“Ann Savage, who earned a cult following as a femme fatale in such 1940s pulp-fiction movies as Detour, has died at 87. […] Her Hollywood career had largely been over since the mid-1950s, but she had a resurgence over the past year with a starring role in Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A Gaggle Of Philosophers
Carlin Romano visits an American Philosophical Association congress, where publishers hawk books like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy and where a graduate student, told “Sorry, I can’t help you” by a staffer, thunders, “That is JUST NOT TRUE.”
Deliverance, Terminator Added To National Film Registry
“The Asphalt Jungle, Sergeant York, In Cold Blood, The Pawnbroker, Deliverance and The Terminator are among the 25 films selected this year by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its National Film Registry. The Registry is designed to ensure that pics that are ‘culturally, historically or aesthetically’ significant will be preserved for all time.”
John Waters On The True Meaning Of Christmas
“Who knew the director of Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom and Hairspray was such a nut about the holidays? Filmmaker John Waters reads an excerpt from his essay, “Why I Love Christmas” and explains why it’s essential to send holiday cards and how to escape post-Christmas depression.”
11 Images Of Victor Skrebneski
A “story in snapshots” (of prose) of the man “generally regarded as the greatest photographer in the history of Chicago” – the man who took the “black turtleneck” portrait series of legendary actors and whose posters for the Chicago International Film Festival were notorious at first and later renowned.
Bushism’s Ideas – An Obituary
“A eulogy, of sorts, for the would-be heirlooms of the Bush administration, the failed campaigns and fading ideologies”… “Compassionate Conservatism”, “Teaching the Controversy”, “Homosexuality as a Choice” and so on.
Ballet BC Reveals Plan To Creditors
The endangered Vancouver company has presented an offer to pay each creditor in full up to C$500 plus 22 cents on each dollar of additional money owed. If creditors accept the proposal, Ballet BC can re-employ some of its dancers and staff; if the plan is rejected, the company must declare bankruptcy.
Pacific Baroque Orchestra Issues Emergency Appeal
Ballet BC isn’t the only Vancouver arts organization in serious financial trouble. “Last week, the 11-member Pacific Baroque Orchestra sent out a letter to supporters asking for help in combating a potential C$80,000 deficit on its C$300,000 annual budget this year. The group has been hit with a series of blows: in 2007, both its artistic director, Marc Destrubé, and its general manager, Tom Durrie, resigned.”
L.A. School District Suspends Arts Partnership Program
In the face of a spending freeze brought on by California’s budget crisis, the Los Angeles Unified School District has stopped all work offered by the Arts Community Partnership Network, the widely admired organization of performing arts professional that provides programs for the city’s public schools.
The Fabulous, Furious Eartha Kitt
“Sex symbols always confront the world’s morality, but few went to such lengths as Eartha Kitt… Whether asking Santa Claus for a yacht (with an obvious payback in mind) in her hit ‘Santa Baby’ or seductively plying a man young enough to be her grandson with champagne during her nightclub act, Kitt presented herself with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude that defied the judgments of others.”