Author: Matthew Westphal

Why Isn’t Ski Ballet In The Winter Olympics?

“The internet sank its teeth into a now-defunct Winter Olympics event this week: ski ballet. And it makes sense. When you see footage of actual ski ballet competitions from years past it’s hard to deny the novelty of it all, while simultaneously taking in the raw athleticism and artistry of the event. There’s also an extremely ‘What the hell am I watching?’ quality to ski ballet. … But really, no words can truly do it justice.” (includes video)

So Who *Was* Grant Wood, Really? Not The Yokel In Overalls He Wanted Us To Think He Was

“We should fear Grant Wood,” noted art critic Gertrude Stein once wrote. “Every artist and every school of artists should be afraid of him, for his devastating satire.” Novelist Jane Smiley travels to the places in Iowa where the painter of American Gothic (and much more) lived and worked – and writes about some of the things Wood wanted to hide.

In Search Of The Real Tom Bodett

If you don’t know him from his old pieces for NPR’s All Things Considered or as a panelist on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, you’ve surely heard his voice on ads for Motel 6, a gig he’s had for more than 30 years. And that’s hardly all he does. “There were a number of years where people thought I owned the motel chain – there’s still some of that – and that left some people confused as to what I thought I was doing publishing books and voicing cartoons.” Let alone carpentry.

Ismail Kadare’s Long Journey Out Of Stalinist Albania

“From the start of his career, Kadare broke with the prescribed literary mode of socialist realism to write fiction rooted in history, myth, and allegory. But he never became a full-on dissident. Doing so probably would have meant execution. … He saw his books banned and experienced internal exile, but he also served as a minister of parliament. … He describes his own relationship to the dictator as a game of ‘cat and mouse’: He wanted to survive, remain in his homeland, and continue writing; [Enver] Hoxha ‘didn’t want to be seen as an enemy of writers.'”

E-Books Aren’t Stupid Or Uncreative – They’re Revolutionary

“I was a relatively late convert to the e-reader, getting my Kindle five years ago when it became clear that reading 600 pages of A Suitable Boy while breastfeeding wasn’t going to work,” writes author Erin Kelly (He Said/She Said). “Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry recently called ebooks ‘stupid’ – but last summer, they changed my life” as both author and reader.

Now There’s Another Campaign The Russians Are Messing With – The Oscar For Best Documentary

Russian media outlets and government officials, right up to President Putin, have been thunderously denouncing two of the nominees for Best Documentary Feature: Icarus, about the Russian doctor who blew the whistle on the country’s athletic doping program, and (perhaps more surprisingly) Last Men in Aleppo, about volunteer emergency medics working amidst Syria’s civil war.

Composer Julius Eastman Finally Gets A Publishing Deal (Too Bad He Died In 1990)

The
rediscovery of the distinctive Minimalist composer Julius Eastman … took a major step forward on Wednesday, when the publisher G. Schirmer announced it would restore, reconstruct, publish and promote his music.
The publishing deal will ensure that the recent Eastman renaissance – spearheaded by a dedicated group of former colleagues, scholars and family members – will continue and grow. And it promises to restore the neglected work of a gay, black composer to the modern-music canon.”

Smithsonian’s Haupt Garden Is Not Worth The Trouble It Requires, And The Plan To Rip It Out Is Right

The Smithsonian’s $2 billion project to revamp the outdoor space near the Castle has been meeting some serious resistance, not least because it calls for the replacement of the formal, Victorian-style Enid A. Haupt Garden. Adrian Higgins argues that the garden is high-maintenance and expensive, especially given that (except for the annuals) its appearance is so static: “It’s time to … move on to a landscape that is more dynamic, less needy and better connects the past to a more ecologically mindful future.”