In bookstores from Santo Domingo to Santiago, a customer could find Salman Rushdie’s latest novel or the new biography of Steve Jobs. But she’d have a lot of trouble finding books by, say, Chilean authors even in neighboring Argentina, let alone Colombia or Mexico. The editor-in-chief of Random House Chile discusses the problem.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Kevin Spacey Plays Richard III At Beijing’s ‘Egg’
The well-traveled Bridge Project production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Kevin Spacey, has completed a three-night run at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. “[It is] the first time a major Western theatre company has staged a work by Shakespeare in China’s capital.”
Corporate Support For Dance In New York Wastes Away
“A new report on New York City’s dance industry reveals that corporate support is the lowest source of private contributions to the field – behind foundations, organizational boards, and individual giving.”
But New York’s Dance Scene Is Unusually Entrepreneurial
That same report on dance finds that New York has “a strong start-up culture of dance. … Dance organizations in New York City are entrepreneurial and innovative, despite having to scramble for money and rely on part-time, contract and volunteer labor.”
Why It’s OK When Popular Video Games Have Weak Stories
Farhad Manjoo: “Modern Warfare 3 fails as a story, and even its gameplay is formally uninteresting. But these apparent shortcomings are part of its appeal. The Modern Warfare series, and MW3 in particular, satisfies three important criteria that more creatively ambitious games can’t often achieve.”
Jazz At Lincoln Center To Open Outpost In Qatar
“Jazz at Lincoln Center has plans to expand abroad, creating a new jazz club in Doha, Qatar, and four other cities as part of an unusual partnership with the St. Regis chain of luxury hotels.”
Who Owns The Burghers Of Calais? Nobody, It Seems
“Rodin’s The Burghers Of Calais, which is among Britain’s most important public sculptures, does not appear to have a legal owner. It stands outside the Houses of Parliament and across the road from Henry Moore’s Knife Edge Two Piece, which is similarly ownerless.”
Whatever Happened To Tommy Tune? He’s In Miami, Reviving Studio 54 Onstage
“Tommy Tune was once the fleet-footed prince of Broadway … [and] then he disappeared.” Now, in Florida, he’s “putting the finishing touches on his new musical, Fifty Four Forever, a valentine to the Studio 54 nightclub where he often mixed with Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli and other chic demigods of the 1970s.”
Hula-Pop Fusion Arrives; Traditionalists Tut-Tut
“As hula dancing becomes popular on the mainland, some complain the dance is swaying from its traditional roots. A recent competition between four troupes in San Mateo, Calif., featured high-energy routines … [that] looked more like American Idol than a traditional hula competition, where the judges often are elderly teachers of the dance.”
Female Comedians, Breaking The Taste-Taboo Ceiling
Jason Zinoman: “When I saw Sarah Silverman deliver [a] signature one-liner in a downtown theater almost a decade ago, the audience exploded with laughter followed by groans. Then came the anxious chuckles whose subtext seemed to be: I can’t believe I laughed at that joke.”