“In the midst of the recession a new occupation emerged: the sign spinner. These individuals stood on sidewalks outside of businesses, dancing with signs or arrows that they threw and twisted in the air and around their bodies.” Now many of those human spinners are being replaced by robot mannequins. But what kind of humans vs. what kind of mannequins?
Author: Matthew Westphal
When Radio Went Bump In The Night
“By the 1960’s listening to [mystery] stories on the radio might have seemed square, but not if it was the wonderful and weird terrors of the work of Erik Bauersfeld.”
Being Cruel Can Help You – So Let’s Try To Change That
“The lust to kill is somewhat normal, and cruelty can have some benefits. But the researchers who are exploring those sad discoveries are also working to bust up the vicious circle that offers these insights.”
Some Goodreads Users Rebel At Changes Made By New Owner Amazon
“If, at a casual glance, the two companies … seem to be made for each other, look again. A small but growing faction of longtime, deeply involved Goodreads members are up in arms about recent changes to the site’s enforcement of its policies on what members are permitted to say when reviewing books.” And the rebels are using guerrilla tactics.
UK National Youth Theatre Head Says Drama School Is A Waste Of Money
“Formal three-year drama school courses are a waste of time and money for ‘the majority of actors’, according to the artistic director of the UK’s leading youth theatre.”
New York City Amends Admission Fee Policy At Met Museum
“Clarifying four decades of legal vagueness, the Bloomberg administration has amended New York City’s lease with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, spelling out that the Met is allowed to charge a suggested admission fee, as the museum has done since 1971 under an agreement with the city.”
Do Ballet Companies Need To Become More Egalitarian?
The hierarchical corps-soloist-principal system has been entrenched for the art form’s entire history, and almost all dancers are expected to know their place and count themselves lucky to have a career at all. But with a strike looming in San Francisco and dancers elsewhere speaking out, should ballet take a cue from modern dance in how to treat its performers?
Tamara Rojo Is Getting Attention For English National Ballet
By hiring Alina Cojocaru away form the Royal Ballet and commissioning new dances from the likes of Akram Khan and Russell Maliphant, ENB’s new director (herself a Royal Ballet star) is getting the London-based journalists from the national press to turn out in such unglamorous spots as Milton Keynes for this touring company’s programs.
America’s Problems With Slave Narratives
“Guilt, denial, shame, anger, and fear are just a few of the emotions that permeate discussions of the topic,” whether it’s treated in histories or works of fiction. “Then there is history’s cruel irony … the vast majority [of slaves] could neither read nor write. … The voices that we would most like to hear – the voices that we most need to hear – are [largely] silent.”
Did The Director Of Blue Is The Warmest Color Push His Actresses Too Hard? Or Just Hard Enough?
Director Abdellatif Kechiche and his stars, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos were all smiles last spring when the Cannes jury gave the three of them together the Palme d’Or. A couple of months later, the actresses were telling the press that Kechiche was sadistic and the shooting a nightmare; the filmmaker accused the women of trying to besmirch the movie and destroy his career. With Blue now being released in the US and UK, they’ve changed their tune (a bit).