Adrenaline can be a dangerous thing.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.23.15
A Different Orientation (Beauty Class Wk 1)
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2015-02-22
Fear of Music, Then and Now
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-02-23
Freda Payne At Jimmy Mak’s
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-02-23
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Carnegie Hall’s New Chairman Of The Board Would Like More Pop Music There
Ronald O. Perelman, billionaire business titan and a self-described ‘frustrated musician,’ … [has] succeeded Sanford I. Weill, who has served as chairman for nearly a quarter-century. … Mr. Perelman, 72, said that he was not much of a classical music enthusiast and would push for the hall to stage more of the pop performances it was known for decades ago.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s New Novel Is About A Knight Slaying A Dragon (Wait, What?)
Yes, the author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go has written a book in which Sir Gawain, “now an old man responding – just like John Wayne in The Searchers or James Coburn in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – to one last call to arms. ‘Dressed in rusted chainmail and mounted on a weary steed’, Gawain’s ‘sacred mission’ is to slay the she-dragon Querig.”
There Ought To Be An Oscar For Best Dramatic Research
“Imagine a category that rewards excellence in blending fact and fiction in in an original manner (this is distinct from Best Adapted Screenplay, which celebrates the adaptation of a previous, distinct work.) … This is a category that doesn’t nitpick the details, but appreciates a film’s attempt to bring together the realms of fiction and nonfiction.” And it might shut the nitpickers up (but probably not).
Actor Alan Howard, 77, Mainstay Of Classical British Theatre
“Alongside Ian McKellen, Howard was the leading heroic actor of his generation, someone whose voice … thrillingly encompassed, said the critic Irving Wardle, a sardonic croak, a lyrical caress, a one-man brass section and a whinnying cry of horror.”
Valery Gergiev: I Just Wanna Play Music, So Why Does Everybody Keep Bothering Me About Putin? (Oh, By The Way, Speaking Of Ukraine, …)
“People come to hear music, not to hear shouting. And to go on stage and scare Netrebko, how can the Met let this happen? If someone were to shout an anti-American slogan on the stage of the Mariinsky, it would be my fault.” The conductor then goes on to talk about Ukraine and Crimea.
Clinging To Timelessness In A Changing Cosmos
“Traditional science has little to offer our longing for permanence, leading many to disenchantment, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser. Can we be scientific and satisfy our desire for transcendence?”
Arguments Break Out Over Hotel Planned Near One Of Modern Architecture’s Holy Sites
“The jury tasked with selecting the design for a new hotel adjacent to Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals spa in Switzerland has ‘dissociated itself’ with the client’s decision to appoint Los Angeles firm Morphosis,” headed by Pritzker winner Thom Mayne.
SoCal Arts Groups Courting A New Donor Source: Chinese-Americans
“With a median income that exceeds the national average, and a cultural heritage that prizes the arts, it’s little wonder that Chinese Americans would be seen as a promising source of donations. But there are challenges. Many wealthy Chinese Americans are immigrants who don’t have strong connections to L.A.’s cultural institutions. … [And] for wealthy Chinese Americans living in L.A., arts philanthropy is a relatively new concept.”