Hema Ramaswamy, after 13 years of study, recently gave a 2½-hour solo recital. “She was able to achieve this despite her diagnosis and despite two major surgeries for a dangerous leak of cerebrospinal fluid. Her father said dance has strengthened Ramaswamy’s muscles and given her fine motor skills she simply didn’t have before.” (includes audio)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Crystal Bridges’ First President Leaves To Lead George Lucas’s Planned Museum In Chicago
“[Don] Bacigalupi has been named the founding president of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, to be built in Chicago, with a proposed opening date in 2018. The $700 million museum is funded by filmmaker George Lucas, who created Star Wars.”
Bring Back The National Book Award For Translation!
“The National Book Foundation should revive an award it should never have abandoned in the first place – an award that recognizes a category of books unusually sensitive to precisely this kind of recognition.”
The Art World Has Gotten Entirely Too Uptight, Says Jerry Saltz
“Flexibility is life, but lately I keep thinking that the art world has gotten a lot less flexible, and the freedom that I’ve always thought of as completely foundational – freedom to let our freak flags fly and express ourselves, even bizarrely – has constricted considerably. … Or maybe it’s me. Because, to be fair, a lot of this tempestuousness has been happening around moi.”
Salvador Dalí’s Erotic Cookbook
“The book’s contents range from discussions of the grotesque shapelessness and immorality of spinach to the masterful tool that is the human jaw. Recipes include exotic and experimental eats like Thousand Year Old Eggs, Crayfish Consomme and Conger of the Rising Sun (which is an eel).”
How Robert Mapplethorpe’s Lover/Patron Snatched Him Away From Patti Smith
A real New York story, with a supporting cast including Edmund White, Robert Indiana, Candy Darling, and half the residents of the Chelsea Hotel.
Former Boy Wonder Michael Tilson Thomas Turns 70
“His mission – of boldly presenting diverse repertory; of not being hemmed in by perceived boundaries between styles and eras; of championing living composers, especially Americans, and especially younger ones – [has] had enormous impact on the scene.”
The Amazons Weren’t Just Ancient Greek Tall Tales, They Were Real
Archaeologists have found plenty of evidence of women warriors in the areas where Amazons were said to live. They didn’t cut off breasts or live without men, but they did fight, hunt, smoke pot and get tattoos.
Hasbro Calls Off Purchase Of DreamWorks Animation (So Shrek Will Not Be Marrying Any Little Ponies)
“Hasbro shares on Thursday lost 4 percent [after news of the purchase leaked out], wiping about $300 million from its market capitalization, and the stock fell another 2 percent on Friday, apparently enough to scare the toymaker’s board of directors from further negotiations.”
Orlando School Board Would Rather Have No Religious Materials In Schools At All Than Allow Materials From The Satanic Temple
“Worried about facing national ridicule if a Satanic group is allowed to give out coloring books to children, the Orange County School Board moved Thursday toward preventing any outside group from distributing religious materials on campus.” Said the board chairman, “This really has, frankly, gotten out of hand. I think we’ve seen a group or groups take advantage of the open forum we’ve had.”