“Humanity’s keenest evolutionary advantage has been its drive to create collective meaning. That drive is as ingenious as it is relentless, and it can find a way to make sense of despair, depression, catastrophe, genocide, war, disaster, plagues and even the humiliations of science.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Rare Beethoven Manuscript Turns Up In Connecticut House
The sketches “went from being a curio in a Greenwich home to a $100,000 windfall when it sold at auction last month. For music scholars, it’s become an exciting addition to the Beethoven canon.
Viola Davis On Bland Roles For Women: ‘I Look At Them Sometimes And Don’t Recognise Them’
“They’re watered-down femininity. Like when your mom told you to make sure when you sat down to keep your legs closed, or not mess up your hair, it’s the famous saying: ‘The well-behaved woman seldom makes history.’ … We have to ‘woman up’ and live our truths through our work and define ourselves in our terms, not the Mr Potato Head model of male desirability.”
Watching The Original Sugarplum Fairy Choreography
“As a Christmas gift to its patrons, the archive at Jacob’s Pillow has sent out this wonderfully vivid clip of Alexandra Danilova in the [Lev] Ivanov Sugarplum solo. … It’s worth comparing Danilova’s performances with that of her great friend Alicia Markova … who danced the Sugarplum in the first complete Western production of The Nutcracker (1934) and continued in the role well into the 1950s.”
From a 12,000-Year-Old Turkish City to a Finnish Airport, Europe’s 14 Most At-Risk Heritage Sites
“Some, like the Venetian Lagoon in Italy, are widely familiar, while others – ever heard of Estonia’s Patarei Sea Fortress? – are not. Each was nominated by members of Europa Nostra’s network and voted on by a panel of experts in disciplines including history, archaeology, architecture, and conservation.”
Winner Of Poetry-In-Translation Award Returns Prize Money And Withdraws
In November, Allen Prowle won the Stephen Spender Prize for Johnson Brothers Ltd, his translation of a volume by Dutch poet Rutger Kopland. “But Dutch poetry site Nederlandse Poëzie Encyclopedie claimed last week that Prowle’s submissions this year ‘aren’t superb translations at all, but blatant plagiarism’.”
Chicago’s Redmoon Theater Shuts Down
“Redmoon, an unusual performance company specializing in public theatrical spectacles and a part of Chicago’s cultural fabric for 25 years, is going out of business, effective immediately.” The trouble began in earnest with a festival commemorating the Great Fire.
New York’s Best New Piece Of Architecture Comes From – The Sanitation Dept.
Michael Kimmelman: “After years of noisy protests, the New York City Department of Sanitation’s new garage-and-salt-shed … … I can’t think of a better public sculpture to land in New York than the shed.”
Sultan Of Brunei Bans Christmas
“The all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the world’s richest men, announced last year he would push ahead with the introduction of sharia law … Religious leaders in the oil-rich [Southeast Asian] sultanate warned this month that a ban on Christmas would be strictly enforced, for fear that Muslims could be led astray.”
No Room At The Cinema For Baby Jesus: UK Chain Bans Keep-Christ-In-Christmas Video Ad
But the advertising contractor Digital Cinema Media (DCM), which handles commercials for the Odeon, Vue and Cineworld chains, has now ruled out showing the film.”