“Jumping on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon, along with the rest of UK publishing, the small press [Total-E-Bound] is about to launch erotic rewrites of classic titles including Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre and A Study in Scarlet.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Binge-Viewing Could Change (Almost) Everything About TV Series
“Bingeing breaks habits that have long supported the TV business, built on advertising and syndicated reruns.” What’s more, “besides unspooling a narrative week by week, year by year, writers must also keep in mind fans who take the story ‘in a giant inhalation’.”
Seattle Art Museum Names New Director
“Kimerly Rorschach, founding director of the Nasher Museum at Duke University, will become the Seattle Art Museum’s new director this fall.”
Edinburgh Festival Won’t Cancel Batsheva Dance Co., Protests Or No
“The organisers of the Edinburgh International Festival have said they will not bow to pressure after pro-Palestinian campaigners called for an invitation to an Israeli dance company to be withdrawn. Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company is due to perform three shows at the event between August 30 and September 1, as part of a UK-wide tour.”
Does The Web Make Music Criticism Meaner?
Anne Midgette: “This morning, I Tweeted … the question, … and a couple of artists promptly responded, unequivocally, Yes. … As someone who’s written my share of tough reviews, I thought a lot about this response. My basic stance on what the Web has done to music criticism is very positive: it’s allowed a lot more discussion and a lot more response.”
Jon Lord, 71, Founder Of Deep Purple
“‘We’re as valid as anything by Beethoven,’ declared Jon Lord of his band, Deep Purple … [He] was not merely adopting a rebellious stance. An accomplished classical composer as well as rock musician, he believed with some justification that his group’s music was as profound in structure and as significant in cultural impact as any work from the symphonic canon.”
Rose Theatre, One Of Shakespeare’s Own Venues, To Be Revived
“The Rose Theatre, one of the few surviving Elizabethan theatres in London, could be fully excavated and restored to a playhouse in time for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.”
Last Artist Leaves LA MoCA Board
“Following a week in which John Baldessari, Catherine Opie and Barbara Kruger all resigned from the board of trustees at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Ed Ruscha has also resigned, leaving no artists remaining on the museum’s board.”
Sartre, Camus, And New York
“In December 1944, Albert Camus, then editor of Combat, the main newspaper of the French Resistance, made Jean-Paul Sartre an offer he couldn’t refuse: the job of American correspondent. … Camus himself would make the trip soon after, only to return with a characteristically different set of political, philosophical and personal impressions.”
Is Dance An Endangered Profession?
“A young woman started to cry as she described her personal struggles with a career in dance, and the difficulty of working multiple jobs in the service industry without access to adequate health care or insurance. This could be you. This could be your dance student. … Why would anyone actually want to enter this profession?”