Murky and vindictive politics in the Riviera metropolis have led to the first successful general director the house has had in years being completely undermined by a city councilor and his colleagues.
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Little Literary Journal That Could
“As smart as they are, no literary journal has come close to becoming the wide-ranging commercial force that is McSweeney’s. The San Francisco-based company evolved from a brash literary journal – the bad boy in town – into a multifaceted print and online independent publishing house, founded by journalist-novelist-publisher Dave Eggers.”
Vermeer’s Woman In Blue Gets Its Blue Back
“Visitors to the Rijksmuseum will soon be able to see Vermeer’s newly restored Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, 1663-64, when it returns home following a Japanese tour which funded the work’s restoration.”
Two Philadelphia Contemporary Dance Companies Merge
“[D]ancer-choreographer Kate Watson-Wallace and choreographer-poet-impresario Jaamil Kosoko [have] rechristened anonymous bodies, Watson-Wallace’s company, as a joint collaborative for the pair’s work.”
Can Animals Be Homophobic?
“Not as far as we know. Homosexual behavior has been documented in hundreds of animal species, but the same does not hold for gay-bashing.”
Epicurus Was No Epicurean
For Christian Europeans, the Greek philosopher’s name became a byword for luxuriant sensuality; for Jews, his name denoted a godless heretic. While Epicurus was indeed godless and heathen (he believed in no deities), he was by no means a hedonist: his thought, in fact, was close to that of the Stoics.
To Commemorate Fukushima Disaster, Radioactive Chandeliers
“A set of glowing green chandeliers made from uranium is being installed at Nassauischer Kunstverein (NKV) in Wiesbaden, Germany. … [The] work is timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary on 11 March of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan.”
‘Write What You Know’ Is The Most Misunderstood Piece Of Advice Ever
This hoary aphorism does not mean that fiction needs to be disguised autobiography. Nathan Englander observes that the idea behind the advice is roughly analogous to method acting.
Next Season’s Spamalot – Animal House, The Musical
“National Lampoon’s Animal House, the 1978 comedy that put toga parties in the mainstream, is coming to Broadway in a new musical stage version, with a score by the band the Barenaked Ladies.”
Curtain Calls Just Ain’t What They Used To Be
Bob Mondello: “[For] the longest time I expected something special from curtain calls. I don’t any more. They’re just bows now, rarely as much fun as I remember them being in my youth, possibly because back then standing ovations were not routine, so directors and stars had to work for them.”