Author: Matthew Westphal

The ‘Emergency Poet’ Is Opening A Poetry Pharmacy

“[Deborah] Alma, who as the ‘Emergency Poet’ has prescribed poems as cures from the back of a 1970s ambulance for the last six years, is now setting up a permanent outlet in a shop at Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire. … Together with her partner, the TS Eliot prize-shortlisted poet James Sheard, Alma is preparing to turn [the shop] into a haven ‘to help ease a variety of maladies with the soothing therapy of Poetry’.” — The Guardian

The Racial Reconciliation Fantasies The Oscars Love So Much? Really, It’s All Just Transactional

Critic Wesley Morris nods to The Blind Side, Crash, and The Help, but he concentrates, of course, on current contender Green Book and its Oscar-winning predecessor Driving Miss Daisy, as well as non-Oscar-contender The Upside. He points out that those films’ central (interracial) relationships are all based on employment — “pay-to-playmate transactions,” he calls them — and contrasts them to the more realistic employer-employee relations in a film that should have been an Oscar contender, Do the Right Thing. — The New York Times

Why Are South Indian Film Fans Stealing Milk And Pouring It All Over Movie Posters?

As it happens, there’s a Hindu ritual called paalabhishekam in which worshipers pour milk over the statue of a deity. Overenthusiastic fans in the state of Tamil Nadu have started applying the practice to their favorite films’ posters, hoping that will help the movies become hits. Only they’re not buying the milk; they’re stealing it — and driving the state’s dairy farmers and dealers broke in the process. — BBC

Daily Mail Flagged As Unreliable News Source By Microsoft’s New Browser

“Visitors to Mail Online who use Microsoft Edge can now see a statement asserting that ‘this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability’ and ‘has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases’. The message, which is produced by a third-party startup called NewsGuard, tells readers to proceed carefully given that ‘the site regularly publishes content that has damaged reputations, caused widespread alarm, or constituted harassment or invasion of privacy’.” — The Guardian

Australian Ballet Cancels Season’s Major Premiere Due To Graeme Murphy’s Illness

One of the centerpieces of the company’s 2019 season was to have been Murphy’s full-length adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story “The Happy Prince.” But, due to what’s being described only as “a medical issue,” Murphy — who spent 31 years as director of Sydney Dance Company, which he led to international renown, and has since been active as a freelance choreographer — is unable to finish the piece. — Limelight (Australia)

Community Youth Theater Ordered To Pay $450K For Copyright Infringement

A U.S. federal court in Virginia ordered Theaterpalooza Community Theater Productions, Inc. to pay damages and and attorney fees to Music Theatre International, the major licensor for musicals, after Theaterpalooza staged at least 16 musicals (including Matilda, Seussical, and Little Shop of Horrors) without licensing and the company’s owner ignored repeated cease-and-desist letters. — Playbill

So The Times Thinks It’s Wonderful That Yannick Nézet-Séguin Is Openly Gay. What About The Paper’s Own Role In Keeping The Closet Shut For So Long?

Joel Rozen: “Closeting rarely happens in a vacuum; it requires a hostile culture of gay suppression and mechanisms like the popular media to thrive. Rather than simply acting like the secrecy of high-profile gay men in Manhattan was a random phenomenon, a story such as Woolfe’s could just as well have addressed the music press’s past complicity in making homosexuality a secret in the first place.” — Slate

Accusers Of Director Bryan Singer Come Forward With Allegations Of Teen Sexual Abuse

“Almost from the moment his star began to rise, Singer, who is now 53, has been trailed by allegations of sexual misconduct. … We spent 12 months investigating various lawsuits and allegations against Singer. In total, we spoke with more than 50 sources, including four men who have never before told their stories to reporters.” (In response, Singer has called this article a “homophobic smear piece.”) — The Atlantic

For Her Upcoming World Premiere, Composer Julia Wolfe Goes Shopping For Scissors

Reporter Michael Cooper joins the Pulitzer winner in the search for shears (“The big thing is the sound. I’m not really looking for how they cut.”) for her new piece about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, Fire in my mouth, written for the New York Philharmonic and The Crossing and arriving on stage this week. — The New York Times