“For more than a century, all we have been able to see of [Les Aventures de Robinson] Crusoé is a short black-and-white scrap, but last year a near-complete hand-coloured version was found in a donation of nitrate reels made to the Cinémathèque Française.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Locked-Out Indianapolis Musicians Could Get Poached By Other Orchestras
“Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians are seeking work elsewhere as the lockout by the Indianapolis Symphony Society turns one month old. They’ve also been approached to perform in the orchestras of Chicago, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. (the National Symphony), according to … [the] chairman of the musicians’ negotiating committee.”
Why Historian Eric Hobsbawm Never Gave Up On Communism
“He was born in 1917, after all. He was a 20th century man. Mass political movements are one thing that defines the 20th century. … History had made him a communist and he was going to stay that way. Hobsbawm didn’t try to be wiser than his own times. He didn’t believe he could out-think the 20th century.”
A $13 E-Reader? Ja
“At $69, we thought the new Kindle eReader was cheap. … A German electronics company called Txtr has unveiled the Beagle, what is almost certainly the cheapest (if not the tiniest) E-Ink reader in the world. The Beagle weighs just 4.5 ounces; has a small 5-inch Electronic Ink screen; and costs just … 10 Euros, or about $13 U.S.”
Ping Chong’s Undesirable Elements
Over two decades, under the collective title “Undesirable Elements,” the veteran American theater artist and his company have put together what he describes as “seated opera of the spoken word.” Each original program features members of a marginalized group – Congolese refugees in Syracuse, Native Americans in Kansas, disabled people in New Mexico – telling their own stories in a theatrical setting.
Want To Find An Honest Person? Look For One Who Feels Guilty
“The researchers find that 30% to 40% of adults are highly guilt-prone, and these tend to be nice folks. Guilt-proneness correlates to all kinds of positive traits, including sincerity, fairness, modesty, agreeableness and conscientiousness.”
Thomas Bradshaw Pushes Buttons Most Playwrights Wouldn’t Dare
His work “has been described as depicting ‘life with all the boring parts taken out.’ It might also be described as life with all the ghastly extremes – incest, pedophilia, rape, racially motivated murder – added back in, and depicted in a deadpan style that has prompted both big laughs and angry walkouts.” In a Q&A, he explains how and why.
The Tough Challenges Still Facing The Philadelphia Orchestra
“The long-term artistic ramifications of salary cuts on the Fabulous Philadelphians, now the lowest paid among the top seven U.S. orchestras, remain unknown. The institution must raise $25 million by Aug. 31, 2013, to secure the next two seasons. … [And there remains] a projected shortfall of nearly $10 million on a total operating budget of $44 million for fiscal 2013.”
Explaining Hilary Mantel
“What sort of person writes fiction about the past? It is helpful to be acquainted with violence, because the past is violent. It is necessary to know that the people who live there are not the same as people now. It is necessary to understand that the dead are real, and have power over the living. It is helpful to have encountered the dead firsthand, in the form of ghosts.” (Mantel is all these things and more.)
New Breakfast At Tiffany’s Headed For Broadway
“It looks like Breakfast At Tiffany’s will finally reach Broadway, some 46 years after a musical adaptation became one of the most legendary flops in theater history. ‘Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s,’ a new play version by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out), will begin performances on Broadway in February 2013.”