Graphic novelist James Sturm, who takes several years to write and draw a book, decided to try producing single-panel gag cartoons – and then to try selling some to the Holy Grail of cartooning. The effort turned out to require serious discipline and a virtual training regimen.
Author: Matthew Westphal
What It Takes To Do A Butoh Workshop
“The instructor is down on his knees, peering between my legs, licking his lips like a pervert. ‘You’re a woman,’ he tells me, ‘naked from the waist down, walking across a glass floor. Everyone is watching you from below.’ As I walk mindfully across the room, he commands me not to act, but to be the ekisu, or essence, of that woman.”
Annals Of Innovative Fundraising: Iowa Arts Center Offers Naming Rights For Toilets
“So it’s come to this: A recently renovated arts center in Cedar Rapids is selling the naming rights to its shiny new toilets. For just $1,000, donors can name one of six urinals or 15 commodes in Legion Arts’ 110-year-old social hall, which recently underwent a $7 million renovation prompted by the floods of 2008.”
You Ink-Jerking, Candle-Wasting Hen-Hussy! A New Compendium Of Insults
“The 12th edition of the Chambers Dictionary, published on Thursday, features a new miscellany of linguaphile-pleasing lists. Particularly entertaining is a compendium of insults – never has cursing been so creative.”
Philadelphia’s Next Music Director Offers A Week’s Free Work
“Yannick Nézet-Séguin is adding an extra week of conducting to his 2011 activities with the Philadelphia Orchestra – and isn’t charging for his time and trouble.”
Chicago Lyric Opera And Union Agree To 5% Wage Cuts
The American Guild of Musicians and Artists (AGMA), the “union representing Lyric Opera of Chicago’s principal singers, choristers, non-singing actors, dancers and production staff has ratified a one-year contract calling for a 5 percent cut in base salaries.”
David Cameron Puts A Tracey Emin Work In No. 10 Downing Street
Jonathan Jones: “This week’s unveiling of a neon artwork by Tracey Emin in 10 Downing Street looks very much like an attempt to balance the new image of Cameron the moral conservative backlash-surfer with a sop to contemporary cultural cool. For any remaining liberal supporters of the coalition, don’t despair – here’s an Emin to show how modern Cameron really is.”
Georgia Fires Revered Director Of National Theater
“Georgia’s culture minister controversially sacked its best known theatre director Robert Sturua as head of the national theatre for ‘xenophobic’ comments [about President Saakashvili] he made earlier this year … [Sturua] is one of the best known of all theatre directors from the ex-Soviet Union in the West, where his stunningly visual productions have astonished audiences.”
Why Is ‘Theatre’ Considered A Pejorative Word In Politics?
“So why is ‘theatre’ so consistently used as a byword for ‘fakery’ by a political industry that relies so heavily on its techniques? When so many of its fundamental characteristics – drama, symbolism, stage-setting, voice, image, text, audience impact – are praised for their effectiveness, how can the theatre reclaim its proper territory, and stop being used as a term of abuse?”
The Problem With Arts Conferences
Many of these events “have, at best, been a showcase of great work without much other content and, at worst, been mutual commiserating or back-scratching. I know the big conversations happen, around the country, daily. Arts organisations are innovating, taking risks, finding new methods and partners for collaboration. So why doesn’t this creative, intelligent, forward-thinking attitude translate into organising good conferences?”