“Christmas [as celebrated today] is, of course, a largely 19th-century invention: so are all those carols. Most of them aren’t hugely ancient. Most of them aren’t even carols, if you’re strict on definition. And the ones that are tend not to have particularly spiritual origins, mixing the sacred with the secular.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Latest Robert Wilson-Lucinda Childs Project Called Off (For Now)
“A planned collaboration between famed theater director Robert Wilson and choreographer Lucinda Childs” – titled I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating – at the Pacific Standard Time festival has been postponed indefinitely.”
New House Budget Cuts NEA And NEH By 5.6%
“The National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities each will see a 5.6% budget reduction in fiscal 2012 under a spending bill passed Friday in the House that’s expected to prevent a feared government shutdown.”
Arts Center Marquee Scrubs ‘Gay’ From Denver Gay Men’s Chorus
Imagine the singers’ chagrin when they saw that the venue where they were to perform this past weekend announced them in lights as the “Denver *** Men’s Chorus.” Management at the L2 Arts and Culture Center blames the language filter in the marquee’s software.
Dominic Cooke To Leave London’s Royal Court Theatre
“Dominic Cooke, 45, whose productions of Enron and Jerusalem transferred from the small Sloane Square venue to the West End and then Broadway, will step down as artistic director in 2013. The venue’s executive director Kate Horton is also departing to become deputy executive director of the National Theatre.”
New York To Get New International Theater Festival – In Deepest January
The Times Square International Theater Festival, “which will run Jan. 16 to 22, will feature nearly a score of works from three continents at the Times Square Arts Center on West 43rd Street.”
Banksy Takes On Priestly Child Abuse
“Cardinal Sin is a bust [of a priest] with its face sawn off and replaced by blank tiles, designed as a response to the child abuse scandal in the Catholic church. In a statement, Banksy said: ‘I’m never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one’.”
New York City Ballet Stars Show Us When They Were Kids
“When We Were Kids is a simple idea – professional dancers watch footage of themselves performing as children – but it does tell certain truths about ballet, and about the people who make it their lives. These kids are serious.”
Notes On Life In The (Artist) Colonies
“I know what you’re thinking: sex! Drugs! Egos! Art! In all those respects, yes and no. A certain number of people turn up at the colonies with an indecorous agenda, but … [for] most artists at a colony, this is the only place to get away from all that.” Alumnus Jan Swafford gives us the goods on Yaddo and MacDowell.
Yet Another Thing Siri Can Do: Play The Piano
Yes, the sweet-voiced assistant inside the latest iPhone can, with the right wireless port, play any song in your music library on a Yamaha Disklavier.