Historian and biographer Kathryn Hughes recounts the improbable career and character of Lee Israel, a talented and diligent biographer who turned into a talented and diligent criminal, alcoholic, and all-around train wreck. — The Guardian
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘A Criminally Underappreciated Moviemaker’: In Praise Of Elaine May
Describing her as “a terrific director of actors whose comedy can lacerate,” New York Times co-chief film critic Manohla Dargis reviews May’s career, from her 1971 directing debut, A New Leaf, through The Heartbreak Kid and Mikey and Nicky, to the notorious Ishtar (1987), an expensive quasi-flop generally considered to have ended May’s directing career but which Dargis calls “a loony, loopy blissout … whose time is now.” — The New York Times
Using Virtual Reality To Design New Musical Instruments For The Disabled
The leader and a researcher from the Performance Without Barriers project write about how, always working with disabled performers themselves, they’ve adapted VR technology to augment the instrument of a blind clarinetist and create an entirely new instrument for a musician with cerebral palsy. — The Conversation
‘Roma’ And ‘The Favourite’ Lead Oscar Nominations
Both films received ten nods each, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. The Roma nominations are making a bit of history: it’s the first Netflix original title to get a Best Picture nod, Yalitza Aparicio is the first indigenous performer, and one of the relatively few non-English-speaking ones, to be nominated for Best Actress. — Los Angeles Times
How Do You Make ‘Twelve Angry Men’ Relevant In 2019? Cast Six White And Six Black Jurors
Director Sheldon Epps: “There is language in this play that you may have heard in a CNN report the night before. … It’s always been about racial issues; we’re just heightening what [the playwright] wrote about. He was specifically writing about how the American justice system is different for white Americans than it is for Americans of color.” — The Washington Post
America’s Oldest Jewish Newspaper, The Forward, Shuts Down Its Print Editions
“[Founded in 1897 and] once known as The Jewish Daily Forward, the [Yiddish] publication first put out supplements in English in the 1980s and started a weekly edition in English in 1990. Since 2017, The Forward has been a monthly magazine. It will continue to publish in both languages online after it stops appearing on newsstands.” Almost a third of the staff, including editor-in-chief Jane Eisner, has been laid off. — The New York Times
How The Forward Burned Through Cash And Had To Give Up On Print
“The death of the Forward‘s print edition, and the slashes to its masthead, cap off decades of financial bleeding.” The publisher says the paper has run at a loss since 1945; recent losses have run to $5 million a year. The losses have been covered by drawing down its capital, which had already taken hits from the 2008 crash and Bernie Madoff’s scams. — Jewish Telegraphic Agency
UK To Get Third National Classical Radio Station
“Scala Radio, a station designed to have a more casual and youthful approach than its established rivals [BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM], with a focus on film scores and work by modern composers alongside the likes of Mozart and Holst,” will debut March 4 on DAB radio and online. — The Guardian
Guy Who Bought Banksy Mural On Welsh Garage Will Build Urban Art Centre Around It
Art dealer John Brandler, who paid an unannounced sum in the hundreds of thousands of pounds to the garage’s owner, says that he met with officials from the city of Port Talbot (where the mural was painted) and the Welsh Assembly to discuss a site for the new gallery. — The Art Newspaper
Those Who Disagree Are ‘Fearmongering’: Mark Rylance Flogs His Shakespeare-Wasn’t-Shakespeare Theory Again
In his foreword to an upcoming book by a Baconian, the award-winning actor and former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe writes, “I continue to be regularly and passionately attacked … for my doubt about the attribution of the works of Shakespeare to the uneducated man from Stratford-on-Avon. … Time will celebrate those who were not daunted by the fearmongering of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.” — The Observer (UK)