Author: Matthew Westphal

This Free Video Game Makes Its Money Selling Dance Moves – And Those Dance Moves Are Crossing Over Into Real Life

“The goal in [Fortnite: Battle Royale], as in most multiplayer shooter games,” writes Sarah Kaufman, “is to blow your enemies to shreds.” What does that have to do with dance? Well, players can buy preprogrammed moves for their avatars called “dance emotes,” which they use to dance on the dead bodies of the enemies they’ve blown to shreds. Dance emotes are so popular that the game pulls in $126 million every month, and players are starting to bust those moves themselves offline.

Three New EGOT Winners In One Night

“John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have been awarded Emmys for their TV production of Jesus Christ Superstar, earning them EGOT status – meaning they have each won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. EGOT winners are an exclusive club: including the trio, only 15 people have ever managed to achieve the four wins, including Audrey Hepburn, [Whoopi Goldberg,] Mel Brooks and John Gielgud.”

A ‘Genuine’ Leonardo Sells For $83 Million On Russia’s Version Of eBay

“‘Dmitry’, from the town of Mamonovo in the Kaliningrad region, says that the painting, titled A Young Girl in Furs, was authenticated by the Stockholm art valuation firm Atelje Catellani. … Before its removal, four days after it was posted on [the auction site] Avito, the advert read: ‘Attention: I am selling the original Leonardo da Vinci painting ‘A Girl in Furs’. Location: Germany … estimated value €280m … asking price €72m.'”

Jerusalem City Gov’t Evicts Gallery For Hosting Anti-Occupation NGO

Last year, the conservative mayor’s office, backed by Netanyahu’s controversial national culture minister, Miri Regev, began moving against the Barbur Gallery, which has been operating in a city-owned building for 13 years. The reason? Barbur hasted several events by Breaking the Silence, an organization founded by former Israeli soldiers who oppose the continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. Last week a judge approved an eviction request, even as he acknowledged that the request was blatantly political.

Iran Jails Director And Theater Manager For Staging ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

“Cultural official Shahram Karami told the official IRNA news agency Monday that Iran’s judiciary had ordered the detention of the play’s director, Maryam Kazemi, and the manager of the theater that hosted it, Saeed Assadi. … Both were taken into custody Sunday evening, after the broadcast of a video trailer about the work.”

Prado Spotlights Two Female Renaissance Painters Who Aren’t Artemisia Gentileschi

“Lavinia Fontana [was] a Mannerist widely considered to be the first professional female artist, and Sofonisba Anguissola [was] an Italian noblewoman who served as King Philip II of Spain’s court painter.” Both women were praised by the likes of Michelangelo, van Dyck, and Vasari, and Fontana was blessed with an extraordinary husband who — in the 1580s, mind you — put her career ahead of his own.

Predator Or Prey? J.D. Salinger’s Erstwhile 18-Year-Old Girlfriend Wants To Be Reconsidered In Light Of #MeToo

When Joyce Maynard published her memoir At Home in the World, about when, 25 years earlier, she dropped out of Yale to go live with the 53-year-old author (and got abruptly dumped seven months later), she endured a wave of criticism for kissing-and-telling that to this day hasn’t entirely abated. Here she writes, “Though I believe that if the book I wrote 20 years ago were published today it would be received differently, it does not appear that enlightenment concerning the abuses of men in power extends retroactively to women who chose to speak long ago, and were shamed and humiliated for doing so.”