“They will always be defined by the roles they played. Robert Wagner is the suave star of It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart. … Sally Field is The Flying Nun and Norma Rae. And Henry Winkler? He’s the Fonz. … They made their mark personifying youthful vigor in blockbuster hits; now they are starring in TV and YouTube infomercials promising to help seniors overcome the debilitating challenges of old age.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Where Rom-Coms Meet Social Media (Indonesia, That’s Where)
“It’s You’ve Got Mail for the social-media era, but this time the tech-enabled romantic comedy takes place in Jakarta rather than New York’s Upper West Side. A new Indonesian film, titled #republiktwitter, tells a love story designed to strike a chord in this social-media-obsessed country: How to find romance and social justice in 140 characters or less.”
Thailand’s Fortunetellers Cope With YouTube And Lawsuits
“Telling the future can be a risky business. When French seer Nostradamus published his prophecies in the 16th century, he wrote in obscure verses apparently to prevent anybody calling him a heretic. Thai soothsayer Thongbai Khamsri has a more humdrum problem: Lawyers.”
Chinese Artists And Their Pet Rocks
“In the Chinese art world today, many artists are taking Chinese antiquity as their inspiration and reinterpreting it. And one focus of their attention is Chinese scholars’ rocks: complex and often bizarre natural formations, collected and admired for more than a thousand years.”
Sergei Polunin Says He’ll Give Up Ballet By Age 26
“[Rehearsal is] very hard physical work and it can sometimes be very boring as well, learning stuff. … I would not mind just waking up, knowing I have seven hours before a show, doing [a dance] I already know, and then doing my own thing.”
Greek Theatre Asks Audiences For Food In Place Of Paid Tickets
“A theater in Greece’s second biggest city, Thessaloniki, is asking audiences for food instead of tickets to help orphan and single mother charities amid the country’s deepening recession.”
The Director Who’s Mixing Up Denver’s Museum Of Contemporary Art
Adam Lerner’s business cards give his title as “Director and Chief Animator, Department of Fabrications.” His popular lecture series offers events like “Nietzsche and Puppies, Puppies, Puppies!” He and his institution are a major hit.
Survival Of The Fittest Or Survival Of The Most Social? (Both)
“A consensus is emerging that humans have an impressive capacity for open-ended change, much as culturalists have claimed, but that this is a result of genetic evolution – and is itself an evolutionary process.”
Utah’s Ballet West To Star In Reality TV Series
“Breaking Pointe, a six-episode documentary series, will air sometime this summer on The CW. … It’s not a competition show, it’s a documentary.”
Big Changes At The Top At Canada’s National Arts Centre
“In the next 3 years, the National Arts Centre will lose its heads of English and French theatre and its music director, maybe even its CEO. How will it weather the change?”