“It didn’t leave permanent wounds because the response was so remarkable. I admit that when it first happened, I was horrified. … What really annoyed me was that it all happened in the week my new play was opening, and so deprived me of my usual agony and distress about the reviews.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Antoni Gaudi Used Psychiatric Hospital As Testing Ground For His Designs
“In what appears to be an early application of art therapy, new research suggests that the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí used the garden of a psychiatric hospital as a testing ground for his revolutionary designs, with the patients serving as his artisans.”
BBC Goes Backstage With Mariinsky Ballet
“The BBC has been given access behind the scenes with the Mariinsky Ballet company from St Petersburg, which is celebrating 50 years of performing at London’s Covent Garden.”
Gergiev Denies Rumors That Mariinsky’s New Stage Will Open Years Late
“Responding to media speculation that the new venue, which is currently due to open in a year’s time, will not open its doors to spectators until 2013 or even 2015, [Mariinsky chief Valery] Gergiev said that although the deadline for the end of the construction is currently being finalized, the maestro will personally make sure that no procrastination occurs.”
The Neverending Campaign To Ban Slaughterhouse-Five
“Since it was published, Slaughterhouse-Five has been banned or challenged on at least 18 occasions. And the rhetoric around each case appears to be, like [protagonist] Billy Pilgrim, ‘unstuck in time’.”
Indian States Ban Film About Caste-Based Affirmative Action
Aarakshan, a “controversial Bollywood film which touches on the highly-sensitive subject of affirmative action for the Dalit community (the caste formerly known as ‘untouchables’) in the country’s education system, has been banned in three Indian states.”
Bangladesh’s Top Filmmaker Killed In Bus Crash
Tareque Masud, aged 55, was his nation’s first director to win a prize at Cannes and to have a film submitted for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar. He and four others (including the head of one of Dhaka’s television stations) were killed when their car was hit head-on by a bus.
Remakes Of Old TV Series Usually Flop – So Why Does Hollywood Keep Trying?
Sleek, hip, and expensive relaunches of The Bionic Woman … and Knight Rider … were high-profile disappointments for NBC … [and] attempts at reviving Get Smart, Love Boat, and Melrose Place (among others) [had] tanked spectacularly before them. Given the graveyard of TV remakes haunting Hollywood, why do networks keep churning them out?”
Buddhist Meditation Promotes Rational Thinking, Finds Study
“Studies looking at the brains of people playing a fairness game found very different responses between Buddhist meditators and other participants.”
You Know That Weird Way You Feel Around People More Moral Than You Are?
“Now there’s a name for that strange mixture of admiration, guilt, and defensive dismissiveness you feel when you encounter someone better than you: it’s called ‘anticipated reproach’. … The more we feel as though good people might be judging us, the lower they tend to fall in our regard.”