“It’s a highwire act, live performance, the psychological stresses of which one medical study has likened to ‘a small car crash’. That might explain the adrenaline rush actors feel immediately after coming off stage, and the strange hangover that can come the next day.” Kate Fleetwood, Michelle Terry, and Ben Miles tell what it’s like.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Every Literary Plot, Ever, In Alphabetical Order
Okay, maybe not every single one. Boris Kachka: “There’s William Wallace Cook’s chart-crazy Plotto, first published in 1928; there’s crisp guides like Christopher Booker’s The Basic Seven Plots and Ronald B. Tobias’s 20 Master Plots; there’s even a couple of computer programs – many, over centuries, have tried to count the ways to tell a story. With a little help from those, here is a far-from-comprehensive encyclopedia of every archetypal plot we know.”
America’s (One) Great Cubist
Robert Storr: “[Stuart] Davis was also the only first-class Cubist to emerge from North America. In my estimation he was the equal of the great Fernand Léger … I would even argue that, painting-by-painting, Davis was in some respects Léger’s superior.”
Hulu Didn’t Fail To Make Free Online TV Work, It Succeeded In Killing It
Will Oremus: “After eight years, Hulu is turning off its free TV service. Viewers will now be required to sign up or log in to its subscription service, Hulu Plus … The reason, I suspect, is not that the service failed to achieve Hulu’s goals, but that it succeeded. And by Hulu’s goals, I mean the goals of its corporate owners: Disney-ABC, NBC Universal, Fox, and now Time Warner.”
The Choreographer Who Made Herself A YouTube Superstar
“In an era when dance has exploded thanks to social media, [Tricia] Miranda wanted to share her dance moves, unfiltered, with the rest of the world. So in 2014, she hired a videographer to tape her dance studio in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, with students performing her signature moves.” Her first video racked up 27 million views, a later one 41 million, and her YouTube channel now has a million subscribers.
Sydney Opera House To Get $156 Million Upgrade (Is That Enough To Fix The Acoustics?)
The bulk of the spending in the four-year, A$202 million project, funded by the New South Wales state government, will be for a renovation to fix the notoriously bad sound in the opera house’s concert hall.
Robert Page, Revered Symphonic Choral Conductor, Dead At 89
“For all of conductor Robert Page’s accolades, there may be no better example of his prowess in choral music than this: He improved a Robert Shaw choir.”
Joining Slow Food And Slow TV, We Now Have Slow Games For Our Phones
“Slow games are less ubiquitous and straightforwardly tantalizing than traditional mobile games. They often seem to lack any point at all. Instead, they invite players to engage in simpler virtual pleasures – taking a stroll, watering plants, feeding stray cats.”
Ernst Neizvestny, 91, Sculptor Who Stood Up To Khrushchev – And Then Designed His Tombstone
“In 1962, Neizvestny met Khrushchev at an art show held by the Moscow Manege. Khrushchev derided the sculptor’s work for being ‘degenerate'” – to which Neizvestny, a burly war hero, replied, “I’m not afraid of your threats.” The sculptor emigrated to the U.S. in 1976, and went on to have public works on three continents.
The Chinese City With A Hundred-Year History Of Western Classical Music, Brought By Russian Jews
“The arts – and especially classical music – flourished here throughout the early 20th century. Nicknamed the St. Petersburg of the East, Harbin was home to a thriving Jewish community that helped build a rich cultural scene, including China’s first symphony orchestra, [founded in 1908 and] made up of mostly Russian musicians.”