“[There’s a] mode of memoir that I think is fundamentally puritan, in the sense that you have to publicly accept your sinfulness and describe your path of sin so as to be forgiven. The whole game annoys the hell out of me.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time Leads Olivier Nominations
The National Theatre production has been recognised across eight categories, including best new play, best director for Marianne Elliot, and best actor for Luke Treadaway’s lead performance. Closely following Curious Incident [is] new stage musical Top Hat with seven nominations.”
Olivier Award Voting Gets An Overhaul
“The Society of London Theatre has confirmed it will introduce a new voting system for the Olivier Awards in time for this year’s ceremony. The changes will mean that producers and theatre operators in the commercial West End and major subsidised theatres will be given the chance to vote on who wins in each category.”
MOCA Says It’s Raised $60M Toward $100M Endowment
“L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art announced Tuesday that it aims to build its endowment to $100 million and has commitments lifting the total above $60 million as the campaign begins. The museum’s investments, which include endowment funds, stood at $23 million early this year.”
Jerry Saltz On MoMA’s Tilda-In-A-Box
“Placing living art in MoMA’s airy atrium has become the museum’s crystal meth. … It’s cute thinking: The museum has figured out a way to turn a snoozefest into spectacle. (And without using James Franco.)”
Plans For Ground Zero Arts Center Change Again
“When a performing arts center was first planned for the former World Trade Center site, four cultural organizations were chosen after a high-profile competition … But over the years each of the organizations has fallen away” – the last of them being the Joyce Theater, which had planned to make the center a hub for dance.
The Ironic Success Of Experimental Philosophy
“One reason for X-Phi’s popular success is surely the novelty of contemporary philosophers sullying their hands with data. On top of that, they have a nifty logo, an anthem, a YouTube presence and assorted blogs. But I think there’s a less recognized and deeply ironic reason for X-Phi’s popular success.”
An Architecture Critic Plays SimCity
“My challenge was to create a passable cyber-simulacrum of New York. Instead, I discovered a strangely addictive, deeply wonky experience, producing cities where I would never want to live. … The exercise of meaningless power is so enjoyable that at the end of a twelve-hour session, I barely stopped to wonder why I had spent so much of my weekend frantically building sewage plants.”
Nashville Symphony Faces Its Financial Crisis The Right Way
The orchestra is reeling from recession woes and $40 million in damage to its new (and not-yet-paid-for) concert hall in the 2010 floods.
Conductor Sues Madrid’s Opera House For Slander
Jesús López Cobos, the former music director of the Teatro Real, is suing the theater and its artistic director, Gérard Mortier, for a formal apology and €50,000 in damages because Mortier allegedly told an Austrian newspaper that he declined to renew López Cobos’s contract. (The maestro says he made the decision to retire from the position.)