Author: Matthew Westphal

Amsterdam Is Trying To Reduce Its Enormous Tourist Traffic, Except When It Isn’t

The rowdy, messy, laddish types who flock to the city for the hashish and the red-light district have been joined by hordes of selfie-seeking Instagram addicts, and Amsterdam is becoming ever more unpleasant for those who live there. So the Netherlands Tourism Board has stopped promoting the city, permits for new hotels are being sharply reduced, and Airbnb limits are being enforced. On the other hand, two airports are being expanded and an enormous cruise ship terminal is planned. Feargus O’Sullivan looks into the Dutch capital’s conflict between quality of life and economic growth. – CityLab

Hermitage Museum Considers Opening Saudi Satellite

“The State Hermitage Museum [in St. Petersburg] has held talks with Saudi officials to explore the possibility of opening a satellite in the Gulf state. The meeting took place earlier this year during Hermitage Day in Oman, part of the Russian museum’s practice of taking short-term exhibitions and lectures to locations around the world as a form of soft power.” – The Art Newspaper

Can Ballet Teach Schoolkids About Prejudice? Well, They’re Trying It In Scotland

“After a successful pilot that saw [Scottish Ballet] work with nine schools in Glasgow and Perth, the Safe to Be Me project will be rolled out to primary schools across Scotland in 2019. So far, the initiative has delivered 40 workshops, reaching nearly 2000 pupils and helping children aged 9 to 11 understand and talk about racism, homophobia, bigotry, ableism and transphobia.” – The Herald (Scotland)

Michael Wolff On *His* Type Of White House Journalism Versus That Of Newspapers

Says the author of Fire and Fury and Siege: Trump Under Fire, “I’ve said many times: I’m not a Washington reporter. And Washington reporters, they do a great job. They do their job. I approached this as, that the more significant factor here, beyond policy, was buffoonery, psychopathology, random and ad hominem cruelties. In a way, my thesis is that this administration, this character, needed a different kind of writer.” – The New York Times

This Man Has To Be Ready To Play Any One Of 14 Roles Any A Given Night

“As what’s known in Broadway parlance as a ‘swing,’ [Angelo] Soriano is paid to master a head-spinning 14 roles, though he is never certain he will go onstage in any of them. With … [injuries,] vacations, and the flu, and the complexities of running a multimillion-dollar Disney show, you need agile replacements who can sing, dance and not trip over one another while brandishing scimitars in one scene, nailing an exuberant nine-minute tap-heavy number the next.” – The New York Times Magazine

‘How The Seuss Stole Graduation’: Why ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go’ Became A Cliché Gift For Commencement

“For the first generation in U.S. history to do worse than their parents, Oh, the Places You’ll Go is just right: It celebrates young adults’ dreams of escaping from home in the warm embrace of a children’s book they associate with home. … Oh, the Places You’ll Go may not tell us much about the way the world works, but it tells us a lot about how a certain set of Americans wish it worked.” – The Washington Post