“For the Opéra de Paris, whose two stages are typically sold out, the screening in local movie theaters – even in Paris – is not seen as a threat but as an opportunity to widen the tent and bring in audiences who, as French taxpayers, support 50 percent of its annual costs. That is one of the reasons why the Opéra de Paris is pleased with distribution in smaller towns and has encouraged [local cinema managers] to turn the screenings into festive occasions.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Is Really A Self-Help Book (#AcademicsOverthinkingPopCulture)
Sociologist Eva Illouz argues “that EL James’s novels are ‘a gothic romance adapted to modern times in which sexuality is both a source of division between men and women and a site to orchestrate their reconciliation’, and that their graphic descriptions of bondage, discipline and sadomasochism are ‘as much a cultural fantasy as a sexual one, serving as a guide to a happier romantic life’.”
Universal Knowledge Allah Pleads Guilty To Stealing Strad In Milwaukee
“Allah was accused of supplying the stun gun to Salah Jones, who allegedly incapacitated [Milwaukee Symphony concertmaster] Frank Almond with the weapon as he left a concert in a Milwaukee suburb on Jan. 27 and took the violin, valued at about $5 million.” He faces up to 15 years in prison.
Quentin Tarantino Gives Up Snit Fit, Goes Ahead With Filming ‘Hateful Eight’
In January, the writer-director angrily announced that he was dropping the project after the script was leaked – and he went on to sue Gawker Media for posting a link to the script. “I have calmed down a bit,” he says. “The knife-in-the-back wound has started to scab.”
What Moved Lynn Nottage To Write ‘Intimate Apparel’?
She had seen too much of what she calls “really macho theatre” and wanted to write “something simple and gentle”. And then she found an old photo in her grandmother’s brownstone that set her on a binge of historical research.
It Takes A ‘Gentleman With Elbows’ To Run Chicago’s Field Museum
“When the Field Museum was searching for a new president in 2012, one of Richard W. Lariviere’s references called the Sanskrit scholar and Chicago-born son of a welder ‘not a rogue but a gentleman with elbows’ … Mr. Lariviere got the Field Museum job, and from day one has been confronted with massive problems that again require him to use his elbows.”
When The ‘Orange Is The New Black’ Staff Visited A Prison
“It’s these low-slung buildings, and it’s hot, but you look around and you think, ‘It’s not so bad.’ Then within 10 minutes, everyone was thinking, ‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’ The oppression starts to bear down on you, and you realize you’re trapped.”
Broadway Scores Record Box-Office Week
“Broadway shows grossed $30.9 million last week on sales from 299,090 audience members, the highest dollar amount and best attendance ever recorded for the week leading into Memorial Day … The comparable gross and attendance figures for the same period last year were $25.5 million and 240,878.”
America’s Cultural Capital Has An Arts-Education Problem
“A report from the New York City comptroller “has raised fresh questions about how art enhances learning and whether children will be better prepared for a 21st century economy if they have mastered the ‘soft’ skills that art teaches. In an increasingly ‘creative’ economy, the argument goes, students need original thinking to thrive – and then only wealthy New Yorkers are being set up to succeed.”
Maya Angelou, 86
“From her desperate early years, Ms. Angelou gradually moved into nightclub dancing and from there began a career in the arts that spanned more than 60 years. She sang cabaret and calypso, danced with Alvin Ailey, acted on Broadway, directed for film and television and wrote more than 30 books, including poetry, essays and, responding to the public’s appetite for her life story, six autobiographies.”