“A new study suggests that East Asians perceive emotion in faces differently from Westerners, casting doubt on the thesis – proposed by Darwin and widely accepted in psychology today – that human facial expressions are largely universal.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Getting To Know Tamara Rojo Better
Her appointment as director of English National Ballet “sets up a fabulous prospect for the art form, for the Spaniard is astonishing in myriad ways: driven, ambitious, furiously intelligent, mischievous, occasionally cutting, always funny, inquisitive, probably far too open and, I can’t help mentioning, exquisitely beautiful.”
Hollywood Epics Muscle Nature And Space Films Off IMAX Screens
“After decades of functioning as something like a planetarium – an attraction designed to spice up museums by showing documentaries aimed at families and nature enthusiasts – IMAX is suddenly in the spotlight,” with movies like The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Men in Black 3 and The Hunger Games being shown on the supersize screens.
An Ought-To-Be Legendary Violinist And Her Truly Legendary Missing Strad
A new two-hander play in New York recounts the story of the gifted, revered (by those in the know) and maddeningly prickly Erica Morini – and the fabled Stradivarius stolen from her apartment while she was in a hospital, dying.
Ai Weiwei’s Tax Lawsuit Hits Catch-22
“Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is learning a frustrating lesson about challenging Chinese authorities – he is welcome to sue the government over a festering tax case, but must first produce a company seal confiscated by police that he has no way of recovering.”
More Nazi Loot – This Time, A 16th-Century Italian Painting – Returned To Owners’ Heirs
“U.S. officials this week turned over a nearly 500-year-old Italian painting that had been stolen during World War II to the descendants of its Jewish owner. The painting, titled Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged By A Rascal, was created by Italian artist Girolamo Romani around 1538.”
What Do You Get When You Cross The AIDS Quilt With The Arab Spring And A Turkish Performance Artist?
“The artist Kutlug Ataman’s themes of identity, freedom and oppression are being literally stitched together into a performance for an Istanbul theater festival next month, inspired by a road trip that unraveled because of the Arab Spring. With the help of his audience, he is creating his version of a Bayeux Tapestry, in the hopes that one day it will help to decipher today’s Turkey.”
Angelin Preljocaj, Prince Of Dystopian Dance, Turns To Snow White
The French choreographer is known for such projects as a Romeo and Juliet in a totalitarian state and Casanova as a case study of advanced venereal disease. “But when Preljocaj announced he was planning a full-length Snow White … even his most loyal supporters panicked.”
New York City Opera Settles On Two Homes (For The Next Couple Seasons)
“New York City Opera will return to its roots at New York City Center in March after a 48-year absence, splitting the 2012-13 season between its former home and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.”
England Will Hang Onto Its Oldest Book
“The oldest intact European book – the St Cuthbert Gospel – is to remain in the UK after the British Library raised £9m to buy it. The acquisition of the 7th Century copy of the Gospel of St John follows the library’s largest fundraising campaign.”