Squawking in Milwaukee: My Upcoming WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum
For my article on the “Arts in Review” page of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, (online later today, if all goes according to plan), I had the challenging task of reviewing an entire museum in 900 words. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-02-08
Monday Recommendation: Thad Jones/Mel Lewis
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, All My Yesterdays (Resonance) This is an alert to an event—a recording documenting the birth of an ensemble that electrified listeners and set a new standard for big band jazz. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-08
Dancing a Fairytale, Its Joys and Tribulations
The New York City Ballet premieres Justin Peck’s new ballet and offers works by Thatcher, Binet, Schumacher, and Wheeldon. Justin Peck’s The Most Incredible Thing. Sterling Hyltin and Taylor Stanley dance in front of the… … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-02-06
[ssba_hide];
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Paula Poundstone Started Making Jokes About Pop-Tarts
“I was a young comic at the time, so I didn’t really have all that much actual material, and so at a point, I would read from the box or the package of whatever food I had. I have no idea why. And you know, the toasting instructions on the Pop-Tarts are so damn funny.”
‘If You Don’t Feel It, You Can’t Do It’ – Diary Of A Flamenco Superstar
Sara Baras: “It takes courage, but flamenco artists often have longer careers than other kinds of dancers. They learn to adapt themselves to a type of exercise that develops extra agility and vigour. Older flamenco dancers can perform with a strength that you will not find in other dance genres.”
T.S. Eliot Adored Detective Fiction
“Eliot’s attitude toward popular art forms was more capacious and ambivalent than he’s often given credit for. … And it so happens that, well before detective stories came into vogue among [Edmund] Wilson’s cohort, Eliot had become one of the genre’s most passionate and discerning readers.”
‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ Creators On Their Relationship With Veracity And Why All Film Is Manipulation
“All the shows we get compared to are documentaries. We are a work of drama, and that sometimes allows us to go dig deeper. [But] even documentaries aren’t as truthful as you think they are. [If] someone says something in a documentary and you cut to someone else’s face, that filmmaker has made a decision.”
Winona Ryder, Holden Caulfield, And The ’90s
“‘The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I’m not kidding.’ At 17, Winona Ryder underlined those words by Holden Caulfield in one of two copies of The Catcher in the Rye she was carrying with her. ‘Me and Holden are, like, this team,’ she said.” Because she turned out to be completely incapable of phoniness, even when it might have done her some good.
The ‘Dark Web’ Gets Its First Literary Magazine
“Depending on who you ask, the ‘Dark Web’ – the Internet’s mysterious undercurrent accessible only through specialized software – is either a libertarian utopia or a criminal hellscape run by cryptoanarchists trading stolen bitcoins. Now it’s more than either.” A Q&A with the founders of the new literary magazine The Torist.
UK’s National Theatre Commits To Gender Parity By 2021
“National Theatre director Rufus Norris has committed to ensuring gender equality in terms of the directors and living writers the venue employs by 2021. … He added: ‘There are a lot of women playwrights and women directors coming through, so it’s our responsibility to encourage that and reap the benefits.'”
Yemenis, Like Syrians, Struggle To Save Art And Architecture From War’s Destruction
“Air strikes by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and attacks by fundamentalist groups linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS have caused widespread destruction to Yemen’s heritage, losses that have been under-reported compared with the destruction wreaked by extremists in Syria and northern Iraq. The latest casualty is the National Museum in the city of Taiz, which was badly damaged when shelled by Houthis militants on Sunday.”
Egyptian Police Arrest, Then Release, Country’s Most Popular Young Cartoonist
Islam Gawish, a 26-year-old satirist with 1.6 million Facebook followers, was arrested last Sunday, ostensibly for running a website without a license. Following a swell of online protest, authorities released him the next day with the statement that he was found not to have any links with terrorists.