“The thing that makes Dunham’s show so interesting, the reason it inspired a certain unsettlement among some of its early fans, is that it often portrays young-liberal-urbanite life the way, well, many reactionaries see it: as a collision of narcissists educated mostly in self-love, a sexual landscape distinguished by serial humiliations — a realm at once manic and medicated, privileged and bereft of higher purpose.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Brave, Not-So-Funny Life Of Comedian Kathy Griffin
“When Griffin first rose to prominence in the ‘90s as an actress and comedian she was, in some ways, the pinnacle of the ‘un-cool’ girl. In her act she talked rapid fire about vapid subjects: friends, dating, celebrities, etc, but she didn’t have the edge of Janeane Garofalo, or the sexual brazenness of Margaret Cho. The only shtick she had was that she was willing to talk about anything with her audience.”
Gustavo Dudamel’s First Film Score Gets A Rousing Debut
Dudamel “and the film’s director, Alberto Arvelo, go way back to their days growing up in Venezuela, and that’s where they first developed an appreciation for the film’s central character.”
Top AJBlogs From 10.05.14
Albright-Knox: Making The Case For Expansion
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts
Garth Fagan’s Ancient, Electric Storms
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil
“The Chasm Between Doing Music and Thinking About It”
AJBlog: Unanswered Question
Another Corcoran Outrage: The Archives
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts
Are We Really in a Gutenberg Moment?
AJBlog: CultureCrash
[ssba_hide]
Hollywood, Let’s Talk About Getting Spanglish Right
“As someone who regularly speaks English, Spanish and Spanglish (that mix of English and Spanish), this made no sense. For American Latinos, there are certain unspoken rules about what language you speak, and to whom.”
Has New York Times Reporting On Publishing Been Biased Against Amazon?
“‘Propaganda’ is a stretch … But it’s certainly true that the literary establishment has received a great deal of sympathetic coverage.”
Having An Extraordinary Experience Can Make You Extra Sad Later
“People who had enjoyed something unusually wonderful ‘had little in common with their ordinary peers, who had a lot in common with each other, which made the extraordinary experiences both alien and enviable, which left them feeling excluded and sad.'”
No, 99-Seat Theatres In Los Angeles Can’t Survive An Attempt To Make Them All The Same
“Theaters are not fast food restaurants and the artists are not minimum wage employees. They are artists trying to create art. We do it for love. We do it to feed our souls. We know we are not going to make our livings doing this work.”
Thanks For Inventing Nightlife, New York!
“For the first time, women went out to drink too and occupied the same small, dark spaces as men. Couples started dating, instead of courting.”
The Year Feminist Performance Art Made Its Revival, With A Mattress
“The performance will last until her rapist has left campus. The mattress will only be carried on campus. She cannot ask for help, but can accept it once it is offered. Once a person helps her carry the mattress, they enter into ‘the space of performance.’ By quite literally bringing the site of the crime (in this case an ostensibly ‘safe’ domestic space) into public sight, Sulkowicz’s performance relocates its subject in between the shifting grounds of public and private, personal and political.”