Himself a Holocaust survivor, “[Hilsenrath] chronicled the degradations of the ghettos in one novel and dared to turn genocide into satire in another, selling millions of copies and defying critics who said he was too funny, too gruesome and too vulgar.” — The Washington Post
Author: Matthew Westphal
In A Record-Breaking Week, ‘Hamilton’ Smashes Another Broadway Record
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s juggernaut grossed more than $4 million last week alone, a first for any musical. “The period between Christmas and New Year’s always brings boffo business to Broadway, but even so, the week ending Dec. 30 was the best-attended (378,910 seats filled) and highest-grossing ($57.8 million) in Broadway history. An astonishing 28 shows grossed over $1 million” — including, most unusually, five straight plays. — The New York Times
Cleveland Orchestra Musicians Have New Contract
The three-year agreement “includes 2-percent annual increases in minimum weekly compensation, a higher level of seniority pay for long-term members, and annual increases to retirement, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits.” — The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
The Most Influential Person In British Theatre Is Now An Architect: The Stage 100 For 2019
“Steve Tompkins, the Stirling Prize-winning architect behind the recently completed redevelopments of Battersea Arts Centre and Bristol Old Vic, … has claimed the number one spot in The Stage 100, … for ‘literally and physically transforming British theatre’ through his buildings. (For the complete list and further coverage, click here.) — The Stage
The Water’s Rising, The Buildings Are Decaying, And The Inhabitants Are Leaving — Can Venice Still Be Saved?
Salvatore Settis, former Director of the Getty Research Institute and author of If Venice Dies, says maybe, if authorities start following policies they’ve shown no real interest in. (Meanwhile, the directors of an artificial intelligence project called the Venice Time Machine take the opportunity to plug their work.) — Apollo
Venice To Charge Day-Trippers Entry Fee
Of the city’s 30 million visitors each year, fewer than a third stay overnight (and pay hotel tax). Now the other 20 million, mostly cruise-ship passengers, will also contribute to covering Venice’s ever-soaring costs for serving and cleaning up after all that tourist traffic. — The Daily Beast
Al-Qaeda Was Finally Chased Out Of This Yemeni City, But Its Hip-Hop Dancers Are Still Forbidden To Dance
When the port city of Mukalla was finally liberated from Al-Qaeda, “[these] five Yemeni hip-hop dancers thought their problems had ended. … But last month Yemeni security forces briefly detained the five members of the WaxOn band, broke their equipment and only released the dancers after they had signed a document saying they would stop dancing hip-hop in public.” — Reuters
Major Cultural Figures In China’s Xinjiang Province Are Disappearing Into Uyghur Prison Camps
“Since April 2017, an estimated one million of Xinjiang’s 11 million Uyghur population” — including most of its Uyghur artists and writers — “have disappeared into what the government calls ‘re-education’ camps, without recourse or documentation, where they are reportedly tortured into denouncing Islam and their Uyghur identity, and accepting Communist Party rule and Han Chinese dominance.” — The Art Newspaper
There’s No Free Will? You Can’t Possibly Believe That
Philosopher Tim Sommers makes the case that, “in general, it’s very hard to not involve yourself in some kind of ‘performative contradiction’ – where what you do contradicts what you say – when you try to disavow free will.” — 3 Quarks Daily
Exploring the Four Stories
For over a year now, I’ve been stewing on and adapting the independent work of E.F. Schumacher and Ken Wilber (citations below), both of whom explore and explain what a “whole” view of ourselves and our world might look like. As I’ve unfolded it (literally) for a few groups and close colleagues, it now seems useful to unfold it for all of you for your reactions. — Andrew Taylor