“Plummer won a 1997 Tony Award for his turn as John Barrymore in the Broadway play written by William Luce. … [The] high-definition movie capturing Plummer’s performance with multiple cameras was done over seven days on location and on the stage during a limited [2011] run at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Billy Connolly, Legendary Scottish Comedian And (Now) Visual Artist
“After more than 40 years in stand-up comedy, music and acting, Billy Connolly has turned his hand to contemporary art. The comedian on Wednesday unveiled to the world a series of pen and ink drawings called Born on a Rainy Day, the result of two years of sketching.”
Philly’s Free Library Suspends Expansion Plans As It Rethinks Its Mission
“The Free Library of Philadelphia will always be a huge repository of knowledge for casual learners as well as scholars. But as patrons increasingly look to the system for job assistance, Internet access, and an after-school safe haven for children, the library’s physical manifestation is morphing as the idea of the institution evolves.”
Streisand Gypsy Film Is Back On Track – With A Downton Abbey Connection
“The on-again, off-again movie adaptation of Gypsy, with Barbra Streisand in the lead, is officially on again. Universal announced Tuesday that the movie project is moving forward with Downton Abbey creator and writer Julian Fellowes coming on board to pen the screenplay.”
LA’s Hammer Museum Announces New $100K Artist Prize, With Winner Picked By Viewers
“The Hammer Museum announced on Wednesday a new $100,000 award” – called the Mohn Prize – “to a Los Angeles artist participating in its first biennial, “Made in L.A.” And, in a popular voting process familiar from reality TV, the winner will be chosen by people who see the exhibition, after a jury of art experts narrows the choice to five finalists.”
Dancing About, And Around, And At, Islam
The movement theatre company DV8’s new piece, Can We Talk About This?, “begins in 1985 and ends in the present day by way of a ‘greatest hits’ of Islam’s low-points. The Satanic Verses affair, the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh, the publication of the Danish cartoons, ‘honour’-based killings, forced marriages and sharia law are among the events and subjects tackled.”
Dante’s Divine Comedy Is ‘Offensive And Discriminatory,’ Says Italian NGO
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here: Dante’s medieval classic the Divine Comedy has been condemned as racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic by a group” – Gherush92 – “calling for it to be removed from classrooms.”
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Lolita? Redesign The Cover
“Designing the cover for Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita, a book about child abuse, has always been a difficult proposition, and too many past efforts have cast the eponymous character as a pre-teen sex bomb. Which is why John Bertram, an architect and blogger, sponsored a competition calling for better ideas.”
Paris’s Institut Du Monde Arabe Overhauls Its Entire Approach To Its Subject
“Having previously concentrated on Islamic art, from now on the institute will also explore the pre-Islamic past of Arab countries, highlighting the diversity of cultures, languages, beliefs and ways of life that have coexisted in the Arabian peninsula and Africa for thousands of years.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica Abandons Print
“After 244 years reference book firm Encyclopaedia Britannica has decided to stop publishing its famous and weighty 32-volume print edition.”