It was ten years ago that the Palau de la Música Catalana’s name was all over Spain’s newspapers: €24 million had disappeared from the hall’s bank accounts in a corruption and kickback scheme that involved the Palau’s director; the president of Orfeó Català, its resident choral society; the transportation and infrastructure giant Ferrovial; and one of Catalonia’s major political parties. Here’s the story of how the crime was discovered and solved and how the Palau and Orfeó redeemed their reputations. – Bachtrack
Author: Matthew Westphal
Stephen Dixon, ‘Experimental Realist’ Author, Dead At 83
“[His] humorous, freewheeling fiction traced the shocks and jolts of romance, aging and everyday life, in an experimental but plain-
spoken style … [He] published well over 500 short stories in The Paris Review, Playboy, Esquire and legions of small magazines across the country. His first book came out only when he was 40, but he made up for lost time in publishing 35 more novels and story collections.” – The Washington Post
‘Slave Play’ Author Jeremy O. Harris Has Made For Himself A ‘For Colored Girls’-Style ‘Choreopoem’
“The new work, Black Exhibition” — which he developed under the pseudonym @GaryXXXFisher — “is described in the script as an attempt ‘to look at a queer black male psyche through the lens of its literary influences'” — those being, among others, Kathy Acker, Samuel R. Delany and Yukio Mishima. – The New York Times
Why Jeremy O. Harris Had A Special Performance Of His ‘Slave Play’ For A Black Audience
“That was me being able to look certain people in the face and say: ‘You’re wrong.’ So many people have dictated what my intentions were with Slave Play. One of the things they’ve always articulated is that I wrote Slave Play for white people and that it’s not written for a black audience. That’s so bizarre to me. … It was amazing to sit in a 99.9% black audience and see that 99.9% of the play worked. And the parts that exhilarated the audience on other nights still exhilarated the audience that night.” – The Guardian
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (18)
I’ve never bought a copy of Rolling Stone. but I did buy The Rolling Stone Record Review, a mass-market paperback that came out in 1971, and I read it until the glue dried up and the pages fell out. The first record that one of that book’s reviews made me go right out and buy was this one. – Terry Teachout
Literature’s Cult Of The Sad, Suffering Female
Leslie Jamison considers “the enduring appeal of the afflicted woman — especially the young, beautiful, white afflicted woman: our favorite tragic victim, our repository of rarefied, elegiac sadness” — and considers other approaches, both those of other sorts of women writers to suffering and those to life and its misfortunes that don’t focus on despondence. – The New York Times Book Review
U.S. Supreme Court To Rule On Whether A State Can Be Sued For Violating A Creator’s Copyright
Back in the 1990s, videographer Frederick Allen documented the salvage of the pirate Blackbeard’s 280-year-old wrecked ship on the North Carolina coast. Earlier this decade, a department of the NC state government used some images and video of Allen’s without permission or payment — and, when Allen sued, the state legislature passed “Blackbeard’s Law” to exempt the state government. Allen’s consequent federal lawsuit has now made it to the Supreme Court, and reporter Eriq Gardner lays out the somewhat tricky legal issues involved. – The Hollywood Reporter
There’s Going To Be An American-History-And-The-Bible Museum On Philadelphia’s Independence Mall
The American Bible Society is building a $60 million museum, roughly halfway between Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center, that it’s calling the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center, whose exhibits will focus on the role of the Bible in the history of the United States and its social and political movements. The ABS is billing the Center as for “people of all faiths and no faith.’ Alaina Johns asks just how sincere that billing is and wonders how welcome such a museum should be at the nation’s birthplace. – Broad Street Review (Philadelphia)
What Happens When You Get Your Dream Ballet Career And You’re Still Miserable?
“Countless dancers find themselves at a crossroads when they question whether they still love dance, whether the sacrifices are worth it or whether a professional career is truly what they want — or truly possible. We spoke with three dancers who faced this crucial turning point and achieved the right balance of ballet in their lives.” – Pointe Magazine
Everything It Takes To Put On, And Get Through, Philip Glass’s ‘Akhnaten’ At The Met
Says Anthony Roth Costanzo, who plays the title role, “It brings you back to the most fundamental things about your technique. And if your house is not in order, you’re not going to get through it.” Joshua Barone looks at preparations for the challenging three-hour opera, from designing and assembling the “weird fever dream” costumes and sets to teaching the chorus to juggle to waxing off all the star’s body hair to conductor Karen Kamensek’s karate chop.” – The New York Times