“He’s made a career playing henchmen and underlings in thousands of Japanese samurai movies, always in the role of the kirareyaku, a swordsman whose job is to die spectacularly on film. Now, at the age of 71 and after a reputed 50,000 on-screen deaths, Seizo Fukumoto has won a prize for his first ever lead role in a semi-autobiographical movie.” (includes video)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Lucid Dreaming: The Next Miracle Mental Technique?
Some people use it “to solve problems, spur creativity, overcome nightmares or practice a physical skill.” Researchers are seeing early indications that the technique can improve cognition and help alleviate depression. “Many of the studies are small, however, and it isn’t always clear whether lucid dreaming is responsible for the improvements or simply linked to them.”
Tiler Peck Transforms Herself Into The World’s Most Famous Ballet Statue
“With her strong jaw and confidently bared breastbone, Degas’s Little Dancer statuette … absolutely does not care what we think. Yet her mystique has only grown. Who was that girl, really? And who was she to Degas? These questions fuel [a new] musical, which is reportedly part fact, part fantasy,” in which Peck is starring this fall.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.12.14
Amazon and Orwell and Penguins
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-08-13
Blue Music Group Pulls its Catalog from Spotify
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-08-12
Chris Crosman on Corcoran’s Endangered Legacy (plus: National Gallery’s Lonely Founding Fathers)
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-08-12
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Bouncing To The Beatles Breeds Benevolent Babies (Well, Bouncing To Anything, Really)
“Canadian researchers find synchronized movement to music can inspire altruism in 14-month-old infants.” The music used in the experiments? “Twist and Shout”. (Babies do enough of that already.)
Bringing A British “American Psycho” To New York (It’s Scarier Than Patrick Bateman)
“Patrick Bateman has been haunting the theater director Rupert Goold lately. And it’s not just the ax, chain saw, and nail gun that Bateman uses on flashy A-listers … No, Mr. Goold is preoccupied with getting Bateman right for the Off Broadway run of his musical adaptation of American Psycho this winter after suffering mixed reviews during the world premiere at [London’s] Almeida Theatre.”
D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Co. Is Literally All Over The Place
“The Tony-winning classical troupe performs in Penn Quarter on two of Washington’s biggest stages, but its offices and shops are miles away” – scattered throughout the District and beyond. Nelson Pressley looks in – and sees why STC has bought land on which to consolidate.
Jazz Legend Cecil Taylor Swindled Out Of $500K
“A Long Island man was arrested this week after authorities accused of him siphoning nearly $500,000 of prize money that had been awarded to 85-year-old free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor last year.”
Artist-Led Gentrification Is Walloping Tiny Marfa, Texas
Says one longtime local, “We’re lucky the world discovered Marfa, but the week your [assessed] property values get sextupled is not the best time to get people to admit it.”
Corcoran Gallery Fires Leader Of “Save The Corcoran” Group
Jayme McLellan, an adjunct instructor at the Corcoran, had been engaged to teach her usual class in professional practices for artists this fall. Last week “she was notified that the class was canceled and her employment terminated. … The problem: McLellan is the co-founder of Save the Corcoran” – the group that filed suit to stop the planned dissolution/division of the Corcoran between the National Gallery and GWU.”