The Crown Prosecution Service announced, “We do not propose to bring charges [under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959] based on material that depicts consensual and legal activity between adults, where no serious harm is caused and the likely audience is over the age of 18.” (That law will remain on the books, though.) — The Guardian
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why The Academy Likes ‘Vice’ So Much More Than Critics And Audiences Do
“Vice’s copious failings … are exactly the sorts of things that the Academy reveres. Oscar voters love films that pretend to tackle Serious Issues but in fact exploit them as stages for personality operas and starry performances. Look no further than Green Book.” — Slate
First Digital Archive Of Roma Culture Run By Roma Themselves
“The RomArchive data bank has a collection of 5,000 objects, including photos, texts, videos and sound recordings … Works of art collected for the project include dance, theater, film, music, literature and Flamenco, categories in which Sinti and Roma present their own cultural history to the present day.” — Deutsche Welle
Pam Tanowitz Named First Choreographer In Residence At Bard Fisher Center
“For the position, a three-year residency to begin in February, Ms. Tanowitz will create three commissioned dances, including a collaboration with the New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns; she will also develop a digital archive of her work.” — The New York Times
Baritone Sanford Sylvan Dies Suddenly At 65
Admired as much for his unusual communicative gifts (especially in American English) as for his warm and gentle voice, Sylvan began his career in Boston’s chamber and early music scenes and first became known for his performances in Peter Sellars’s 1980s Mozart stagings. He was a favorite of John Adams, who wrote the song cycle The Wound-Dresser for him, and two of his most famous opera roles were as Chou En-Lai in Nixon in China and the title role in The Death of Klinghoffer. — NPR
Now *Here’s* A Career For A Retired Ballerina: Aerialist
“When Ariana Lallone left Pacific Northwest Ballet after nearly 25 years, … [she] knew that she wanted to keep performing. Eight years later, look up, and there she is — an aerial artist with Teatro ZinZanni, dancing midair high above the dinner-theater audience, with a hoop as her partner.” — Seattle Times
Chinese Immigrant Author Withdraws Her YA Fantasy Novel After Accusations Of Racist Portrayals
Amélie Wen Zhao asked her publisher to withhold her book Blood Heir after voices from the Young Adult Lit Twitterverse (which is notorious for drama) attacked it for “anti-blackness” in its depiction of an enslaved group. Aja Hoggatt offers an explainer on the controversy. — Slate
This Is *Not* The Vehicle You’d Expect For Garth Drabinsky’s Comeback
With his company, Livent, Drabinsky was one of Broadway’s powerhouse producers in the 1990s (Ragtime, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Show Boat, Fosse, Parade). Then he got busted for financial fraud and did time in a Canadian prison. Now he’s back — at, of all places, Berkeley Rep, with Paradise Square, a sort-of Stephen Foster jukebox musical about Irish- and African-Americans in Civil War-era Manhattan. — The New York Times
Australia’s Richest Book Prize Goes To Refugee Interned In Offshore Camp
Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani composed his first book, No Friend But the Mountains, one text message at a time from inside the Manus Island detention center in Papua New Guinea, one of the offshore centers where Australia places refugees who try to reach the country by sea. Now that book has won the A$100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature. — The Guardian
Dušan Makavejev, Director Of ‘WR: Mysteries Of The Organism’ And ‘Montenegro’, Dead At 86
“His films, known for scenes of nudity and explicit sex, often centered on the sexual liberation of a female character. … Makavejev’s work — part of a ‘Black Wave’ of filmmaking in his country — also was raucously subversive, anti-bureaucratic and frequently banned by authorities. He audaciously attacked dogmas, whether they came from the East or the West. Not surprisingly, he was treated as royalty at film festivals.” — The Hollywood Reporter