Author: Matthew Westphal

The Joy Of Crooked Buildings (Eat Your Heart Out, Leaning Tower Of Pisa!)

“The buildings that often get the most praise (one famed tower in Pisa not withstanding) are those that stand up straight, refuse to bend or bow over time. But those buildings are boring. The really compelling constructions are those buildings that, despite looking like they are slowly keeling over, continue to stand, and continue to be used.”

Our Biggest Blind Spot With Artificial Intelligence? Assuming It’ll Be Like The Human Kind

“The entire discourse around A.I. implicitly presupposes the superiority of E.I.” – evolved intelligence, i.e., the human and animal kind. “Much of the dystopian hysteria around A.I. reflects the fear that it will act as humans act (which is to say violently, selfishly, emotionally, and at times irrationally) – only it will have more capacity. In essence, much of what we fear is a much more competent E.I.”

Can Cirque Du Soleil Leap To Success On Broadway?

“[The] global entertainment behemoth that has 17 different shows running worldwide is once again trying to establish a long-running production in New York City, the major-league market that has most stubbornly frustrated its ambitions. … So now Cirque is trying a high-wire hybrid – a combination of theater and acrobatics, with a splash of old Hollywood, in one $25 million musical called Paramour.”

Anne Jackson, 90, Half Of Famed Acting Couple

“If not quite on the same level of stardom as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne or Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Ms. Jackson and [Eli] Wallach came close. [For five decades] they captivated audiences with their onstage synergy, displaying the tense affections and sizzling battles of two old pros who knew both how to love and how to fight.”

Post-Kobborg Exodus From Bucharest Begins With First Foreign Dancer To Resign

Two years ago, Dawid Trzensimiech left a promising career at London’s Royal Ballet to follow Johan Kobborg to the Bucharest National Opera. Wednesday, one day after Kobborg’s final resignation as the ballet company’s artistic director – and an evening confrontation where company dancers from abroad who had threatened to follow Kobborg out the door were greeted with shouts of “Foreigners out of the country!” – Trzensimiech announced his departure. (in Romanian; Google Translate version here)

‘I See Our Country Is Not Ready’ – Alina Cojocaru’s Open Letter To Romania’s Prime Minister On Crisis At National Ballet

“Unfortunately, I [now] understand that our country is not ready for what Johan [Kobborg] and I have offered these two years … We hoped that what were doing was a break from the circle of malice and destruction in which our country finds itself. … But it seems I was wrong. Few are willing to see and accept that there are people like Johan who aren’t self-interested – quite the contrary.” (in Romanian; Google Translate version here)