“Renouncing Woody Allen is painful for many of us, not just because we enjoy his work, but because it feels like renouncing a part of ourselves. It also feels cheap, because there’s no point in renouncing him if we can’t also renounce the part of us that finds his characters relatable. We need to take a closer look at the films that taught us to be this way, and to consider what else they taught us.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Great Works Of Lost Art: Rogier Van Der Weyden’s Justice Cycle
In the first of a series of essays looking at important pieces whose existence we’re certain of but which have disappeared over the centuries, Noah Charney considers Rogier van der Weyden’s The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald in the Golden Chamber (circa 1435-50).
How The Music Of America’s First Black Female Composer Was Rescued From Destruction
Alex Ross looks at Florence Price (1887-1953), whose works are undergoing a modest revival that, Ross argues, ought to be much bigger.
‘But I Love The Canon!’: A Talk With The Mother Of ‘New Musicology’
Susan McClary: “So when I published Feminine Endings, I thought, Well, I’m just bringing the kinds of questions everyone in the social sciences and humanities were already asking. I just wanted to be able to make sense of music at various moments in history, and to read it in the ways that literary scholars read plays or novels – to talk about how they are making cultural sense. I hadn’t realized how isolated musicology was.”
The Physics Behind Figure Skaters’ Amazing Jumps
Evelyn Lamb explains the issues of mass, inertia, vertical velocity, and angular momentum – and she talks to an applied physiology professor who figured out how tiny changes in arm position could make the difference between triple jumps and quads.
Inon Barnatan Named Music Director Of San Diego’s SummerFest
“Acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan has been chosen by the La Jolla Music Society to succeed Cho-Liang ‘Jimmy’ Lin as the music director of SummerFest, the nonprofit arts organization’s annual August chamber-music festival. … Barnatan, 38, will take over in 2019 from Lin, 58, who will conclude his 18th year heading SummerFest on Aug. 31.”
‘Newsweek’ Staffers Flee After Top Editors Were Abruptly Fired
On Monday, the magazine/website’s top two editors and one senior reporter – all three of whom were involved in a story about a criminal investigation into Newsweek‘s parent company – were dismissed without warning. Over the week, at least half a dozen writers and editors have resigned – either in protest or because they fear the publication may be imploding.
I Watched ‘Newsweek’ Self-Destruct From The Inside
Matthew Cooper, a senior writer who spent decades at Newsweek and its rival, Time – and who quit Newsweek in despair this week – gives his inside of the title’s decline and fall, “from expensing yachts to chasing The Onion.
Artist Sues New York’s Biggest Art Museums For $100 Million For Forming A Cartel (And Excluding Him)
“In an 18-page court filing, Robert Cenedella alleges that a ‘corporate museum cartel’ engaged in an ‘unlawful conspiracy’ to manipulate the market for contemporary art. The lawsuit … says the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the New Museum, and Museum of Modern Art all excluded Cenedella and ‘innumerable other deserving artists’ while driving up the prices of their collections.”
The Guys Who Stopped A Gunman On A Paris Train Asked Clint Eastwood To Make A Movie About Them. They Were Joking. He Wasn’t.
Reporter Bruce Fretts tells the origin story of The 15:17 to Paris – and why Eastwood asked the three men to play themselves.