“If I tell people I got a commission, they say ‘Congratulations!’ But a commission is almost like being challenged to a duel. … Or it feels like one of the tasks of Hercules. In this span of time, you have to solve this crazy problem which can be artistic or emotional or musical. … Deadlines are very odd. They’re these constantly shifting sources of anxiety. There’s no way to predict what they actually mean.” (audio)
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘The Hunger Games’ Foresaw The Meeting Of Reality TV And Politics
The titular games are themselves a reality TV show, after all, and (writes Alyssa Rosenberg) the franchise “feels uneasily resonant today not because [author of the books Suzanne] Collins treated reality programming as a diversion from more important things, but because she recognized the extent to which reality TV would capture our politics and become the means by which we make our most important decisions as a society.”
Fighting ISIS With Animated Mockery
“A cartoon firebrand delivers his Ramadan message: ‘Ramadan is the month where sins are forgiven and hearts are filled with – love.’ This outburst of goodwill is met with confusion from the audience of masked men and veiled women, which only heightens as he continues: ‘there is no difference between Arabs and Westerners except in piety.’ Rescuing the situation, the sidekick hands the preacher a sesame biscuit. ‘Better?’ ‘Fucking better,’ replies the preacher – and with hunger banished, he launches into calls for bombs and destruction. ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry,’ the clip concludes, parodying an American ad for the Snickers candy-bar.”
This French City Was Once ‘Culturally Dead’ – And Free Public Art Brought It Back To Life
“‘The city was culturally dead when I arrived here,’ says Jean Blaise, an artistic director and cultural impresario who has been based in Nantes since the mid-1980s. ‘There was one interesting festival and the opera house, that’s all.'” Now it’s France’s fastest-growing city and has real cachet. The key? “‘If you make people pay for culture, or only offer it in enclosed spaces like theatres or museums, you will only ever reach a small percentage of the population,’ Blaise says.”
Little Old Lady Gives Possible Da Vinci Sketch To Expert For Authentication – And He Makes Off With It
“The drawing was given to the [octogenarian] by her father, an antiquarian in the center of Bordeaux, and had been in her possession for several years. … The supposed expert, with the sketch in tow, vanished quickly thereafter, but not before liquidating his company and leaving no trace of his whereabouts.”
Bach Manuscript Sells For $3.3 Million At Auction
“Likely written between 1740 and 1745, the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat Major (BWV 998) is a favorite among both harpsichords and lutenists. Like many works by [Bach], it can be played on different instruments, which is expressly indicated on this score in the composer’s handwriting: ‘Prélude pour la Luth ò Cembal‘ (for lute or keyboard).”
China Bans The New ‘Ghostbusters’ Because It’s Not Ideologically Correct (Yes, They Still Do That)
“China’s official censorship guidelines technically prohibit movies that ‘promote cults or superstition’ … and the country’s regulators occasionally have been known to use this obscure provision as rationale for banning films that feature ghosts or supernatural beings in a semi-realistic way (Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest suffered such a fate in 2006).”
Filmmaker Héctor Babenco (‘Kiss Of The Spider Woman’) Dead At 70
His breakout film was Pixote (1981), the story of a ten-year-old slum-dweller in São Paulo; he was also known for Ironweed, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, and Carandiru. His final film, My Hindu Friend starring Willem Dafoe, should be released in the U.S. later this year.
‘New Yorker’ Cartoonist Michael Crawford, 70
“[He] sold more than 600 cartoons and drawings to The New Yorker after William Shawn, the editor at the time, bought the first one in 1981. Like many cartoonists of a nonpolitical stripe, he was something of a sociologist – a student of habits and trends, memes and fashions, the purposes and cross-purposes of human interaction, most of which he exploited for gentle ridicule or defiant amusement.”
Philly’s Kimmel Center Keeps Its CEO For Three More Years
“Anne Ewers, the Kimmel Center’s president and CEO since 2007, has been signed to a four-year contract extension that keeps her here at least through the 2019-20 season … Ewers in her time has retired the center’s debt, raised tens of millions for endowment and programs, developed a master plan of renovations that has been partially realized, overseen the coming and going of resident companies, and has greatly reduced the center’s own classical programming in favor of commercial presentations.”