Lee Lawrence walks readers through the elaborate, painstaking, profound, and ultimately futile (because the work is swept away in the end) process of producing intricate religious imagery from tiny grains of colored marble.
Author: Matthew Westphal
What Makes A Work Of Art Seem Dated?
“Why do some things seamlessly slip from their temporal context? When does something cross from historically appropriate to ‘dated’? And is there a time window for datedness, a kind of reverse statute of limitations, beyond which things are doomed by their historical patina?”
German City Loses Its Beloved Irish Choreographer
“Marguerite Donlon … has become something of a local celebrity since founding the Donlon Dance Company in 2001. After a dozen high-flying years, however, … the Saarland state theatre terminated her contract by mutual agreement– two years early. The news came as a bombshell in Saarbrücken and triggered an extraordinary outpouring of love for the diminutive 47-year-old.”
Pauline Rescues Mario, For Once: Fans Produce Girl-Power Riffs On Video Games
“Many videogames have long followed the same guy-centered theme: Girl gets in trouble; boy goes on a quest to save girl. … With a few redrawn pixels and well-placed lines of computer code, the women crying out for rescue have become the ones who save the day.”
Explaining The Steinway Sale
The purchase of the piano manufacturer by equity firm Kohlberg & Co. “has raised questions from pianists and admirers of the New York brand, particularly coming after the sale of its 57th Street showroom on Friday.” Brian Wise lays out the most commonly asked questions and ventures some answers.
The Seldom-Told Story Of Benjamin Franklin’s Sister
Authors Jill Lepore and Judith Thurman talk with The New Yorker‘s Sasha Weiss about Jane Franklin – who she was, what she thought, and what she gave up.
More Staffers Leave Granta As Publisher Says Magazine Is ‘Moving On’
“On Friday, Granta‘s online editor, Ted Hodgkinson, announced via Twitter that he was leaving the company to join the British Council. Hodgkinson had been at Granta for the last three years; he is the eighth longtime staffer to leave in the last two months amid a larger restructuring.”
What Was The Hardest Part Of Bette Midler’s Broadway Gig?
“The cigarettes nearly killed me. I answer the phone now and people calling think it’s my husband. … And the wigs! Let’s not talk about the fricking wigs, that was such a saga. But the cigarettes were the hardest. … I was thrilled, though, when I finally got the timing down to smoke two at once – a cigarette in one hand and a joint in the other.”
We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Beach! Center City Philadelphia To Get Its Own Boardwalk
Scheduled for completion in mid-to-late 2014, the 2,000-foot-long, 15-foot-wide esplanade will extend out 50 feet over the Schuylkill River “and will have four expanded lookout areas for people to pause or lounge.”
Cirque Du Soleil Disasters: A Brief History
The death of aerialist Sarah Guillot-Guyard during a weekend performance in Las Vegas wasn’t the first tragic accident at the company – though death and serious injuries are rare, considering the nature of the work.