“Theater, after all, is no longer a central part of the American cultural conversation, the way it was when Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams walked the earth.” Even Tony Kushner can’t support himself just from writing for the theater. But Terry Teachout “can think of one excellent reason: You meet the nicest people.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Metaphysics Is Bizarre
“Bizarre views are a hazard endemic to metaphysics. … I believe there is not a single detailed exploration of fundamental issues of metaphysics that does not, by the end, entangle its author in seeming absurdities (sometimes advertised as ‘surprising conclusions’).” Eric Schwitzgebel tries to explain.
Swiss Website Asks Theaters To Pay To Be Reviewed
TheaterKritik.ch “plans to fund itself by having smaller theatres take out subscriptions to be reviewed. But this won’t be a matter of buying a favourable opinion. Oh no. For their money, the subscribing theatre will get two professional critics attending, who will then record a podcast discussing the show’s merits or otherwise.”
A Video Collage That’s A Timepiece
“In his profoundly captivating video work The Clock, … [the] thousands of shots he has spliced together from the history of cinema depict little else but scenes of characters checking the time, fretting about it, or surrounded by bell towers or digital clock radios that ground the action on the screen within the cycle of a fictive day and night.”
Patti LuPone On Broadway Singing Today
“When I see musicals in New York today, I usually don’t know if I’m watching American Idol or a Broadway performance. It should be as precise as an operatic aria.”
L.A.’s Best Public Architecture Of The Decade
Christopher Hawthorne offers his top five choices.
Bulgarians Argue Over Communist-Era ‘Monuments To Socialism’
“On June 18, Bulgaria’s capital awoke to find the statues in a monument to the Soviet armed forces brightly spray-painted as Superman, Ronald McDonald, Santa Claus, Captain America and The Joker. The characters, according to graffiti the pranksters left at the base of the monument, were now ‘in step with the times’.”
A Brief History Of The Brain
“Anatomically at least, our brains differ little from those of the people who painted the walls of the Chauvet cave all those years ago. … Thanks to the latest technologies, though, we can now trace the brain’s evolution in unprecedented detail, from a time before the very first nerve cells right up to the age of cave art and cubism.”
Buffalo Philharmonic Players Accept Five-Year Contract
“The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s musicians and management today signed a five-year contract, the longest in anyone’s memory, a pact that puts the BPO on a sure footing to meet challenges ahead.”
Symphony Silicon Valley’s Success Story
Founded ten years ago in the wake of the San Jose Symphony’s demise, the orchestra “has gone from start-up to brand name in a down economy, digging into the South Bay arts scene … Outside San Francisco, Symphony Silicon Valley is now the Bay Area’s largest employer of classical musicians.”