“[The reader] finishes, and the man brightens in his chair and points at his heart, mouthing to a visitor holding his arm, ‘Me?’ Yes, Jack Gilbert. That’s yours.” A profile of the poet (visited at his nursing home), published just one day before his death.
Author: Matthew Westphal
When Artists Dabble In Pop For The Sake Of Politics
“On Thursday evening, a group of artists will gather at Anish Kapoor’s studio in London to shoot a parody of Psy’s monster hit Gangnam Style, in support of Ai Weiwei. This follows Ai’s own version last month … It’s not the first time a huge pop hit has been reworked to make an artistic and political statement.” (They don’t all work equally well.)
The New Yorker‘s Chief Theater Critic Leaves The Beat
“One of the most recognizable names in the world of theater criticism is stepping down. John Lahr, the senior theater critic for The New Yorker for close to 20 years, is quitting regular reviewing for the magazine to concentrate on profile writing and book projects.”
Pompeii May Be A Disaster (Again), But Herculaneum Is A Success
“Compared with its better-known Vesuvian neighbor, Pompeii, where local officials, constrained by inadequate and mismanaged government funds, have long struggled in their efforts to conserve and protect the sprawling open-air site – and even to prevent the periodic and well publicized collapse of walls – Herculaneum has become a textbook case of successful archaeological conservation.”
When The ‘Dance’ Disappears From Contemporary Dance
“But [traditionalists’] snorts of ‘this isn’t dance! I didn’t see a single pas de bourrée!’ shouldn’t be taken lightly. Do they have a point when they opine that many contemporary choreographers have removed themselves so far from the notion of dance in a traditional sense, that the remaining performance qualities should perhaps be considered as something else altogether?”
L.A.’s Classical Music Station Is Hemorrhaging Listeners – Or Is It?
Arbitron ratings indicate that KUSC radio has lost nearly two-thirds of its listeners since 2009. Yet station managers, saying that revenue has grown slightly (about 3%) during that time and donor rolls have increased by 6% in the past year, argue that Arbitron’s sampling models must be wrong.
Benjamin Zander Starts New Boston Youth Orchestra After Forced Departure From NEC
“Benjamin Zander, one of Boston’s most prominent classical music figures, is back leading a youth orchestra. Watching him now, one could find it hard to imagine that less than a year ago, his four-plus decades at New England Conservatory came to an ugly end.”
Apollo Theater To Transform Itself Into Cotton Club-Style Harlem Cabaret
“The Apollo Theater is about to rip out its orchestra seats, extend its stage and plop its audience right into the heart of the action as its recreates the long-vanished era of the Harlem nightclub of the 1930s and ’40s.” (Don’t worry, Amateur Night fans: the change will be for one week in February.)
Canada, At Long Last, Becomes Cool (In The Cultural Sense, Not The Climatic One)
“Of course, Canada has been responsible for supplying the U.S. with its leading men and oddball comedians for decades, but at the moment it seems like we’re in the middle of a paradigm shift, in which Canada, long considered the U.S.’s boring, denim-wearing neighbor, has become America’s leading purveyor of cool.”
How Angels In America Changed The National Conversation
“AIDS made it impossible not to talk about gayness. The grave wasn’t even a closet anymore. Angels In America tied it into the huge arc of the American story; the gay community was no longer an isolated group. We needed a big play about this, and he gave us an epic – it was Brecht, it was Wagner. It was amazing.”