Author: Matthew Westphal

Understanding A Play When You Don’t Speak The Language

Laura Barnett on watching Miss Julie in French at the Avignon Festival: “I was much more aware of the production as a whole – the white-box set, the dancers writhing away in the background – and of the actors’ incredible physicality. In shifting my attention away from the language, the experience of watching the play became even more intense.”

Man Booker Prize Longlist Includes Four Debut Novels

“A debut novel chronicling gang warfare in Peckham has joined efforts by a former Man Booker winner, Alan Hollinghurst, and Julian Barnes … on this year’s longlist for the prestigious prize. Stephen Kelman, who was a warehouseman, care worker and local government administrator before taking up writing in 2005, was … one of the more eye-catching additions to a lineup that includes four first-time novelists.”

Cincinnati Art Museum Finds ‘Spectacular’ Musical Instrument Collection In Its Basement

“For decades, a spectacular trove of more than 800 antique musical instruments languished – untouched, neglected and forgotten – in storage throughout the museum’s meandering undercroft. The discovery means that Cincinnati could possess one of the most important collections of non-Western musical instruments in the United States.”

Addiction, Amy Winehouse And The Tabloid Press

It is said that an addict must hit “rock bottom” in order to be willing to recover. But when the addict is a celebrity, her “lowest, loneliest moments are populated by exactly what a performer craves most: an audience. It stops looking like rock bottom, which leads the victim to believe there are still depths to plumb. Unfortunately, the next level down is usually a notice in Obit magazine.”

Advent Of E-Books Speeds Up Entire Book Publishing Cycle

“It used to be like clockwork in the book business: first the hardcover edition was released, then, about one year later, the paperback. But in an industry that has been upended by the growth of e-books, publishers are moving against convention by pushing paperbacks into publication earlier than usual, sometimes less than six months after they appeared in hardcover.”