“The nine-time Emmy Award-winning comedy writer and producer … served as the showrunner on the sitcom Taxi at the age of 23; wrote for and produced the comedies Cheers and The Drew Carey Show.” But he was best-known for developing, with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, the long-running animated series that began as filler on The Tracey Ullman Show.
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Truth About Psychedelic Drugs And Mental Illness
Several recent studies are indicating that “so-called classical psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms)” may not be as dangerous as War-on-Drugs rhetoric has led us to believe – and that they can have genuine therapeutic value under certain circumstances.
Why Does Hunger Shape So Much Behavior That Has So Little To Do With Food?
“Hunger makes Belgians less charitable, Israeli judges more draconian, and Ohioans likelier to stick pins into voodoo dolls that represent their spouses. And, according to a paper published last month … it turns Canadians into hoarders.” Why? “Part of the answer can be gathered from observations of other animals.”
Knight Foundation Distributes More Millions To South Florida Arts Orgs
“The Miami-based Knight Foundation on Sunday announced $25 million in new grants to South Florida cultural organizations that include the Perez Art Museum Miami, University of Miami Frost School of Music and the new Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, bringing its total investment in South Florida arts to $122 million since 2005.”
He Changed The Face Of The Art Form In Britain: The Verdict On Nicholas Hytner At The National Theatre
Michael Billington: “I’d say Hytner has done more than anyone since Peter Brook and Peter Hall in the 1960s and 70s to change the face of British theatre. His advocacy of cheap seats and of live broadcasts will, I believe, be viewed by future historians as a major cultural turning point.”
In Unprecedented Move, UK Equity Expels Member
“The union has expelled Craig Joseph, a member of Motown tribute band the Gillettes, after he lied in court during a case in which he was being supported by Equity, resulting in a costs liability for the union of more than £600,000.”
“The Work That Changed Ballet For Ever”: William Forsythe’s “In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated”
Sarah Crompton: “He is consequently the only choreographer who has ever been mentioned in the same sentence as the philosopher Michel Foucault, applying a similar critical intelligence to the nature of dance and its language.”
“Wolf Hall” TV Adaptation Is BBC2’s Most Popular Drama Since Modern Ratings Began
“The six-part series, starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn, had an average of 4.4 million viewers a week, a 15.8% share of the audience.” (The series will be broadcast in the US on PBS beginning April 5.)
Hilary Mantel Wants To Try Playwriting
“The British author whose best-selling novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies have been adapted for a stage production soon to open on Broadway … said, ‘The process of working with this team has changed my vision of what I might want to do in the future.”
Chicago-Style Improv Comedy Comes To Brooklyn
Jason Zinoman: “My two-week binge at the Annoyance Theater, the first comedy theater in Brooklyn, ended in a pool of sewage.”