“This time of year, thrillseekers can enjoy horror movies, haunted houses, and prices so low, it’s scary. But if fear is a natural survival response to a threat, or danger, why would we seek out that feeling?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Feet Are Not An Erogenous Zone (Who Knew?)
“What turns you on? While it debunks one notion – that the feet are an erogenous zone – a recently published cross-cultural study suggests men and women answer that question in pretty much the same way.”
Theatergoing Becomes An Endurance Sport
We’re in a heyday of very-long-form performance these days, from Robert Lepage’s epics to Einstein on the Beach to The Peony Pavilion to the Ring cycle. “It’s not only that epic plays are fun, special occasions. … One becomes aware of a grand plan unfolding in theatre-time, so that the hours and minutes of the outside world seem to disappear.”
Heated Racial Confrontation, Staged In New York’s (Literally) Hottest Venue
The biennial festival Performa 13 is presenting Amiri Baraka’s ferocious 1964 drama Dutchman in the saunas and steam rooms of the Russian and Turkish Baths in the East Village.
Meet The Man Who Transformed Halloween
“Thanks in large part to Ben Cooper, costume choices became unlimited – and Hollywood-inflected – helping Halloween become the pop culture phenomenon it is today.”
Epic Rap Battles Of History, Live On YouTube!
Peter Shukoff and Lloyd Ahlquist “founded Epic Rap Battles of History, the zany yet knowing channel on YouTube, which just began its third season. Its videos stage fantastical smackdowns in musical rhyme, usually between historical icons and pop figures: Justin Bieber vs. Beethoven, Abe Lincoln vs. Chuck Norris, Mario Bros. vs. Wright Bros.”
Can An Argentine Cartoon About Foosball Change The Animated Movie Industry?
Metegol was made in Buenos Aires for $22 million, a fortune there but a pittance in Hollywood. Yet “the quality of the animation is indistinguishable, to the average movie-goer, from major U.S. studio films.” And the movie is poised to become a breakout hit.
August Wilson’s Leading Interpreter, Now Appearing As The Man Himself
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who has won major awards for both acting in and directing Wilson’s plays, talks about starring in the playwright’s autobiographical one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned.
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Met Museum’s Admissions Fee Policy
“A New York State Supreme Court judge has ruled in favor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in two lawsuits contending that the museum, under a 19th-century state law and the museum’s original 1878 lease with the city, has no legal authority to charge a suggested admission fee, as it has done for more than four decades.”
Twenty Years Of Philadelphia’s “Avenue Of The Arts”
“There is much to celebrate: South Broad Street has showcased some of the region’s – and the nation’s – finest artistic enterprises, and has helped the city achieve wide recognition as a cultural center. … But the Avenue also has faced well-documented problems – some financial, some managerial, some related to large societal and cultural trends.”