With Roland Emmerich’s new film, as with the 1969 protest/uprising/riots that sparked the modern gay rights movement, “we see in it what we need to see.” J. Bryan Lowder looks at what the (very) many different criticisms of the movie say about the people making them and about the queer community in America today.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Laurie Anderson On Bringing Guantánamo To Park Avenue
“I’ve been trying to describe an upcoming project called Habeas Corpus, and it’s much harder than I thought. There are just too many angles. ‘Why are you doing this?’ my friends keep asking. Sometimes I no longer know myself.”
The Art Of Witness: How Primo Levi Survived
“Primo Levi did not consider it heroic to have survived eleven months in Auschwitz. … But we who have survived relatively little find it hard to believe him. How could it be anything but heroic to have entered Hell and not been swallowed up? To have witnessed it with such delicate lucidity, such reserves of irony and even equanimity?”
Your Teenage Self Lives On Online – How Serious A Problem Is That?
“‘The internet is forever’ has long been the refrain of neurotics who wring their hands over privacy. But, back in the earliest days of online interaction, we couldn’t conceptualise what forever meant for digital experiences. They seemed ephemeral, intimate. … But what we thought were whispers that disappeared into the wind were footprints left behind in soil. That soil was fossilising, preserving a partial archive, hidden until it is not.”
Ig Nobels 2015: Insect Sting Pain Scale, Unboiling An Egg, And ‘Huh?’
“Professors, researchers, students and actual Nobel laureates from around the world gathered at Harvard University at the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, the absurdist celebration of science that ‘makes you laugh, then think’.”
How Do You Direct A Standup Gig?
“On stage there’s just a comedian and a mic. But behind the scenes, directors such as John Gordillo and Phil Nichol can make or break the show. What exactly do they do?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.24.15
The suspension of belief
A favorite line from a favorite poem is dogging me these days. It’s from Wallace Stevens’ “Man Carrying Thing“, … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2015-09-24
Seeking wellness in the workplace? Have an impromptu Taylor Swift jam session.
You know how it plays out. You’re watching Wolf of Wall Street and the office run by Jordan Belfore is filled to capacity with drugs, prostitutes and other fun illegal shenanigans … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-09-24
So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. …read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-09-24
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The Hirshhorn’s New Director Isn’t Snubbing DC, She’s Trying To Save The Museum
“Few of her critics could possibly know the depths of the crisis at D.C.’s favorite bunker. She arrived at a museum in much worse shape than people on the outside knew. The staff was depleted, a result of natural attrition but also chaos over the last few years.”
Peggy Guggenheim’s Relatives Lose Challenge To How Her Collection In Venice Is Displayed
“A French appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by the descendants of the art collector Peggy Guggenheim, who had sought to gain more control over how her Venice museum is managed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. It was the third attempt by relatives of the philanthropist to challenge the display of the collection amassed by Ms. Guggenheim who died 36 years ago at the age of 81.”
‘Wouldn’t It Be Incredible To Meet Someone Who Experienced Having Quentin Tarantino As A Clerk?’ In Praise Of The (Vanishing) Video Store:
“Brooklyn-based journalist Tom Roston did not want the video store to die unmourned. He spoke to filmmakers – Darren Aronofsky, Allison Anders, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Nicole Holofcener – and others about what mattered about these places. Some of these directors spent years working behind the counter.”