Brian Kellow looks at the contents – and backgrounds – of the plans submitted to the bankruptcy court for the purchase of City Opera’s name and assets and the hoped-for rebirth of the company.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Peter Zumthor’s Plan For LACMA Has Been Thoroughly Changed (No More Blob!)
“Once a free-flowing, biomorphic design inspired by the La Brea Tar Pits and the work of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, the design has become noticeably more angular and muscular in recent weeks.” Says LACMA director Michael Govan, “No one will call it a blob anymore. Peter hasn’t given up the curve. But he’s really, really reined it in.”
Finding That Lost City In The Honduran Jungle Was The Easy Part: The Danger Now Is –
– looting. In a New York Times Op-Ed, Tom Lutz describes the problems that a poor country like Honduras – and an underfunded discipline like archaeology – have keeping the newly discovered site safe.
Hans Erni, Prolific Swiss Artist, Dead At 106
“During his long career he produced murals, tapestries, mosaics, sculptures, ceramic art and medals, as well as designing stamps, hundreds of posters and illustrations for books. In 2009, at the age of 100, he completed a 60-metre-long ceramic fresco that decorates the entrance to the United Nations [compound] in Geneva.”
How “Pretty Woman” Revived Romantic Comedies
“[The film], released 25 years ago today, remains one of the most popular movies, and also the highest-grossing romantic comedy, of all time. It revived the languishing career of Richard Gere; it catapulted Julia Roberts to mega-stardom. … It is also, along with When Harry Met Sally, generally credited with reviving the romantic comedy as a genre.
We Experience The World We Infer, Not The World As It Is
“It can feel like our senses give us direct access to the world as it is now, and our memory to the world as it once was. Commentator Tania Lombrozo challenges these ideas.”
How Lincoln Center Landed David Geffen’s $100M Gift (And Whether They Did It Right)
“Just three weeks after a surprising announcement that finally marked progress in long-delayed efforts to overhaul the hall, the outdated home of the New York Philharmonic, the back story of how Mr. Geffen’s $100 million gift came about is surfacing, as are questions about the gift’s size and terms.”
The Last of India’s Jagannath Temple Dancers Is Gone
“Like most devadasis, or maharis, as the dancers in Odisha are known, Sashimani came from a poor family and was initiated into service at the temple when she was a small girl – in her case, at the age of 7 or 8, she said. After she reached puberty, she was considered a ‘living wife’ of Lord Jagannath, the god whose timber image is worshiped at the temple, and was not expected to marry.”
Cabaret Full Of Immigrants, Breastfeeding Moms, Godless Left-Wingers, Gypsies And A Gay Donkey Hits Local Pub Of Britain’s Top Radical-Right Politician
Nigel Farage is leader of the UK Independence Party, a nationalist group that wants to curb immigration and take Britain out of the EU. Dan Glass took his Beyond UKIP cabaret to Farage’s hometown and briefly confronted him on the street – and it hit the news. Here’s a report from the one journalist who was there.
Director Peter Sellars On Art, The Audience, And Controversy
“For me, the art that’s made with the audience in mind is so numbing and insulting and demeaning – because it’s assuming that I don’t have a really interesting and complicated life, and somebody knows what I think. And nobody knows what I think because I’m still wrestling with what I think most days, so I hate it when somebody tells me what I think.”