“Moscow took center stage for the arts when the Bolshoi Theater opened on Oct. 28, but St. Petersburg, the historical cultural capital, will quickly answer Moscow’s challenge with an entire cultural complex set to open in fall 2012.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Sergei Polunin’s Series Of Lucky Accidents
The up-and-coming Royal Ballet star’s career has depended on fortunate happenstance: the dust in his childhood gymnastics club, being Ukrainian in St. Petersburg, and his ballet teacher’s dog.
Pippi Longstocking Books Are Racist, Says German Theologian
Feminist theologian Dr. Eske Wollrad says, “It is not that the figure of Pippi Longstocking is racist, but that all three in the trilogy of books have colonial racist stereotypes.” Astrid Lindgren’s daughter, Karin Nyman, begs to differ.
Banter Becomes A Stage Genre
“A sharp exchange of humour, with a bias towards the jocular insult, banter is becoming so ubiquitous that, last weekend, it even had its own festival.”
France Seizes Painting From London Gallery, Saying It’s Stolen
“The Carrying of the Cross by the [17th-century] French master Nicolas Tournier was bought last year for 400,000 euros ($550,000) by the Weiss Gallery of London. But the French government says it is stolen property and that its whereabouts had been a mystery for nearly 200 years.”
Julie Taymor Sues Spider-Man Producers Over Royalties
“The director Julie Taymor, a key creator of the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, sued the producers of that $75 million show in federal court on Tuesday, claiming that they were profiting from her creative contributions without compensating her.”
Little, Brown Pulls New Thriller From Stores Due To Plagiarism
“The biggest mystery in Q.R. Markham’s new spy novel Assassin of Secrets, it turns out, is the number of books the author borrowed from.”
Consciousness: The Black Hole Of Neuroscience
“The simplest description of a black hole is a region of space-time from which no light is reflected and nothing escapes. The simplest description of consciousness is a mind that absorbs many things and attends to a few of them. Neither of these concepts can be captured quantitatively. Together they suggest the appealing possibility that endlessness surrounds us and infinity is within.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Asks Court To Stop Pension Fund From ‘Harassing’ Donors
“In a motion filed last week in the association’s Chapter 11 case, orchestra management says the American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund is seeking financial information from 16 philanthropists ‘only in a continued effort to embarrass and harass the [association] and their donors’.”
Young Ballet Dancer In Critical Condition After Mugging
Jack Widdowson, a 19-year-old apprentice at Bern:Ballett, was beaten and robbed after a night out while visiting his brother in Cardiff. His neck is apparently broken, and doctors fear that he may never dance again.