“Valentina Lisitsa, whose appearances were cancelled this week by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra because of tweets she posted about the Ukrainian crisis, says the TSO told her agent a donor threatened to withhold funds if she performed as scheduled.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Hell With It: Toronto Symphony Pulls Concerto From Program Altogether
When the TSO bought out Valentina Lisitsa’s contract because of controversial statements she tweeted about the situation in Ukraine, they engaged Stewart Goodyear as her replacement – whereupon he became the target of abuse and threats on social media from Lisitsa fans and/or Putin partisans. So the TSO threw up its hands. (includes astonished, heartfelt statement from Goodyear)
This Female Comedian Does An Hour Of Rape Jokes Every Night (With No Pants On)
Adrienne (“I do wear a jacket and heels – I’m not ridiculous”) Truscott: “And what is my right to do it – because I’m a woman? A comedian? Journalists ask me if I’ve been raped. A fair question in a way, or does it reveal an assumption based on my material: that I couldn’t simply be a comedian doing an hour of pointed observational comedy. Would being raped give me the right to joke about rape? No, anyone has the right to do it, but it could make my observational comedy about it more incisive.”
‘A Ridiculous, If Ingenious, Invention’ – Frank Rich Asks Why TV News Anchormen Still Exist
“The network anchor’s roots are not in journalism but in the native cultural tradition apotheosized by L. Frank Baum. … NBC’s [Brian Williams] train wreck played out as corporate and celebrity farce … because it doesn’t actually matter who puts on the bespoke suit and reads the news from behind a desk.”
California’s Next Bohemian Hot Spot – In A City You’d Never Expect
James Fallows reports: “‘The Tower District is the bohemia of Fresno, and Fresno is the bohemia of California,’ a Fresnan named Heather Parish told us recently. If she were editing in real time, she probably would have said: Fresno should be the bohemia of our most populous and creative state. Here is what she is talking about and why she could dare say such a thing.”
What Does ‘New Age’ Really Mean? And How Did It Spring Up In The Age Of High Tech?
“It’s worth noting at the outset: New Age is not so much a discrete collection of beliefs as it is a Venn diagram (or a mandala, if you like) of intersecting interests, objectives and motifs. The New Age ‘movement’ is not a single movement at all. The term contains multitudes. … The aesthetic is one of unabashed pastiche. So, too, are the beliefs undergirding it.”
The ‘Netflix For Books’ Opens A (Big) eBookstore – And It’s Not (Just) About Competing With Amazon
“Tell me, what do you think is the most common reason given for cancelling a subscription ebook service like Oyster? If you answered ‘I can’t find the ebooks I want’ then you won the prize. … But now Oyster can promise to sell the ebooks which it was unable to lend, and that is going to keep some subscribers from leaving.”
Recreating Pina Bausch Dances After 30 Years
It’s not just a matter of the movement. There are the thick layer of earth covering the stage, 20 Christmas trees, the stage fog, the brass band; the huge wading pool; the giant cactuses, the glass coffin on wheels, and the toilet chain hanging from a dancer’s mouth …
No Elder Abuse: Officials Find Harper Lee Competent To Decide About Publishing Second Novel
The Alabama state Department of Human Resources has officially closed its investigation into whether Lee was manipulated or coerced into agreeing to publish Go Set a Watchman.
What Harvey Weinstein Learned On “Finding Neverland”‘s Long, Long Trip To Broadway
“In making the leap from movie mogul to lead theater producer … [he] has fired or lost more actors, artists and executives than most impresarios do on their shows. … Yet Mr. Weinstein has been more than a hands-on producer. At 63, he has also become a student again, learning the art and craft of making musicals, one of the trickiest entertainment forms to get right.”