Matthew Westphal – Page 2009 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Misty Copeland Has The “Wrong” Body For Ballet? Then We Need More “Wrong”

George Balanchine “had a very particular aesthetic. … As a result, great ballerinas in the American tradition (just like their Russian counterparts) are slender and taut. They have small heads, long limbs, and downward-sloping shoulders. They have tiny waists, narrow hips, and often a visible sternum. They are porcelain white. Then there’s Misty Copeland.”

Brooklyn’s Own Hasidic Rocker Chicks

They have multiple children; they cover their hair and knees and elbows; they perform for female audiences only. And their music fits right in at any Williamsburg or Lower East Side club. Meet the women of Bulletproof Stockings.

David “Pig Pen” Sedaris Gets A Garbage Truck Named After Him

Fans of the bestselling author/public radio legend will know that he is obsessed with picking up the litter along the roadsides near his West Sussex home. Now the local council has honored him in the most fitting way possible.

Meet The Woman Who Keeps The Metropolitan Museum’s Old Clocks On Time

“Visitors wandering among the Met’s paintings, mummies and other treasures probably don’t notice that every European clock on exhibit not only still ticks but also tells the right time. That’s because for 40 years, [Claire] Vincent, who oversees the museum’s European timepieces, has been making sure they are wound like clockwork.” (includes slideshow)

Soprano Dislocates Knee Onstage, Finishes Opera Anyway (With No Painkillers!)

“Opera singer Christiane Karg soldiered on until the end of a performance at Glyndebourne despite dislocating her knee during the show. The German star fell on stage during the first act and received swift medical treatment. But she declined painkillers and performed the rest of her role in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera seated.”

Double Hand Transplant Patient Returns To Drawing And Playing Piano

“Richard Mangino, a quadruple amputee, became the world’s first successful double hand transplant case at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. … Now Mangino, a musician and painter who lost his lower arms and legs to an infection in 2002, has gained enough sensation in his fingers to draw as well as play music.” (includes video)

South Korea’s Plan To Achieve World Domination In Pop Culture

The nation “is deliberately staking its future prosperity on the export of its culture, its television, its music and the likes of Psy … Korea is throwing all of its weight and billions of dollars into making itself the number one exporter of pop culture in the world.”

Calling Its Tactics “Extortion”, Judge Orders Conan Doyle Estate To Pay Legal Fees

“The US Court of Appeal described the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd’s efforts to charge licence fees to for which there is ‘no legal basis’ as ‘a disreputable business practice’.” Judge Richard Posner ordered the estate to reimburse plaintiff Leslie Klinger more than $30,000.

What Would Krishna Do? Or Shiva? Or Vishnu?

Philosophers Gary Gutting and Jonardon Ganeri explore how Hinduism’s polytheism – from the point of view of us Abrahamic religion types – changes just about everything about its approaches to ethics as well as spirituality.

Author: Matthew Westphal