“What Pussy Riot understand so keenly is Allen Ginsberg’s observation in the 1960s that ‘national politics was theatre on a vast scale, with scripts, timing, sound systems. Whose theatre would attract the most customers, whose was a theatre of ideas that could be gotten across?’ … They are not our cute punk pin-ups but unflinching hardline activists.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Pussy Riot: We Do Not Do This To Become Rock Stars
Yekaterina Samutsevich: “We’ve got invitations to perform with certain musicians, but we reject legal performances. It’s a matter of principle for us to give unsanctioned, illegal performances. We can’t do something by agreement, even more so with superstars. … It’s a total contradiction of our views and we won’t do it.”
Why Did Jaron Lanier Turn Against The Web?
The sometime Internet guru now campaigns against “the ideology he helped create, Web 2.0 futurism, digital utopianism, which he now calls ‘digital Maoism,’ indicting ‘internet intellectuals,’ accusing giants like Facebook and Google of being ‘spy agencies’.”
Vandals Destroy 35 Sculptures In Washington State Art Park
“An overnight vandalism attack devastated at least 35 sculptures at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. The sculptures in Webster’s Woods, a 5-acre outdoor art park, were broken or pulled from their stands.”
It’s Official: Frank Lloyd Wright House In Phoenix Is Saved
“A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright here for his son was sold on Thursday, guaranteeing its preservation after it had been threatened for months with demolition by its owners, who had planned to replace it with new homes. The deal closed after at least one offer to buy the property had fallen through.”
Creating Scotland’s First National Theatre
Vicky Featherstone, the company’s founding artistic director, talks about the challenges of building a national company from scratch and getting it established on the world stage – and about when her own Englishness became an “issue” and even degenerated into “bullying”.
Anne Of Green Gables Now One Of China’s Most Influential Novels
Anne Of Green Gables is one of the 50 most influential novels in China this year, according to the country’s national publishers association. … The first official Mandarin translation of [the book] was offered for sale in China late last year.”
Preserving Antonio Gades’s Flamenco Ballets
The choreographer’s widow, Eugenia Eiriz, talks about how he brought the flamenco style to narrative stage works and how his foundation is keeping those works alive and bringing flamenco into Spanish schools.
Lawmakers Want Hearing On Minnesota Orchestra Finances
“More than a dozen [state] House lawmakers signed on to a letter to Minnesota Orchestra management, calling for a hearing to find out if they were misled before awarding millions of dollars to the Orchestra. … Legislators also want to know if any that money is being used for lawyers, security or any other expense to fund the [ongoing] lockout.”
The Jewish Diva Who Won Over Vienna’s Ex-Nazis
“It was 1947 in post-war Vienna, and Hilde Zadek remembers taking a deep breath behind the curtain. A rookie on her first opera gig, she was about to sing the prestigious role of Aida for an audience full of particularly harsh critics – whistle-packing Nazis she says were determined to show ‘that Jew from Palestine’ she was not welcome at one of the world’s greatest opera houses.”