“Lt. John Pike, the U.C. Davis campus police officer who pepper-sprayed passive student protesters, is popping up in some of the world’s most famous paintings” – Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, Christina’s World, Guernica, even the Sistine Chapel ceiling – “as part of an Internet meme intended to shame him for his actions.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Ai Weiwei Supporters Strip Down As Artist Faces ‘Porn’ Investigation
“First it was money folded into paper planes that were flown over the walls of dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s home. Now Chinese Internet users’ latest show of solidarity with Ai has taken the unlikeliest form of protest: mass nudity.”
Israeli Women Get Naked To Support Nude Egyptian Blogger
“Dozens of Israeli women stripped off their clothes Saturday in a show of solidarity with the 20-year-old Egyptian blogger who caused a stir in the Arab world last week when she posted a naked photo of herself in protest against the limits on free expression in her country.”
Are Aliaa El-Mahdy’s Nude Photos Hurting Egyptian Liberals’ Cause?
Says one student and activist, “Elmahdy’s nude photography was the most daring conflicting act I’ve seen for a long time, but … [does] nothing but stir a debate and allow the conservatives to have one more reason to call for an Islamic state and blame liberals and seculars for this.”
Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Hip-Hop Band (Take That, Matisyahu!)
“We’re not making religious music, our ideals are just embedded into it,” explains the lead rapper of the group called Shtar. “Torah is just the structure for expressing yourself and being the best you.”
Ai Weiwei Calls His Tax Troubles ‘Social Performance’
“This has become a social performance and there are so many people involved. Even the [Chinese government-owned] Global Times. … This has generated such energy which has never happened in the history of China. If they want to crush somebody, then normally, for that person, what’s left there is just silence.”
Boston Lyric Opera Breaks Fundraising Record
“Boston Lyric Opera has completed a record fundraising year, exceeding its goals and raising more than $5 million in one year.”
Dallas-Area Ballet Troupe Up And Disappears
“Paul Mejia’s Metropolitan Classical Ballet has vacated its premises in Arlington. … ‘They stopped paying their rent and we found the doors locked by the landlord’,” said the head of once dance center who shared teachers with MCB.
Remembering Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios
“That’s American Zoetrope all over: excess, hubris, majestic ideals and brilliant innovation, all mired in recurrent financial chaos, and overseen by a magical, mercurial, charismatic figure seemingly straight out of the real Renaissance (and Italian to boot).”
Louisville Orchestra Collateral Damage: Kentucky Opera To Perform With Keyboards Only
Describing the decision as due to “circumstances beyond the control of the Kentucky Opera,” a letter to patrons from the company’s general director said that the pit band for this weekend’s performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro will be two pianos and a harpsichord.