The hometown of Mozart and Maria von Trapp “will be host to the world’s first scholarly conference on heavy metal, the brainchild of UK academic Dr Niall Scott. Headbangers from universities in Britain, Turkey, Canada and Indonesia will present research papers on heavy metal aesthetics, sub-cultures and politics.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
ABT Goes From Glory To Glory
Alastair Macaulay: “Over the last few days marvels have unfolded at American Ballet Theater, conferring a kind of performance-by-performance mounting delight that ballet today too seldom has.”
$5 Jackson Pollock On Sale (The Mark-Up Is Enormous)
“A Jackson Pollock painting, bought for $5 in a thrift store, is for sale at a Toronto gallery with an asking price of $50 million US. The painting, made famous by the 2006 PBS documentary, Who the #$%& is Jackson Pollock, is being exhibited for the first time at Gallery Delisle in east Toronto from Nov. 13-27.”
Lovelace: A Rock Opera – Turns Out It’s Good
“We are undeniably watching something original, at once refined and electrifying. […] Throughout, Lovelace operates in an Expressionist whirl – silhouetted sex tableaux, waitresses-turned-strippers before our eyes, a campy “Silicone Injection” sequence, ad infinitum… Even with canned accompaniment, it’s remarkable how well it works.”
Canada’s National Post Abandons Print In The Prairies
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the weekday print editions are being eliminated, as is all home delivery. “The printed version of the paper will only be available in stores on Saturdays… Subscribers will be able to get the full digital edition of the paper at a special rate.”
Comedy Matriarch Estelle Reiner, 94
“Estelle Reiner, who as the wife of Carl Reiner and the mother of Rob Reiner was the matriarch of one of the leading families in American comedy, and who delivered one of the most memorably funny lines in movie history herself, died on Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 94.”
The Amazin’ Alex Ross Up For Another Prize
The multiply-honored The Rest Is Noise is one of five finalists for the £10,000 Guardian First Book Award. Ross’s history of classical music in the 20th century has already won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism; its author received a MacArthur “genius” grant earlier this year.
What Ever Will Rush Do On Nov. 5?
“With the presidential election days away, the talking heads of right-wing talk radio are mood-swinging between anxiety over a potential winner they despise and hope that the polls and pundits have got it wrong.” Yet some of them are beginning to turn on John McCain as well.
Can A Holocaust Victim Be Anti-Semitic?
At New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, an exhibit on Irène Némirovsky – the French-Jewish-Catholic author who died at Auschwitz and whose rediscovered novel Suite Française became a bestseller several years ago – has revived a bitter debate over whether her early works featured nasty Jewish caricatures.
At Least One Company Is Growing
The West Australian Ballet heads into its 2009 season with 10 additional dancers (for a total of 32), more rehearsal space and a budget increased by A$1.2 million.