Every year there “are dark mutterings that the Proms isn’t as serious as it was, that the Proms in the Parks events and the Comedy Prom and the Horrible Histories Proms are hogging the limelight, and the serious events are being overshadowed. It’s fascinating to see how a series of orchestral concerts has become a focus for all our anxieties about culture.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Business Is Buoyant At England’s Floating Book Barge
Book Barge founder Sarah Henshaw: “I hoped that by creating a unique retail space, customers would realise how independent bookshops can offer a far more pleasurable shopping experience than they’re likely to find online” or in a chain store. (The Barge is currently on a six-month tour of England’s canals.)
When Flying Saucers Landed: Remembering Space Age Design
“The Space Age left a sleekly modern mark on everything from office parks to kitchenware to kids’ TV shows like The Jetsons. Even today, if you drive around Los Angeles, you’ll see relics of Space Age architecture, including the flamboyantly futuristic Los Angeles International Airport and a nearby coffee shop called Pann’s.”
Takashi Murakami Thinks His Work Is Way Too Expensive
“‘I think so, yes, honestly, yes,’ Murakami says. At the same time, his expenses are high: He employs about 200 people, and has costly travel and communications bills.Surprisingly, the artist says he lives in a small apartment. ‘I cannot buy my home yet,’ he says. His salary is ‘a small amount of money’.”
A Play About Tony Blair And Iraq – By Someone Who Was There
“Sarah Helm, like many, was opposed to the Iraq war. But, uniquely, her husband, Jonathan Powell, was Blair’s right-hand man at the time. Now she has written a ‘fictionalised memoir’ about her experience.”
Rafael Bonachela Signs For Three More Years At Sydney Dance Company
The Spanish choreographer will remain at the helm of the company at least through December 2014. The changes he has brought to the troupe “have translated into strong ticket sales, new audiences and a renewed ‘buzz’.”
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Returns To China After Three Decades
“Twenty-seven years after Les Grands Ballets Canadiens first performed in China, the company is setting off with 50 dancers and crew this month for Beijing and two other Chinese cities, Dalian and Guangzhou. The intervening years have seen radical changes in both China and the company. It’s likely that neither will recognize the other.”
A Freedom Riders Museum In The Heart Of Alabama
“[A] half century after the Freedom Riders first arrived in this city, the Montgomery bus depot has been converted, with the help of the Alabama Historical Commission and historians, such as Raymond Arsenault, into the Freedom Rides Museum – a timely monument to a groundbreaking journey.”
Despite Funding Cuts, A Bright New Theatre Rises In Canterbury
“Rising above the jumble of Georgian and medieval roofs of central Canterbury, a new structure is reaching completion. The Marlowe theatre, opening in October, is second only to the cathedral in height and rises almost in defiance of public sector cuts.
The Neurobiology Of Bliss – Sexual And Spiritual
“Bliss, both sacred and profane, shares the diminution of self-awareness, alterations in bodily perception and decreased sense of pain. And while the left frontal lobe may be linked to pleasure, the other three characteristics are bilateral.”