Matthew Westphal – Page 1798 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Norman Scribner, 79, Founder Of D.C.’S Choral Arts Society

“The late Washington Post music critic Paul Hume once called Mr. Scribner ‘one of Washington’s finest musicians and one of the most gifted choral conductors in the country.’ A skilled pianist, organist and composer, he spent nearly five decades at the helm of the Choral Arts Society.”

What ‘Pretty Woman’ Would Have Been Like If They’d Shot The Original Script (Ugly)

“In its original form, which you can read here, it was neither a Cinderella story nor a romantic comedy – it was a cynical, rather depressing tale of a junkie prostitute and the rich asshole she spends a week with. Neither of them is particularly likable, either at the beginning of the story or its conclusion.”

The Detective Novel That Convinced A Generation Richard III Wasn’t Evil

“Though writers and historians have been arguing since the seventeenth century that Richard III wasn’t the villain whom Shakespeare described, it was a 1951 mystery novel that sparked mass interest in Richard’s redemption. The writer went by the name Josephine Tey, and the novel was called The Daughter of Time.”

A Solo Theater Piece About The Israel-Palestine Conflict – By Arafat’s Own Foster Daughter

After Raeda Taha’s father was killed while hijacking a passenger plane in 1972, she was, in effect, adopted by Yasir Arafat and later worked as his press secretary. In Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali, Taha looks at the human costs of the conflict, especially those that Palestinians like her father exact on their families.

How Akira Kurosawa Mastered The Art Of Movement In Movies

“Back in January, Tony Zhou shared a sharp little video essay on Akira Kurosawa’s geometric style, a video that was technically culled from a much larger, more expansive piece on the director that Zhou was still fine-tuning. That piece is now finished, and it’s a bracing analysis that applies Zhou’s insight to Kurosawa’s use of movement in general.”

What A Neuroscientist Says About Jon Stewart’s Brain

“Quick-witted would be the layman way to put it; he’ll be interviewing someone… and he’s just very quick, very quick at making these unexpected connections. But the term we would use for that is divergent thinking – that is, making novel connections between things that other people don’t put together, and finding the humor in that.”

What A Forensic Psychiatrist Says About Gesualdo, The Wife-Murdering Composer

Don Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa is even more famous for killing his wife and her lover in flagrante than he is for his surpassingly weird madrigals. But he didn’t simply dispatch the pair himself: he brought along three men armed with guns and double-headed axes and he energetically mutilated the dead bodies. Dr. Ruth McAllister considers what might have driven Gesualdo to such extremes (and then tortured himself over them for the rest of his life) when a couple of bullets or sword thrusts would have done the job.

“The Jeff Koons Of The Pop World” And Its “Gloriously Tacky” Future

Spencer Kornhaber on PC Music at SXSW: “Many of the grooves and hooks are undeniable – and listening to it, you realize just how unnecessary the big-budget production currently defining popular dance music might be, and how ridiculous the mist-machine drama and pained soul singing of the average zillion-selling Avicii record really is.” (Wait, that‘s not very Jeff Koons …)

Dance USA/Philly May Be Gone, But Its Portable Dance Floor Lives On

Small news? Practically speaking, it’s a godsend. One of the service organization’s great services was renting the sprung wood floor at affordable rates to companies performing all over the city. But Dance USA/Philadelphia is closing next week. Happily, one ballet troupe has rescued the floor.

Author: Matthew Westphal