“Performance artists confront an extra dose of bewilderment in South Africa, a nation less accustomed to the whimsical world of public and performance art than the U.S. or Europe.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Sweet Science of Punch Sound Effects
“What is the sound of one hand punching? It depends what movie you’re watching.” It could be a human body part, a turkey, pizza dough, a watermelon, or dry pasta shells.
Postcards From Antartica’s Poet-in-Residence
“The National Science Foundation sent Jynne Dilling Martin to Antarctica this winter (the austral summer) as an artist-in-residence. [Here] are two poems she wrote from there.”
Turkey’s High Court Suspends Obscenity Case Against Translator of Apollinaire
Having previously reversed (on odd grounds) an acquittal of the translator and publisher of Apollinaire’s Exploits of a Young Don Juan, the Turkish High Court of Appeal chose to punt.
Pussy Riot Documentary Pulled From Russian Screening Following Threat
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer was to have its first showing in Russia last Sunday at Moscow’s Gogol Center. Then the authorities telephoned on Saturday afternoon.
12 Years a Slave’s Italian Distributor Withdraws Posters After Faux-Pas
It seems the imagery on the posters was trying to obscure the fact that this is a movie about black people.
Korean Investors Become Players on Broadway
With East Asia becoming a major market for Broadway musicals, producers from Seoul are investing millions in New York shows in the hope of getting dibs on production rights.
‘It’s About Finding His Mind, Not Losing It’: Frank Langella On Playing King Lear
The 76-year-old actor, who will be playing the mad monarch in Brooklyn next week, turned down the role in his 60s – because he didn’t think, back then (not having read the play), that it was worth the trouble to play such a spoiled, mean-spirited old whiner. Langella explains why he thinks differently now.
Mark Twain, the Coen Brothers, and Translating Salvadoran Short Stories
“When Nelson Lopéz was preparing the first bilingual translation of Tales of Clay, a landmark short-story collection by the legendary Salvadoran writer known as Salarrué, he turned for inspiration to some unlikely sources: Mark Twain and the Coen brothers.”
Is Valery Gergiev Being Scapegoated for the Kremlin’s Anti-Gay Policies?
As head of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater and a famously tireless globe-trotter, Gergiev is Russia’s leading conductor and arguably its most prominent living musician. He is also the cultural figure most closely identified with Vladimir Putin. Consequently, it is Gergiev who is constantly targeted with protests in the West over Russia’s treatment of its gay citizens. Mark Swed considers whether this is fair.