The African-American author has “refused to authorize a Hebrew translation of her prize-winning work, citing what she called Israel’s ‘apartheid state’.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Sydney Plans To Become Broadway’s Next Great Incubator Of Musicals
“Dr Zhivago and An Officer and a Gentleman don’t sound as Australian as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, yet all three were reborn in Sydney as musicals. What’s more, they will soon be joined by a host of sing-along siblings.” Australia’s largest city aims to be “where international producers and investors join forces with their Australian counterparts to develop new musicals that will use their premiere here as a launch pad to global success.”
From The Puppeteers Who Brought You War Horse – Crows!
Handspring Puppet Company, which created the equine puppets which have drawn raves on Broadway and the West End, “is taking on Crow, [Ted] Hughes’s signature sequence of poems from 1970, set in the natural world that was his creative habitat.”
Ballet San Jose Dancer, 33, Loses Battle With Cancer
Tiffany Glenn “was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in June 2006 at the age of 27. After undergoing a mastectomy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, she returned to Ballet San Jose with a shaved head to dance in the Nutcracker that December.” She went on to choreograph a ballet for the company in 2009 and kept dancing until this spring.
Moscow’s Shukov Radio Tower, Constructivist Landmark, Desperately Needs Restoration
The structure “is in dire condition and may be lost if it is not properly restored soon, according to Vladimir Shukhov, the great-grandson of [its] engineer and architect … The 90-year-old tower is regarded as an architectural masterpiece of the Russian avant-garde and has influenced contemporary architects including Norman Foster.”
Britain’s Museum Of The Year Is … Tucked Away Deep In The West Country
“The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, a classic Victorian regional museum reinvented through a major redevelopment project and described as “quite simply a magical place”, has been proclaimed museum of the year, winning the £100,000 Art Fund prize.”
Need To Perform At Your Best? Try Being Anxious
“Somewhere between checked out and freaked out lies an anxiety sweet spot, some researchers say, in which a person is motivated to succeed yet not so anxious that performance takes a dive. This moderate amount of anxiety keeps people on their toes, enables them to juggle multiple tasks and puts them on high alert for potential problems.”
Need To Replenish Your Willpower? Think Of Filthy Lucre
“One school of thought in psychology holds that self-control is like a muscle: When you’re trying to abstain from, say, alcohol, you expend mental energy, just as if you were lifting weights. … A new study suggests a simpler way to bolster self-control, as it begins to flag: Think of money.”
Chris Ofili Designs For The Royal Ballet
“[He] comes with a seemingly gold-plated reputation: 1998 Turner prize winner, British representative at the 50th Venice Biennale, paintings held in some of the world’s great collections.” (In the US, he’s mostly remembered for his painting The Holy Virgin Mary, which incorporated elephant dung and photos of genitalia and over which Rudy Giuliani threatened to shut down the Brooklyn Museum.) “But two years ago, when [Ofili] agreed to design a new production for the Royal Ballet, he suffered a flash of paranoia.”
J-Pop, Whose Weirdness Is Now An International Selling Point
“For more than two decades, Western media has highlighted and laughed at Japanese ‘strange’ phenomena, from Gothic Lolita fashion and pre-Tupac hologram pop stars to more deviant subjects.” Now, stars like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (whose videos feature things like floating slices of bread with eyeballs) are cashing in on foreigners’ bemused curiosity.