“I don’t believe you should stay onstage until people are begging you to get off. I like the idea of leaving them wanting a bit more. I do think directing is a young man’s game, and … I want to go out while I’m still hard.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Guy Pearce Braves The Scorn Reserved For Hollywood Stars Who Come Out As Singer-Songwriters
“Pearce has been quietly toiling away at his songwriting, with a home studio in [Melbourne], for just as long as he has been acting.” But don’t worry: he’s no Billy Bob Thornton.
Alien Abduction Experiences – Could They Simply Be Post-Surgical Hallucinations?
“Alien abduction has been considered a fantasy, a hoax, and even to some, a fact; but it is now clear that it may also represent a recovered memory.” The key: “accidental awareness under general anesthesia” (waking up during surgery).
How Mobile Technology Could Transform Art
“We’re already so accustomed to mobile technology that experiencing art through it feels as natural as any other interface. It can be hard to see just how categorically it changes (and could yet change) art. Think wearable tech: Google Glass, for instance, or Oculus Rift, both of which extend the possibilities even further to virtual or augmented realities and audiences existing within artworks, not simply looking on.”
Can Dancing Teach You Quantum Physics?
“After experiencing sound artist Ryoji Ikeda’s newest composition, Superposition, commentator Adam Frank says yes – but that it won’t just be science you’ll be learning.”
Thief Steals Conductor’s Scores With 30 Years Of Notes
Someone evidently took two scores and the baton case of Bramwell Tovey shortly after he conducted a Vancouver Symphony performance of Britten’s War Requiem on Saturday.
Renée Fleming May Stop Singing Opera In Three Years
Says the soprano, now 55, “I’m really happy with my opera life – 54 roles was a lot to learn and perform and so I think I may leave well enough alone. I have another three years of various new productions and so I’m not stopping yet – let’s not put the cart before the horse, but I’m thinking down the road.”
When The Author Of “Catch-22” Wrote A Musical Comedy
“Howe & Hummel has never been performed. It hasn’t even been published. In the 50 years since [Joseph] Heller completed it, it’s never had so much as a public reading. Only two copies of the typescript survive. … In subsequent years, Heller would rewrite reality as artfully as Howe and Hummel, and erase Howe & Hummel from his life. His autobiography spares not a word for the project he devoted so many months to.”
When Amazon Almost Swallowed Powell’s Books
“Sometime [in 1996] … Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called a meeting in Seattle. He had a simple but potentially massive proposition. Amazon, then a 2-year-old company that sold only new books, wanted to expand into the used-books market – and Bezos wanted Powell’s to be its sole supplier. … There was a catch.”
For The Centennial Of The Great War, A Reimagined Imperial War Museum
“Nothing symbolizes the mayhem of the 1914-18 war more than those crude lines of defense, so it is fitting that one of the most dramatic features of London’s newly redesigned [IWM] is a re-creation of a trench. More than 52 feet of dark, claustrophobic passageway, 8 feet high, filled with the infernal racket of whizzing shells, the rat-a-tat of machine guns, the roar of planes.”