, Bombay Dost faces a new challenge: As it competes with online publications, the magazine must make the case for the print product, and its persevering power to bring the LGBT community closer together.”
When I Started My Own Theater Company At Age Eight
Actor Finn Whitrock writes about the summers he spent with his parents at Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts, and his he and his friends “would arrange five or six scenes from Shakespeare, rehearse them on our own time in the sun-drenched Berkshire afternoons and perform them for the adult company after one of their Mainstage shows.”
Ah, Those Merry Days Of Dadaism
Alfred Brendel (yes, the pianist): “Has there ever been a major avant-garde movement that was so closely tied to laughter and the grotesque? Laughter was the Dadaists’ favorite instrument … Traditionalists see Dadaists as silly people. To a degree, they are right. Silliness was liberating from the constraints of reason. Silliness has the potential to be funny, to provoke laughter, and make people realize that laughter is liberating.”
Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist Cookbook Is Back
“Dalí’s lavish and erotic cookbook Les Diners de Gala was first published in 1973, featuring 136 recipes compiled by the painter and his wife Gala. Divided into 12 chapters with titles such as ‘Prime Lilliputian malaises’ (meat) and ‘Deoxyribonucleic Atavism’ (vegetables), the book also features sumptuous Dalí illustrations and photographs of the painter posing alongside tables loaded with a banquet’s worth of food.”
‘Delicacy And Violence, Danger And Control’ – A History Of The Choker
“The choker is, on the one hand, simply one more way that the current culture has been looking back nostalgically to the ’90s. But they evoke much more than ’90s grunge: Chokers were common across ancient cultures, and cycled in and out of style during the most recent centuries in the West – prized for their ability both to conceal the neck and to highlight it. Today they most readily suggest the romantic (and the Romantic). But they also carry a note, visually slicing as they do across the most vulnerable part of the human body, of violence. And, with it, control.”
The Man Who Invented The Modern Bookselling Business
“Today, few people are likely to remember James Lackington (1746-1815) and his once-famous London bookshop, The Temple of the Muses, but if, as a customer, you’ve ever bought a remaindered book at deep discount, or wandered thoughtfully through the over-stocked shelves of a cavernous bookstore, or spent an afternoon lounging in the reading area of a bookshop (without buying anything!) then you’ve already experienced some of the ways that Lackington revolutionized bookselling in the late 18th century.”
The Woman Whose Life And Death Could Provide A Sequel To ‘Hamilton’
“Today, if people know anything about Theodosia [Burr Alston], it is because of the lovely lullaby ‘Dear Theodosia,’ sung by the character of Aaron Burr in the sensational musical Hamilton. But the real-life Theodosia grew from a beloved child into a highly intelligent, complex adult, whose fascinating story is largely unknown and worthy of its very own Broadway smash.”
The Caravaggio At The Heart Of The Wildenstein Money-Laundering Trial
“The Lute Player was discussed in [a Paris] court last week in a trial in which eight defendants, including Guy Wildenstein, the president of the New York art business Wildenstein & Company, are charged with tax evasion and money laundering. The French government estimates that the estate could owe at least €550m, including fines and interest.”