“It seemed fair enough to ask some members of the chorus I met – who have to remain anonymous for contractual reasons – exactly how this whole horrible if not totally unfamiliar episode in ENO’s beleaguered recent history began, and how it developed.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Where Trucks Are Becoming Mobile Street Art
“The Truck Art Project features work from leading contemporary Spanish artists on Spanish transport company Palibex’s fleet of trucks, thanks to an initiative from Palibex CEO and art collector Jaime Colsa in collaboration with Madrid’s Iam Gallery.”
The Rise Of The Millennial Sitcom
“But in the last few years, a new kind of sitcom has emerged on cable and streaming networks, complete with its own tropes. We now have ‘the cell-phone emergency’, ‘the mid-afternoon brunch’, the ‘dating-app disaster’, the ‘wander-the-city walk-and-talk’. Classic network sitcoms traded in the ‘will they, won’t they’ sitcom staple; shows like Broad City and Girls have embraced the ‘are they or aren’t they’ [tension].”
More Of A.O. Scott On Why Critics And Criticism Matter
“We trivialise art. We venerate nonsense. We can’t see past our own bullshit. Enough of that! It’s the job of art to free our minds, and the task of criticism to figure out what to do with that freedom.”
‘Makerspaces’ And ‘Fab Labs’ At Public Libraries Offer Tools, Materials, 3-D Printers
“We saw the laser scanner and the laser cutter, which can etch metals, or cut cardboard, wood, paper, and even pumpkins, one of which Adam passed around. There was a wire bender, named Fender Bender Rodriguez. There was a milling machine that can make prototypes of wood or plastics or even soft aluminum.” Not to mention 3-D printers named Kevin Spacey, Johnny Pie, and Maria the Metropolis.
What Research Psychologists Have Learned About Fighting Writer’s Block
“In real life, having your poetry criticized by T.S. Eliot could cause you to doubt your poetic gifts. But imagining it in a dream has the opposite effect.”
Anita Brookner, 87, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist And Art Historian
“Curiously enough, though Brookner’s art histories bubble with the delight of discovery and joyful exposition, her novels tend to describe a grey milieu of enervated, stranded and tentatively hopeless women.”
Asian-American Academy Members Formally Protest Offensive Skits At Oscars Ceremony
“Twenty-five members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who are of Asian descent – among them two-time best director Oscar winner Ang Lee and former members of the board of governors Arthur Dong, Don Hall and Freida Lee Mock – have sent a letter to the organization protesting ‘tasteless and offensive skits’ about Asians that were featured on the 88th Academy Awards on Feb. 28.”
World Go Champion Loses Tournament To Computer; Ken Jennings Welcomes Him To The Club
“Like [Garry] Kasparov before me, I now make a reasonable living as a professional human loser. Have rueful sense of own inevitable obsolescence, will travel.”
Ballet Dancers And Oakland Turfers Groove Together On PBS NewsHour
“What started out as a culture clash of dance styles evolved into a close collaboration among 12 dancers and the launch of The Mud Water Project. The project aims to create opportunities for turfers to showcase their art in concert-style settings and to audiences often beyond their reach.” (includes video)