Wheelchair Dancers Are Here For The Art, Not For Your Inspiration Porn

But presenters need to consider accessibility. “Disability is the mother of invention. We have been cattle truck lifted onto an outdoor stage. In Siberia, we had to charge my wheelchair batteries by driving them around in a Fiat and swapping them out daily. Feral dogs chased us on the tarmac in Moscow because we could not be driven to the plane like others. In Germany, we changed in a broom closet with a skeleton”

White Guys Still Dominate Hollywood Releases

Using artificial intelligence, researchers at USC analyzed about 1,000 popular film scripts. Aside from the fact that men talk a lot, they found “that the language used by female characters tended to be more positive, emotional and related to family values, while the language used by male characters was more closely linked to achievement. African-American characters were more likely to use swear words, and Latino characters were more apt to use words related to sexuality. Older characters, meanwhile, were more likely to discuss religion.”

That’s Right, BBC, We Need More Cultural Critics, Not Fewer

As the Beeb U-turns and decides not to cut Radio 4’s Saturday Review, we still need reviews – though things have changed drastically. “In the 19th century lengthy reviews flourished to such a degree that Thomas Carlyle predicted ‘by and by it will be found that all literature has become one boundless self-devouring review.’ It didn’t quite happen but many of the modernists – Pound, Eliot, Woolf, Lawrence – are as celebrated for their critical essays as for their poems or novels.”

George Dreyfus, Violinist With The Philadelphia Orchestra For Almost 50 Years, Has Died At 97

He joined the orchestra in 1953. “Mr. Dreyfus was ‘at the center of the players’ labor activism during contentious years of disputes’ in the 1960s, his son said, which resulted in a long strike and, eventually, a 52-week contract. By the time of his retirement, he’d played under Stokowski, Ormandy, Muti, and his ‘personal favorite,’ Wolfgang Sawallisch.”