Author: ArtsJournal2

London’s Leicester Square Is Decorated With Statues To Mark A Century Of British Film

Why Leicester Square for the statues commemorating various decades of film (including Mary Poppins, Gene Kelly, and Paddington Bear)? “Leicester Square was first home to a cinema in 1930, with the first premiere taking place there in 1937. It has subsequently cemented its place in British cinema history and regularly plays host to some of the most high-profile events in the country’s film calendar.” – BBC

An Iranian Director Barred From Leaving The Country Wins Berlin’s Golden Bear

Mohammed Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival’s highest honor for his film There Is No Evil, which is about the death penalty in Iran – and for which he was imprisoned and banned for life from making films. “Accepting the award on his behalf, producer Farzad Pak thanked ‘the amazing cast and crew who, put their lives in danger to be on this film.'” The Guardian (UK)

Of Course Ireland Has A Secret Tree Inscribed With Literary Autographs

Obviously. If you had to pick a country for this, Ireland would be high up on the list.”Though the centenarian tree’s stubborn, and frankly rude, refusal to stop growing has caused some of the names to warp a little over the decades, if you look closely you can still make out the signatures of such Gaelic literary luminaries as Sean O’Casey, … and, of course, the OG softboi of Irish poetry: W. B. Yeats.” – LitHub

This Land Is Only Made For Woody Guthrie’s Descendants, Apparently

Though it might seem like common sense that, like “Happy Birthday,” the iconic Woody Guthrie song “This Land Is Your Land” should come out of copyright anytime now, that’s not what a recent court case decided – and not what his daughter wants. Nora Guthrie says this is about more than money; keeping it in copyright “allowed the song’s message of inclusion to be protected from abuse and political jingoism.” – The New York Times

How Do Political Candidates Do When Their Usually Bad Dance Moves Go Viral?

Well, Tom Steyer did drop out after the South Carolina primaries, but it will be hard to forget what happened onstage the night before: “At a Friday night rally at historically black Allen University in Columbia, Steyer was joined onstage by Juvenile for a rendition of the rapper’s 1999 hit, ‘Back That AzzUp.’ Though the candidate did wield a mic, he largely left the verses to the pro (Steyer’s wife and daughter served as backup dancers). Footage of the spectacle was suddenly everywhere, in tweets, retweets, social media and news stories.” – Los Angeles Times

When You’ve Devoured Hilary Mantel, These Are The Historical Novels You Could Hit Up Next

Sure, yes, we all love (reading about) Thomas Cromwell, but there’s a lot more history out there. “A novel set centuries ago has a freedom denied to fiction that goes back only decades, to times for which we still have records or even memories. Some contemporary novelists clearly find historical distance a liberation.” – The Guardian (UK)

A New Opera In LA Shows The Area’s Rich And Tragic History

MacArthur winner Yuval Sharon says it’s time for opera to reckon with the past. “Sweet Land has been described by its creators as ‘an opera that erases itself.’ It achieves an effect not unlike that of traveling back in time to witness the first Thanksgiving, then returning to the present to hear its story warped through the traditional, wholesome retelling.” – The New York Times