“I emerged … with an unshakable faith that putting words on paper is a form of action not only equally potent as placing a bomb, but possibly even more so. Because once the explosion is gone, all you’re left with is the devastation. Words in someone else’s head will be there for a long time.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Alexandria Opera Strike Ends; Egyptian Government Considers Staff Demands
“The Ministry of Culture assigned Monday two committees to examine the demands of the Alexandria Opera employees, who have ended their 36-day strike. The committees, which were formed after a delegation of the employees met the minister on Dec. 21, would discuss all their demands with one tasked solely with examining the financial demands.”
‘Ground Zero’ Arts Center Saves Itself By Finally Naming Board
“Mayor Bloomberg named five people to the Word Trade Center performing arts center board Thursday, a last-minute move that averted the loss of millions of dollars in funding for the long-delayed institution. … If the board wasn’t in place by the end of 2011, the performing arts center could have lost most of the $155 million it has received.”
Acting Out Unsung Lives Onstage
Stefan Kaegi’s Berlin theatre collective, Rimini Protokoll, “makes professional theatre without trained actors. Its performers are instead described as ‘experts in daily life'” – muezzins in Cairo; underpaid hotel maids and truck drivers in Singapore; an undertaker, a stonemason and a funeral musician in a piece about death.
Meryl Streep Campaigns For A US National Women’s History Museum
“[It’s] an entity that exists so far only in cyberspace and that the actress is trying to get erected in brick and mortar on a site adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.”
Sydney’s MoCA Has Asbestos Problems
“A call for an investigation of asbestos inside and around the Museum of Contemporary Art could delay the official opening of its new wing, set for next March.”
Why Tintin Is The Granddaddy Of The Hollywood Action Flick
“The first Tintin adventure … forwent the plodding, pane-by-pane mises-en-scène of most early comics in favor of an urgent montage and forward-driving plot. … The Tintin books helped to create the style of the modern blockbuster, and, even now, bridge the gap between a literary audience and a cinematic one.”
Another Critic Gripes About The Nutcracker-Industrial Complex
Clement Crisp: “London is clogged, blighted, with stagings of The Nutcracker. It is a state of affairs which would seem ludicrous were it not so artistically stultifying … So, what can be done – what must be done – to cure this endemic, epidemic Nutcracking? The obvious response is a change of repertory.” (Lotsa luck, Clement.)
Battle Of The Buffet: How People Strategize At Salad Bars
“Look behind the salads, sausage rolls and bite-size pizzas and it turns out that buffets are a microcosm of greed, sexual politics and altruism – a place where our food choices are driven by factors we’re often unaware of.”
The Louvre Has Overcleaned A Leonardo, Claim Two Top Conservators
“Two of France’s top art experts have voiced their protest over the cleaning of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne – a jewel of western art – by resigning from the Paris museum’s advisory committee responsible for its ‘restoration’.”