“The kung fu culture that [Bruce] Lee helped popularize – and that gave the city a gritty, exotic image in the eyes of foreigners – is in decline. Hong Kong’s streets are safer, with fewer murders by the fierce crime organizations known as triads that figured in so many kung fu films. And its real estate is among the world’s most expensive, making it difficult for training studios to afford soaring rents.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The 450-Year History Of The True Crime Genre
“Between 1550 and 1700, British authors and printers produced an unprecedented number of publications that reported on capital crimes. As literacy rates expanded and new print technologies emerged, topical leaflets began to circulate among newly literate and semiliterate consumers.” It was a respectable genre, “consumed primarily by literate members of the artisan class and above.”
Meet The Jerry Seinfeld Of France (Who’s Just Moved To The States)
“Back in Europe, [Gad] Elmaleh, who has big blue eyes framed by well-worn laugh lines, is famous. Like, famous famous. His films rake in millions at the box office, he sells out arenas for one-man shows, and walking down the rues of Paris with him, which I’ve done, is a laborious task due to all the selfie-seekers.” What’s best about living in New York? “I love being anonymous, being in a place where no one cares.”
Religion Makes Its Way, Carefully, Into TV Drama
“As important as religion is in the lives of many viewers, television has had a tentative relationship with it. … But are things changing, and how? Here, the New York Times critics Margaret Lyons and James Poniewozik survey how television’s congregation has expanded and where there’s still room for improvement.”
Steppenwolf: 40 Years Of ‘Balls-Out’ Theater In Chicago
Company co-founder Jeff Perry: “Our group had an interesting mix of individual ambition, and even hubris, and love of group work. If we had started Steppenwolf in Los Angeles or New York, I don’t think we would have been left alone long enough to put down these roots.”
What Do Plain Old Museumgoers Think Of The Art They See? The Times Asked Them, And Here’s What They Said
“We tried to find out what goes on in the mind of the modern museumgoer, unscientifically, by staking out the Met Breuer and interviewing nearly 50 art gazers over the course of two months … they included students who said museums were like ‘eating your vegetables’ and romantics who cherish their lunch breaks, when they can hop in a cab to go steal a few quiet minutes in front of a beloved painting.”
Director Of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Sues Weinstein Brothers For Fraud
“[David Frankel is] alleging fraud and negligent representation as well as breach of contract over the size and scope of the October 2014 release in North America” of his film One Chance, “which stars James Corden as Paul Potts, a real-life shop assistant and amateur opera singer who won Britain’s Got Talent in 2007.”
Why Tennis Is Acing It On The Theater Stage
“‘It’s always hard to put a finger on why something is suddenly in the zeitgeist,’ said [Sarah] Ruhl, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. ‘I don’t know why it is happening with tennis in theater right now. But for me, while researching the Bush dynasty, I realized tennis is such a big part of their lives and a wonderful metaphor for family competition and sibling rivalry.'”
Remember The ‘1812 Overture’? What Happened To The Whole ‘Light Classical’ Repertoire?
“What is disappearing, some say, are the light classics that once were staples of mainstream classical concerts that, around the middle of the last century, migrated to pops” and which pops orchestras have now abandoned in favor of classic rock and the like. Says conductor John Mauceri, “If you’re going to do a Mahler symphony as the centerpiece of a concert, you don’t have any room for von Suppé or Offenbach.”
Julian Fellowes On Writing ‘Downton Abbey’ Singlehandedly And What Happens To The Crawleys After The Finale
“Far more of those houses survived than people realize, and often with the families that were in them. It’s often down to luck, and the cleverness of the people in charge. … My own belief is that Mary, whether you like her or dislike her, is a hard worker, and she’s practical.”