The mayor of Vendargues, near Montpellier, announced a one-month absolute ban on clown and clown costumes following a series of incidents elsewhere in the country in which people in clown costumes beat up passersby with fists or weapons – and anti-clown vigilante groups began forming.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.03.14
Arts, policy, and the election
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2014-11-03
Hirshhorn: Ageism At It Worst
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-11-02
What’s the Answer to Abstract Dance?
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2014-11-03
“Dido” and “Bluebeard” at LA Opera
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-11-03
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The Strange History Of The Ouija Board
It started with a pair of spiritualists in post-Civil-War New York; became a ubiquitous family pastime that was considered good, clean fun (and great for a date); and had its reputation ruined by The Exorcist. (It also told its first manufacturers what it wanted to be called.) (includes podcast)
Ten Years On, Theo Van Gogh’s Murder Still Haunts The Netherlands
A decade ago Sunday, the filmmaker, media figure and right-wing provocateur was shot and had his throat slit by a young Moroccan Dutchman who claimed he was defending the name of Allah. “In this tidy country of 17 million, which prides itself on tolerance, the murder opened a raw and polarizing debate … which is still raging.”
A Kashmiri “Hamlet” Becomes Bollywood’s Most Praised, And Most Attacked, Movie Of The Year
Haider, an adaptation of the Shakespeare play set amid the bloody 1990s conflict in Kashmir, has won rapturous praise from Indian cinephiles and film critics – and has enraged Hindu nationalists, who accuse the movie of glorifying terrorists and justifying ethnic cleansing. (Hmm, where have we heard that sort of thing before?)
What Ancient Greek And Roman Statues Look(ed) Like In Color
Most people assume that classical statuary was mostly of pure white marble, a sort of pure source of Western civilization. But scholars have known for at least a century that most Greek and Roman statues were brightly painted – and now an exhibition in Copenhagen is trying to reconstruct their original appearance.
Peter Sellars To Stage His First Dance Work
“[He] has directed operas and theater, collaborated with Toni Morrison and staged St. Matthew’s [sic] Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic. Now, he will turn his attention to Flex, a Brooklyn-born form of street dance, in a commission from the Park Avenue Armory [in New York].”
The History of Gay Publishing in One Career
An interview with Michael Denneny, who co-founded the pathbreaking literary magazine Christopher Street and was the first man to make a career out of editing and publishing serious gay novels.
Bradley Cooper Plays A Man Who’s Haunted Him For Decades
Starring in The Elephant Man on Broadway “is serious business for the actor: a scoop of earth following his gradual but precipitous soar into the showbiz stratosphere, with its thinner, giddy-making air.” It’s also a role he’s been fixated on since age 12.
The Town That’s Discovering It’s Built Out Of Jewish Tombstones
“Back in May, construction work for a new supermarket began in the center of Brest, a city in Belarus on the border with Poland. In a turn of events that wouldn’t seem out of place in a horror film, more than 450 Jewish gravestones have since been discovered in the foundations of the houses that have been demolished to make way for the store.”