Gisele Casadesus “made her first film in 1934 at the age of 20. She will turn 99 in June. In the last decade alone she has appeared in around a dozen films” – in fact, she has a new one just out.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why British Critics Don’t Get The Book Of Mormon
While the South Park guys’ musical, a mega-hit in the US, has gotten one or two good notices since it opened in London, it seems most of the major critics are lukewarm or worse – and none of them agree on why it’s no good. One Brit who lives in the US says he’s figured out the problem.
We’re In A Golden Age Of Musicals (Jukebox Shows Notwithstanding)
“If the musical is dead, then its ghost hasn’t just turned up for dinner – it’s telling all the best stories, cracking the best jokes, paying everyone’s bill and then suggesting we all go on somewhere else for cocktails.”
Chaotic Art, Or Artful Chaos, Confounds An Old French Village
“Businessman-turned-artist Thierry Ehrmann has turned his 17th-century home in France into the ‘Abode of Chaos’ – a sprawling art installation dedicated to death and mayhem. Now some neighbors are trying to restore order.”
Animals Are Brainier Than We’d Known
New – and better-designed – research is demonstrating time and again that many animals are both more intelligent and more empathetic than scientists had acknowledged. (Turns out they were testing for the wrong things.)
Can Fractured Fairy Tales Convince Singaporeans To Have More Babies?
“Take, for example, the alarmist tale of the Golden Goose … She was ‘prized for her eggs,’ but she waited too long and soon ‘she could make them no more / For her egg-making device was rusty and old.’ The pop-up statistic below warns readers: ‘1 out of 3 women over 35 will have problems conceiving’.”
How To Be The Black Person Reading How To Be Black
Lauren A. White on how reading Baratunde Thurston’s satirical self-help guide on the New York subways became a social experiment.
More Unexpected Funding Cuts For Arts Council England
“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will receive an extra 1% reduction to its budget in both 2013/14 and 2014/15 and this will be passed on to the arm’s length bodies it funds. ACE, along with other unprotected bodies, will receive cuts of 1.09% in 2013/14 and 1.06% in 2014/15.”
Minnesota Orchestra To Undergo State Audit
“Legislative auditor Jim Nobles says he will examine the use of state funds by the Minnesota Orchestra. A group of 100 state legislators requested the audit March 7 amid concern about the impact of the ongoing lockout of musicians by management.”
Can Digital Music Catch On In Africa?
The continent poses some serious challenges for the e-music business, including widespread piracy, relatively limited access to computers and broadband, and a lack of licensing infrastructure. Yet several enterprises, local and multinational, are giving it a go.