“I was five when my neighbor in Santo Domingo bought the first set on our street, the first I’d ever laid eyes on. … Maybe I would have been O.K. if I’d seen anything else: the news, a variety show, a political debate. But my earliest exposure to television was a Spider-Man cartoon … My father’s absence made perfect sense. He couldn’t come back right away because he was busy fighting crime in N.Y.C. . . . as Spider-Man. The diasporic imagination really is its own superpower.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Milan Kundera’s Last Novel In Czech Published For First Time In Czech Republic
“Kundera, now 88 years old, left Communist Czechoslovakia in 1975 after he was dismissed from his teaching position and had seen his books banned. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was published in French in 1979. Two years later it was released in Czech by a Canadian publisher – but it has never actually been published in Kundera’s homeland. It is reportedly hard even today to obtain in the Czech Republic.” That, at last, is about to change.
Revisiting Edith Hamilton, Who Introduced Generations To Classical Greece And Rome
“Although less well known in Europe, Hamilton achieved such popularity in the United States that, when I tell people that I study Classics, most people over the age of fifty who are familiar with the subject tell me that Hamilton was their entry point.” Now that her The Grrek Way (1930) and The Roman Way (1932) are being republished, Donna Zuckerberg considers how Hamilton’s view of the ancient world has, and hasn’t, held up over the decades.
David Lang’s New ‘Symphony For A Broken Orchestra’ (He Means That Title Literally)
The Pultizer-winning composer (The Little Match Girl Passion) has written the piece for 400 musicians, all playing damaged instruments from Philadelphia’s public school system. (The work was created as a one-time fundraiser – the money will be spent to repair the instruments and return them to Philly classrooms – but other school districts are already asking to perform the score.) Reporter Samantha Melamed checks out a rehearsal and talks to the composer about how to write music for instruments that are, by their natures (because they’re broken), unreliable.
The ‘Lion King’ Effect: How A Broadway Smash Changed South African Lives
“Over 20 years, hundreds of performers have joined the show in cities around the globe. These are some of their stories – laced with hope, tragedy, homesickness and triumph.”
Tourists Complain Of Price-Gouging In Venice; Venice Mayor Says Shut Up And Pay Up
“Over the past few weeks, news of scams against visitors to the city have been ricocheting around the European press, with complaints that tourists’ naïveté and limited language skills have led to them being parted from their money in dishonest if not openly illegal ways.” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro is publicly siding with the overchargers – and even mocking the complaints on social media.
Fired Oregon Bach Festival Director Was Under Investigation For ‘Discrimination [And] Harassment Based On Sex And Race’
A document from the University of Oregon, which operates the festival, showed that, when he was fired in August, former director Matthew Halls was the subject of two complaints. One was the widely-reported joke, made to an African-American singer, that someone who overheard it interpreted as racist; the second was that “Halls does not call on [women] during rehearsals and favors the men. … It is the responsibility of those in power not to perpetuate old patriarchal systems.”
Walker Art Center’s Director Steps Down After Difficult Year And Tensions With Board
“In a surprise announcement Tuesday, the Walker said [Olga] Viso, who has led the internationally known center since 2008” – with a considerable record of achievement, it must be said – “will leave by year end. Four sources close to the board characterized her resignation as the end result of a monthslong process fueled by unusually high turnover among Walker staff and demonstrations against the Scaffold sculpture that delayed the gala opening of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden last spring.”
Lincoln Center Festival To Shut Down; Mostly Mozart, Now Revitalized, To Expand
“When Jane Moss arrived at Lincoln Center 25 years ago to shake up its programming, many people thought that the days of its well-loved but staid Mostly Mozart festival were numbered. The creation of a rival summer festival – the multidisciplinary Lincoln Center Festival, which was run by others – in 1996 only added to the rumors of its pending demise. But in the end Ms. Moss, and Mozart, are the survivors.”
Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Treatment Of Migrant Workers Has Gotten Better, But Has It Improved Enough?
“In a gesture of inclusiveness that is rare in the region, the workers who had built the Jean Nouvel-designed museum on Saadiyat Island were given their own party. … Yet questions remain over the welfare of these and other construction workers, mostly migrants from the Indian subcontinent, on the island.” Annual reports by PricewaterhouseCoopers note improvements, but the results are still – well, mixed.