“A 2008 law requires Brazilian teenagers to study philosophy because it is ‘necessary for the exercise of citizenship’.” Carlos Fraenkel pays a visit to a class in Salvador.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Dorothea Tanning, 101, Last Of The Surrealist Painters
Though her own fame was overshadowed by that of her husband, Max Ernst, she had a successful career in her own right, moving from dreamlike portrayals of the female form to, by the 1950s, more abstract “prism paintings.” In her 80s, she found new acclaim as a writer.
The Soap Opera Of Clybourne Park‘s Move To Broadway
“The New York run of [the Pulitzer-winning play], which has been widely viewed as a top contender for the 2012 Tony Award for best play, was threatened this week after one of the lead producers, Scott Rudin, left the project” following an unrelated dispute with playwright Bruce Norris. Now the owner of the theater where Clybourne Park is to run has assured the cast (currently performing in Los Angeles) that the transfer will proceed.
Cairo’s Overlooked Museum
“A diamond in the rough, the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art houses works by more than 1,500 Egyptian artists, mostly from the middle and late 20th century … Overshadowed by Egypt’s pharaonic and medieval Islamic heritage, and the more recent upsurge in interest in contemporary Arab art, the country’s modernist artists elicit scant respect.”
When We Can’t Speak, Could Our Brain Waves Speak For Us?
“Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words.”
Akram Khan Suffers At Home As His Company Roams America
“This is torture,” moaned the immobilized choreographer in his South London home, his bandaged leg recovering from the snapped Achilles tendon he suffered in January. Yet his company has gone ahead with its winter US tour, dancing Khan’s acclaimed work around a country where it’s little-known.
A Dance Critic Watches Josephine Baker
Judith Mackrell looks at the few, short surviving video clips of Baker at work – and is thrilled at how Baker animates and subverts her often stereotyped material with wit, precision, keen timing, and her “rare freedom, vigour and joy.”
How Can Skeptics Make Convincing Religious Art?
Terry Teachout observes that, in many genres, “great works of devotional art have been created by skeptics, not a few of whom were fire-breathingly militant about their doubt.” How do we recognize this paradox? Teachout finds a clue in one instance where Ralph Vaughan Williams meets Plato.
Caravaggio, Violent Hothead And Marketing Genius
“In the seething cesspool of Caravaggio’s Rome, violence was a form of advertisement; it let people know you were, so to speak, the wrong guy to f#@k with. Caravaggio’s notorious life was good publicity, too for the new, gritty style of painting he created vivid, theatrically lit, psychologically realistic slices of life.”
The Problem With Enhanced E-Books
“You can’t really pay much attention to anything else while you’re reading, so in order to play with any of these new features, you have to stop reading. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, then the attentional tug of all these peripheral doodads is vaguely annoying, and if you’re not engaged by the story, they aren’t enough on their own to win you over.”