Scott Rogowsky has been getting video of the reactions of New Yorkers to such book titles as Definitely Not Porn | So What Are You Looking At? Mind Your Own Business; Human Taxidermy: A Beginner’s Guide; Slut-Shaming Your Baby; and 1,000 Places to See Before You’re Executed by ISIS.
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Did The Ancients Make Bronze Casts Of Marble Statues? This Animation Will Show You
“Lost-wax casting, a sculpting technique dating to the Chalcolithic period, is an elaborate process. Its many steps include spruing, slurrying, burnout, and metal chasing – terms lost on your average sculpture 101 student. Why go to all the trouble? The process allows for the creation of exact, hollow (and therefore lightweight) metal copies of existing marble sculptures, which weigh a ton and are otherwise difficult to reproduce.”
The Original Gentrification Story: Adam Gopnik On The Place Des Vosges In Paris
“History tells us that it is the Cinderella – or, as the French would say, the Cendrillon – of the world’s great squares. It was born to encourage manufacturing, quickly turned into a region for real estate speculation, then given its permanent, completely irrelevant title in one of the most cynical ‘naming opportunities’ ever conceived before the modern football stadium.”
Africanizing Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’
“Both stories share the premise of a human body undergoing a change so abrupt and so drastic that the old body is unrecognizable in the new one. But there is a key difference. The Metamorphosis tells the story of a man named Gregor Samsa who wakes up one non-descript morning and finds he is a human-size bug. But in Blackass, Furo Wariboko wakes up and finds he has been transformed into a white man while his buttocks remain black.”
Mario Vargas Llosa Is Now Officially A Living Legend (The Library Of Congress Has Decreed It)
“The Peruvian writer was a leading candidate for his country’s presidency in 1990, is the last survivor of a literary movement that re-energized the novel in our time and is probably the only winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature to compare the joys of writing, in his 2010 Nobel lecture, to ‘making love to the woman you love, for days, weeks, months, without stopping.'”
‘Our National Antidote’ – An Old Friend Tries To Make Sense Of Harper Lee
“Nelle Harper Lee scoffed at her National Treasure status. … [She] was more like the National Antidote – probably she would have preferred emetic, or gag reflex, something that expressed her unwillingness to humor the Chamber of Commerce or our contemporary age of ubiquity and oversaturation.”
The New Tate Modern: More Galleries, More Performance, More Women
“The new Tate Modern will open on 17 June with around 60% more gallery space provided by its 11-floor Switch House extension. In the basement, floor 0, will be The Tanks, the world’s first museum spaces dedicated to live art.” Says new director Frances Morris, “There is a commitment now to show the real history of art and the contribution made by many women who have been overlooked for many reasons.”
Please Stop The Arts Cuts!, England’s Arts Funding Body Begs Local Governments
“Arts Council England chair Peter Bazalgette has made a plea for local authorities to ‘keep the faith’ and continue funding the arts to avoid losing ‘irreplaceable’ organisations.”
‘If Only It Hadn’t Taken Him So Long’ – Anne Midgette On Levine’s Retirement From The Met
“It wasn’t just the illnesses, but the constant alternation between concealment and an excess of revelation that kept so much attention focused on them and away from the music.”
‘A Conceptual Shock’ – Alex Ross On The End Of The Levine Era At The Met
“All the same, the news comes as a conceptual shock, because no one under the age of fifty – myself included – can remember a time when Levine wasn’t the frizzy-haired man on the Met podium. He was always there, eyes alight, sweat on his brow, hands caressing the air.”