Unlike the previous one, which was across the 405 freeway from the Getty, this one is “100% on our side of the 405, immediately north and west of us, and on our property,” according to Lisa Lapin, the Getty Trust’s vice president for communications. – Lee Rosenbaum
Author: Matthew Westphal
“Getty Fire” Update: “Improved but Still Active”
This just in from Lisa Lapin, the Getty Trust’s vice president for communications: “Situation improved, but still active. Fire Department estimates 48-72 hours to control and extinguish. We are going to stay closed tomorrow at both Getty Center and Getty Villa. While we are safe, we want to allow emergency responders space to operate.” – Lee Rosenbaum
Come to the cabaret aux Crazy Coqs
How often do we go to cabaret or a jazz club in London? In truth, not often. But I’ve been twice in the last year, to catch an autobiographical musical gig by the veteran movie, tv and stage star, Anita Gillette. – Paul Levy
There Is No Such Thing As The Brooklyn Accent
For all the lore that exists around “Brooklynese” (not to mention the insistence of the Brooklyn borough president), a pair of linguistics researchers found that there was no evidence for the existence of an accent particular to Brooklyn (as opposed to New York City as a whole) and that roughly three-quarters of respondents, native New Yorkers and out-of-towners alike, could not distinguish between borough accents. – Gothamist
There Was One City In Renaissance Italy Where Women Artists Flourished
“Why was Bologna, the largest city in northern Italy, so receptive to women artists? … ‘A few factors include the city’s unusual political structure and the diversity of artistic patronage, from the lower-middle class up, the liberalizing presence of the university, and an already-existing tradition of accomplished women in other cultural sectors (that is, besides the visual arts).'” – Hyperallergic
Playwright Annie Baker Never Does Interviews, But She Did This One
But she did it only by email, which meant she’d have time and space to craft her answers — and, writes reporter Mark Lawson, “the precise replies suggest that her public reticence may come from a fear of being over-specific about details that the work blurs.” – The Guardian
Ingo Maurer, Who Raised Design Of Light Bulbs To An Art, Dead At 87
“‘Bad light makes you unhappy,’ Maurer once said. He repeatedly proclaimed his love for the light bulb, which became his trademark. While other designers saw it as something to keep hidden under the lampshade, Maurer centered his designs on the bulb itself.” – Deutsche Welle
This Woman Is Out To Collect And Classify Every Ocher In The World
“For years, [Heidi Gustafson] has been engaged in a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary exploration of the mineral … While there has recently been renewed interest in creating paints from natural pigments, Gustafson’s focus is on ocher alone — and it extends beyond the material’s artistic uses to its scientific, symbolic and spiritual properties.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Another Opera Singer Speaks Openly About Plácido Domingo, And This One Is Well-Known
Brigitte Fassbaender had a long and admired career as a mezzo, and after retiring from singing she went on to run the opera house in Innsbruck, Austria. In her recently-published memoir and a subsequent interview, she says that Domingo’s womanizing habits were very well-known in the opera world and that he repeatedly pursued her without success but was polite about being turned down. (She also has something to say about the Metropolitan Opera and James Levine’s proclivities.) – OperaWire
The Domingo Defenders’ Argument, Stated Very Plainly
Heather MacDonald: “It is a grotesque inversion of the proper hierarchy between public accomplishment and private sexual behavior to sacrifice an artist of Domingo’s stature for the sake of 20 disgruntled bit players, laboriously harvested from thousands of professional interactions characterized by graciousness and consideration. Put simply, the discomfort of these belated accusers decades ago is not worth Domingo’s head.” – Quillette