“To begin with, auditions taught me to get through airports. In the end, it was the other way around.” Actor Riz Ahmed’s career may be flourishing, but his experiences with immigration officials, in both the US and his native UK, have gone from frightening (and illegal) to tedious to humorous.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Is So Much Of The Internet Blue?
“How did we get the blue regime that [Paul] Hebert’s actually quantified, and many others have observed? It’s not like there’s some centralized Web design authority dictating these things. Anecdotally, Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook is blue because he’s red-green colorblind, and Google has said the color clicked best in rigorous A/B tests. But the underlying reason may be that design, like art, imitates life.”
The Most Confounding Optical Illusions On The Web This Year (So Far)
“The Internet loves optical illusions. Why? Because the Internet is a network of bored cubicle-browsers in search of ways to pass the time. … We’ve rounded up the most viral optical illusions of the year thus far, in all their mind-bendy glory.” (At left: “Disappearing Dots”.)
The First Woman Science Fiction Author Was A 17th-Century Duchess
“No one could get into philosophical argument with Lady Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and walk away unchanged. Born in 1623, Cavendish was an outspoken aristocrat who traveled in circles of scientific thinkers, and broke ground on proto-feminism, natural philosophy (the 17th century term for science), and social politics. In her lifetime, she published 20 books. But amid her poetry and essays, she also published one of the earliest examples of science fiction. In 1666. She named it The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World.”
R-Rated Opera (Seriously): Alt-Classical Stars Adapt Lars Von Trier’s ‘Breaking The Waves’
“‘Would you go to R-rated things as a grown-up? Of course you would,’ said Opera Philadelphia general director David Devan. ‘We’re making disclaimers. We’re telling people there is nudity and stylized violence. … We did talk to the cast. … To do the job you have to be prepared to be nude for certain portions.'” Says soprano Keira Duffy, “There are moments when I’m thinking, ‘What is my Irish Catholic family going be thinking in certain scenes?'”
Late Degas Wasn’t So Bad After All, Goes The New Consensus
“‘One had to apologise for the late work,’ [Museum of Fine Arts, Houston director Gary Tinterow] says. ‘It was thought to be that of an old man who could no longer draw, or a reflection of frustration and a loss of manual dexterity.’ [Curator Henri] Loyrette is even more blunt: ‘People said Degas was a blind man.’ It took time and scholarship and subsequent exhibitions, but that feeling has largely dissipated.”
Public Art Or Giant Gas Company Logo? Belfastians Duke It Out
“The 11-metre high structure was funded by Creative Belfast, a partnership between Belfast City Council and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which invested £900,000 in seven large-scale projects showcasing the city’s cultural heritage. But Origin, which cost £100,000, has attracted poor reviews, with one critic accusing the project of ‘financial frippery’.”
Turning The Daily Go-To-Work Grind Into Dance
“Every day, billions of people in America and around the world wake up and start their daily rituals to eventually end up at work. Preparing for work can entail so many details, but for most it involves both mental preparation and some kind of physical preparation, whether it’s getting into office-appropriate clothing or physically traveling to one’s place of work.” Enter choreographer Dana Gingras and her company, The Holy Body Tattoo.
Bette Midler ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Revival Smashes Broadway Sales Record
“More than $9m was spent in the first 24 hours on tickets to the musical, which will be staged at the Shubert Theatre from April next year. The theatre’s owners declared themselves ‘thrilled’ with the response. Tickets for the show range from $79 to $189.”
Curtis Hanson, 71, Director Of ‘L.A. Confidential’, ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’, ‘8 Mile’
“Throughout his career, Hanson strived to re-create the level of actor-director intimacy and trust that he felt [Humphrey] Bogart and [Nicholas] Ray enjoyed, and which produced such raw on-screen emotion. As a result, Hanson developed a reputation among actors as a director who was particularly intuitive.”