Alastair Macaulay: “Nobody can miss how vividly different its stage worlds are: the green romantic medieval French forest of ‘Emeralds’ (music by Fauré); the red Modernist high-energy American urban world of ‘Rubies’ (Stravinsky); the wintry white (both snowscape and palace) grand imperial Russian classicism of ‘Diamonds’ (Tchaikovsky). What other artist could conjure these three dissimilar realms with such easy mastery?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Brilliant Astronomer Who Opposed Copernicus And Galilieo On The Grounds Of Science, Not Religion
Johann Georg Locher “argued that Copernicus was wrong about Earth circling the Sun, and that Earth was fixed in place, at the centre of the Universe, like Ptolemy said. … Indeed, Locher even proposed a mechanism to explain how Earth could orbit the Sun (a sort of perpetual falling – this decades before Isaac Newton would explain orbits by means of perpetual falling), but he said it would not help the Copernicans, on account of the other problems with their theory.”
‘Kill Climate Deniers’: The Play That Infiltrated Australia’s Parliament And Became A Breitbart Target
“Over ambient sound came the disembodied voice of the Canberra musician Reuben Ingall. ‘There are plain-clothed police officers patrolling every floor. You’ll be watched on camera for the whole trip and Australian federal police officers are armed with SR16 semi-automatic assault rifles,’ he said. ‘When you head through security, act as normal as possible. How does a normal person act? Be like that.'”
The Eureka, The 19th-Century Proto-Computer That Generated Latin Poetry
“In July 1845, British curiosity-seekers headed to London’s Egyptian Hall to try out the novelty of the summer. For the price of one shilling, they could stand in front of a wooden bureau, pull a lever, and look behind a panel where six drums, bristling with metal spokes, revolved. At the end of its ‘grinding,’ what it produced was not a numeric computation or a row of fruit symbols, but something quite different: a polished line of Latin poetry.”
Where Will Chris Thile Take ‘A Prairie Home Companion’?
“Thile’s plan, as suggested by his musical-guest choices, is to invert the formula of Prairie Home. Music will take the lead; guest comics like John Hodgman will provide side banter … His challenge is to curate a musical show that’s as attractive for the Prairie Home faithful as it is for a yet-unrealized younger crowd.” Says Thile about the show’s audience, “My goal is to lose one million and add two.”
The Best Foreign-Language Oscar Race: Here’s Some Early Handicapping
“Frequent competitors – such as France, Spain, Iran, South Korea and Chile – have opted to bank on festival favorites from directors with significant art-house clout. As tried-and-tested as this method of attack sounds, it’s in fact not a given occurrence.”
Suzan-Lori Parks, Pultizer-Winning Playwright, On Backlash In The Age Of Obama (And Brexit)
“All I can say is that after Emancipation, when the slaves were freed, there was Reconstruction, which was essentially a lot of blowback. So, after Obama’s eight years, there’s serious blowback. People in America are often encouraged not to think. The basis of politics is to heighten their fears and make them buy something. But, you know, y’all just had Brexit. We were like ‘Whaay! We’re not the only stupid ones!'”
Mac Wellman Isn’t Just An Unorthodox Playwright, He’s An Unorthodox, And Great, Playwriting Teacher
Says one former student, Paul Ketchum, “He knows exactly where to put pressure to release the inner playwriting beast of his students. Mac would hate this, but he’s like a fucking dramaturgical acupressure neuromancer.” Wellman talks teaching, structure (he hates it) and gossip with another former student, Eliza Bent.
The ‘Godfather Of Gore’, Filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis, Dead At 87
“With his 1963 film Blood Feast, Lewis is widely credited with pioneering the splatter genre, despite it being considered ‘an insult even to the most puerile and salacious of audiences’ in a Variety review. A later critique described it as ‘one of the important releases in film history, ushering in a new acceptance of explicit violence that was obviously just waiting to be exploited’.”
San Francisco Museums’ Controversial Board Chair Keeps Position, Gives Up President’s Title
“Embattled philanthropist Dede Wilsey, who waged an all-out campaign to stay on as head of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco amid probes into whether she improperly spent the institutions’ money, won approval Tuesday to extend her reign as the city’s queen of culture – although with a new title and possibly less power.”