“A look at how writers channeled pure evil into its cutest and its creepiest forms” – from Mephistopheles to Screwtape (C.S. Lewis) to Woland (Bulgakov) to that wicked spirit that made poor little Regan hurl green vomit at the priesty. (Though they forgot Bob from Twin Peaks.)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Styrofoam Mosaics Of Great Van Gogh Paintings (And They’re Actually Good!)
“Lee Kyu Hak has reinterpreted the Dutch painter’s iconic works by wrapping bits of newspaper and magazines around pieces of Styrofoam to create stunning mixed-media mosaics for a collection he calls ‘The Monumental Series’.”
Edward Villella Leaves Miami City Ballet Eight Months Early
“‘Over the weekend [Villella] and the MCB Board leadership decided it was in the best interest of the company to speed the transition,’ the announcement from Villella and ballet officials said. It went on to say that incoming artistic director Lourdes Lopez, appointed last spring, would take over immediately.”
Atlanta Symphony Management Locks Out Musicians
“With only a month until the first scheduled concert of the season, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has stopped paying its musicians and the Woodruff Arts Center has locked them out of the symphony facilities.”
National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest: How To Decide If An Image Is Fake Or Over-Photoshopped?
“Dan Westergren, Traveler‘s senior picture editor, has been judging the contest for many years. I asked him how they detect manipulated or otherwise inadmissible submissions among the massive volume of entries.”
Surprise Pick For Britain’s New Culture Secretary
“Maria Miller, a junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, is the surprise replacement for Jeremy Hunt as culture secretary in David Cameron’s first major cabinet reshuffle. … She will also become minister for women and equalities in addition to the [Department of Culture, Media and Sport] responsibilities.”
Why Did The UK Arts World Hate Jeremy Hunt So Much?
“As Jeremy Hunt leaves the DCMS today, he will do so with the distinction of being the least mourned secretary of state in the culture department’s history – as least as far as the arts world goes. … Why has Hunt been so loathed? To answer that, one needs to go back several years, to 2008.”
Arts Council England’s New Chief Is The Man Behind Big Brother
“Sir Peter Bazalgette, the man who will forever be known for introducing Big Brother to British television, is to be the chairman of Arts Council England. Bazalgette was on Tuesday named as the successor to Dame Liz Forgan – one of the last decisions made by the outgoing culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who was reshuffled to the Department of Health.”
Will Ferguson, Annabel Lyon Lead Giller Prize Semifinalists
The race for the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize will feature books by previous nominee Annabel Lyon and three-time Leacock Medal winner Will Ferguson. A jury has selected 13 titles to vie for the prestigious literary award for the best Canadian work of fiction in English (or translated into English) published in the last year.”
Salman Rushdie On How Cinema Has Changed Literature
“As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn’t exist before people were used to watching films. For instance, if you wanted to write a flashback in a novel, you once had to really contextualize it a lot, to set it up. Now, readers know exactly what you’re doing. Close-ups too. Writers can use filmic devices that we’ve all accepted so much that we don’t even see them as devices any more.”