Merce Cunningham company star Holley Farmer: “When newer dancers come into [a piece], it’s like clockwork: Everyone cries because you can’t see anything and the material is very technically challenging and you’re doing it in the dark sometimes or all of a sudden there’s a light in your face and you don’t know where it’s coming from … [You’re crying] because you realize that you’re probably going to be fighting for your life onstage instead of the other things that you try to do.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Fresh Ideas, Or, The Chilling Effect
“Refrigeration delivered a paradigm shift by removing the site of production from the sight of consumers. The idea of freshness emerged to fill the conceptual ellipsis that resulted … Self-sufficient agrarians did not define freshness, because they watched their chickens lay and slaughtered their own cows.”
Florence, Birthplace Of High Finance
“Banking developed in Florence because of the ingenious development of bills of exchange, first as a way of paying debts without having to transport cash, then as a means of evading the church’s usury laws, and finally as a means of extending credit.”
Get Thee To A Nunnery (Says Your Travel Agent)
“[M]onasteries have always been hospitable, obliged by the Rule of St Benedict to open their doors to whomever the Lord might send their way, [but] in secular times that hospitality has reached another level.” Yes, monasteries are becoming players in the travel market, from simple and contemplative guest retreats to four-star boutique hotels.
The Art Of The Infomercial
“When the average infomercial shopper (who earns $51,000 a year) picks up that phone, he is choosing a Slanket over a Snuggie, yes, but also, maybe even half-consciously, voting for the sales routine itself, as if the Slanket ad were an endearing American Idol contestant.”
Seven (Crazy) Civilian Uses For Nuclear Bombs
“Nuclear weapons aren’t only good for leveling cities, they’ve also been used throughout the last 50 years for a variety of civilian purposes like stimulating natural gas production – and all kinds of innovative proposals have been slapped on the table to harness the awesome power of the nuclear blast for economic benefit.”
IMG Artists Chairman Guilty Of Securities Fraud
In his capacity as a hedge fund manager, Barrett Wissman has pled guilty to fraud in connection with the kickback scandal at a New York State pension fund; he will pay a $12 million fine and will receive a prison sentence at a later date. In 2003 Wissman, a former pianist, purchased IMG Artists, which manages a powerhouse roster ranging from Joshua Bell and Renée Fleming to Bill T. Jones and Pilobolus.
Breaking Italy’s Glass Ceiling
“Milan’s Orchestra Sinfonica ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ has chosen the 35-year-old Chinese Xian Zhang as its musical director. The conductor, a mother with a two-month-old baby, is the first woman to hold such a post in Italy.” Zhang has just finished her term as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel at the New York Philharmonic.
Egyptians Used Herbed Wine As Medicine
“A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine to go down, but wine worked even better for the ancient Egyptians, who used to doctor their alcoholic beverages with medicinal herbs and other ingredients, according to a new study.”
Nevada Ballet Theatre Ends Soloist/Corps System (And 12 Dancers’ Jobs)
New artistic director James Canfield “is doing away with the previous regime’s hierarchically tiered model, deleting titles of principal, soloist and corps de ballet. In other words, there are no more stars. Every dancer is on equal footing.”