“The year is rapidly coming to a close, and with it comes the final fundraising push by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro to raise $35 million in private donations by its Dec. 31 deadline for the $65 million Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why People Who Move to a Big City Are Ever More Reluctant to Leave
“A new pair of studies helps to explain why city-dwellers seem to fall deeper in love with the urban environment the longer they spend there.”
The Psychology of Santa Claus
“It’s weird, isn’t it? Parents lie to their kids about a mysterious, bearded gift-giver, only to set them up for inevitable heartbreak. Except, it’s not so simple.”
The Peculiar Grammar of Christmas Songs
Linguist Arika Okrent explains what “round yon Virgin” is about and why we “troll the ancient Yuletide carol”.
How Badly Does This Theater Company Need Money For Costumes?
Why, they just don’t have any – as L.A.’s Antaeus Company shows us in their annual fundraising video. (Sorry, folks, it’s pixellated.)
Meet Germany’s Top Contemporary Composer: He’ll Communicate Only By Fax
When David Patrick Stearns set up his interview with Wolfgang Rihm, these were the conditions he was given: “No phone calls. No e-mail. Only questions submitted (in English) by fax and returned by fax, on handwritten pages – in German.” Says Donald Nally, who’s conducting a major work of Rihm’s this weekend in Philadelphia and New York, “I envy someone living in a different century like that.”
Valery Gergiev Says That Of Course He’s Against Anti-Gay Discrimination
He even says that allegations to the contrary “hurt me very much”. And well they might, since those allegations have had his next employers a bit concerned.
Inside The Mind Of A Half-Iranian, Half-British Comedian
Omid Djalili: “My English side really loves the royal family, and my Iranian side hates me for this. … You can tell I’m a very, very British person, but I’ve kept my roots quite strong. I still speak Farsi. I find Arabs hilarious.”
Netflix Wants You To Know That There’s Nothing Shameful About Binge-Watching
“Like a wise and sympathetic therapist, Netflix wants you to know that what you’re doing, alone at night, long after your loved ones have gone to bed, well, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s normal. Everyone does it. It doesn’t make you a bad person. And no, it won’t make you go blind.”
Philip Glass’s Bond With Dance
The composer’s speech at the Dance Magazine Awards moved editor Wendy Perron (and much of the audience) so much “that I wanted to transcribe it and share it with you.”