“Writers and artists have always been self-conscious consumers and filterers of experience, saving it and using it for artistic purposes later on. Perhaps Facebook and Twitter and Instagram incline more and more of us to respond to our experiences as only artists once did – perhaps in that sense the optimistic view that all of us are becoming creators is really true.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Jerusalem Film Festival Underscores Stark Realities
“Like so many of the political actors here, most of the films seemed unable to sensitively portray both sides of the perpetual conflicts, or uninterested in doing so.”
Want To Improve Your Life Expectancy? Switch Your Tube Stop
“Differences in life expectancy between even adjacent stations can be stark. Britons living near Pimlico are predicted to live six years longer than those just across the Thames near Vauxhall. There’s about a two-decade difference between those living in central London compared to those near some stations on the Docklands Light Railway, according to the BBC. Similarly, moving from Tottenham Court Road to Holborn will also shave six years off the Londoner’s average life expectancy.”
Nigeria Wants Looted Works Back From Boston
“The governmental body in Nigeria that regulates the nation’s museum systems is demanding the return of 32 artifacts recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. … The pieces were originally looted by British soldiers in the late 1890s, following the Benin massacre of 1897.”
The First Big Dome: Why The Pantheon Still Matters
“The Pantheon is about more than engineering. It is about space–architectural space as a conduit to spiritual space. The Pantheon is the greatest interior in Western architecture, one where space is nearly as palpable as the forms that contain it–what isn’t there is as important as what is. This effect derives in part from the perfection of its proportions.”
Art And Culture, Shaped By The Great War
“From the fiction of Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and John Dos Passos to the savagely critical paintings and etchings of George Grosz and Otto Dix, World War I reshaped the notion of what art is, just as it forever altered the perception of what war is. Although World War II racked up more catastrophic losses in blood and treasure, World War I remains the paradigmatic conflict of the modern age, not only politically but also culturally.”
Buildings On The Shortlist For The Stirling Prize
A cancer center, a bank, a science building and more (including, of course, an Olympics stadium) – a slideshow of the six buildings shortlisted for the U.K.’s biggest architecture prize.
Laura Lippmann, Crimewriter And Partner Of David Simon, On Her Part(s) In The Wire
“For serious Wire aficionados, both Lippman’s name and appearance will be familiar. A character is seen reading one of her novels in season one, while in season five she has a brief cameo as a Baltimore Sun journalist (‘I got terrible reviews!’). She also points out that Simon stole jokes, a song and the names of two detectives from her novels. ‘He has definitely taken more from my work than I’ve taken from his,’ she says, looking rather pleased about it.”
Hanging Out – And Watching A Real Dance Performance – On The Front Porch
In Toronto, “Kaeja d’Dance is presenting Porch View Dances, a series of pop-up, pay-what-you-can shows that are turning a downtown community’s porches and courtyards into temporary stages. “
Box Office Stats Aren’t Here Today. Does Anyone Miss Them?
“Warner and other studios did the right thing in muzzling the box-office machine this weekend. Counting dollars is trivial in light of the tragedy in Colorado. But then, is it any less trivial this weekend than the other 51 weekends of the year?”