“In the face of an abysmal economy, Momentum Dance Company this week [at the Miami Dance Festival] offers a sign-of-the-times performance with a humorous bent: Obamanomics takes on Fannie and Freddie Mac, golden parachutes, budget stretching and belt-tightening. Audience participation is encouraged.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Power Of Money
“Simply thinking about words associated with money seems to makes us more self-reliant and less inclined to help others. And it gets weirder: just handling cash can take the sting out of social rejection and even diminish physical pain.”
Critic Nicholas de Jongh To Leave London Evening Standard
After 17 years at the paper, “de Jongh said he had decided to step down to spend more time writing. He is working on a film version of his West End play, Plague Over England… and is also writing a book.”
Singer-Actor Andy Hallett, Of TV Series Angel, Dead At 33
“Hallett was beloved by Angel fans, not least for taking his role – that of an unnamed green-faced demon with a penchant for karaoke and mind-reading – and running with it.”
The Ancient Oceanographers
A thoughtful look at the old Icelandic sagas shows that the Vikings practiced a low-tech but serious form of oceanography, carefully mapping the movement of currents and the riches they carried – from fish and whales to seaweed and usable driftwood.
Web Video Series Now Have Their Own Awards
“As if we needed any further proof that online Web series were finally maturing into a viable entertainment alternative, we have the first Streamys awards show, held Saturday night in the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles. All the hallmarks of Emmys were there – the red carpet, the awkwardly scripted presenter banter, the clip montages.” The big winner was cult fave Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Finale Of Schiff’s L.A. Beethoven Cycle To Be Streamed Live
“András Schiff’s cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas at Walt Disney Concert Hall, a two-year project, ends Wednesday night [April 1].” The program of “three astonishing final sonatas – best known through their Opus numbers 109, 110 and 111”, will be streamed live on NPR’s website beginning at 8 pm (Pacific time).
Giving The Term ‘Public Intellectual’ A New Meaning
“How many intellectuals have had three distinguished but very different careers in three different countries?” Michael Ignatieff spent more than 20 years in Britain as a broadcaster and writer, then went to the US as an academic (at Harvard) and a leading voice on human rights and terrorism policy. Three years ago he entered politics in his native Canada and he may well be the country’s next prime minister. What kind of man is this?
R. Crumb Redraws The Book Of Genesis
The underground comics superstar has finished his long-awaited take on the first book of the Good Book. “My problem was, how am I going to draw God? Should I just draw him as a light in the sky that has dialogue balloons coming out from it? Then I had this dream. God came to me in this dream, only for a split second, but I saw very clearly what he looked like.”
What The Fatwa Did
“Nobody would have the balls today to write The Satanic Verses, let alone publish it.” Hanif Kureishi, a Pakistani-British writer whose work (My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic) has roiled the U.K. Muslim community more than once, talks about how the anti-Rushdie fatwa changed his own writing.