“Something magical began to happen in us. The yawns turned into smiles of interest. The slumps in the chair turned into leans of anticipation. And by the end of act two, the eye rolls were not directed at me but at certain characters in the play.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Battle For Ballet At The Bolshoi Rages On (And On)
“Why does the Bolshoi matter outside Moscow? Many seasoned balletgoers ultimately prefer the styles of certain Western companies or that of the Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg. Yet your knowledge of ballet is incomplete until you’ve witnessed how the Bolshoi can seem the most red-blooded, exuberant and viscerally stirring of ballet companies.”
How Did Gaming Suddenly Get Great Narratives? (And Where Can It Get Some Respect?)
“Video games are inherently playful, which means many non-players still believe they are also frivolous and childish. There has been an increasing effort by some game-makers to address more substantial topics and themes.”
Why Don’t People Like Google Glass?
Basically, it makes them look “stupid.” — “I don’t think our society’s rejection of Glass is necessarily rooted in stated concerns about privacy, exclusivity, class dynamics, disconnection from the world, or many of the other arguments that have been put forth. These are well-established, modern problems that Glass makes only marginally worse. Instead I believe the resistance to Glass is about our fear of assistive technology”
Alastair MacLeod, 77, Who Wrote One Of Canada’s ‘Greatest Books Of All Time’
“There is something terribly ironic about writing about Alistair MacLeod on a deadline. I bet he’d find it funny. I would too if I wasn’t in tears.”
Advertisers Force Pixelated Posters Of Prince Charles On Tube Users
“The decision was made by our advertising contractor without reference to us and does look to have been a little over enthusiastic. We will speak to them about it.”
Finding An Artist’s Original Color, Behind The Frames
“It’s so weird. You think you know an artist, and then science tells something different about him and you’re like, ‘Oh, well that doesn’t fit my idea of what this artist is.'”
Poetry, Sex, And Agatha Christie
“All through childhood I wrote verses and mysteries. There is, for me, one connection: structure. My poetry is metrical, rhyming. My crime novels are highly structured. I never start out with a dead body. I start with an impossible scenario. Opening questions should be mysterious, weird, intriguing and contain the seeds of the solution.”
Spain Bans Aerial Drones – And Deeply Wounds Its Film Industry
“Cromática 45 says it has had four orders cancelled since last week; Camfly has seen 15 orders disappear, ‘all the work until October’; and the Andalusia Film Commission has even had to stop a project for the Andalusian regional government. ‘Today the answer [to clients] is that it’s not possible. We’ll see about tomorrow,’ says Querol.”
Is There *Any* Way To Make The Comcast/Time Warner Merger OK?
Maybe? “There is no better example of the existence of our Second Gilded Age than Comcast. Government has made it possible for the company to exert economic power unheard of a generation ago. If this deal is to go through, Comcast should be required to pay dearly for the privilege of exerting market domination.”