Author: ArtsJournal2

One London Library Not Suffering From Cuts During The Long Retrenchment Of British Public Life

In a neighborhood where the town council announced there would be no austerity measures at its libraries, “Books are only a small part of the library’s mandate. When the council elected to spare its libraries from cuts, it announced that they would be redeveloped as ‘community hubs.’ Among the groups using the library’s facilities for regular open meetings are stroke survivors, cancer survivors, seniors, dads, knitters, aspiring songwriters, Pilates enthusiasts, and philosophy buffs.”

Tchaikovsky Hated His ‘1812 Overture’ (Good Thing He Didn’t Have To Go To Every Outdoor Summer Symphony Ever)

In the U.S., it gets played on the Fourth of July a lot. Wait, what? “We think of the 1812 Overture as this very American piece and we play it on the Fourth of July for whatever reason, which is just nutso for so many reasons. Last year, I watched a very grown man cry to this piece of music and I was like, ‘Are you sure?” Do you even know what it’s about? Have you just been assuming the ‘1812 Overture’ is about the American War of 1812. Guess what? It’s not!!'”

Children’s Art May Seem Like ‘Scribbles,’ But It Is Actually Complex And Powerful

Artist Brian Belott, who has curated a show with a combo of children’s art and his own art: “A child wakes up in the morning with so much energy, and I try, in my own practice, no matter what I do, to tap into that hyper-spazzy energy that slowly gets shut down as you enter the adult world. As an artist, I’m into celebratory stuff. I’d much rather create a dance party than a pity party.”

The Deep Beauty Of Reading About Cooking

And what a future writer learned about writing: “Words can be used to make an idea more precise, or more vague, to make something clear or to blur its edges. Some writers are good at imagining people who don’t live a life exactly like their own, and others seem incapable.”

A Netflix Movie That Everyone (In The U.S. And U.K.) Needs To Watch

Hollywood plus Afghanistan equals … nothing. “Hollywood movies do not ask the difficult strategic questions. Should the US invade or interfere in countries it knows little about, how do US troops win over local support, is nation building and promotion of democracy feasible by one part of the US government while another part pursues a war strategy? Can the US ever understand tribal societies through the barrel of a gun? Hollywood has left us devoid of any understanding of the escalating global chaos. That is, until now.”

Film Critic Barry Norman, Who Was The BBC’s Film Reviewer For 26 Years, Has Died At 83

“It was at the BBC where he became a household name, presenting from a comfortable armchair and often dressed in a familiar jumper. A catchphrase, ‘And why not?,’ was used on occasion by Norman and became the title of his autobiography, but took on a life of its own in the mouth of the puppet version of him in the satirical show Spitting Image on ITV.” Then there was the time Robert DeNiro almost hit him.

How We Can, Or Rather Could, Save Free Speech From ‘Free Speech’ Trolls

This certain-type-of-person freakout is costing anyone who’s not an aggrieved white man quite a lot. “Casting the dissent of marginalized groups as a First Amendment violation is the kind of pseudo-intellectual argument that seems reasonable to people who don’t have enough skin in the game to bother paying attention. ‘Discourse’ is good! Sunlight is the best disinfectant! The more airtime we give to irrational bigots on high-profile platforms — the more assiduously we hear both sides, stay ‘fair and balanced’ — the sooner they’ll be rejected by the public at large!”

The History Of Female Monsters, And How One Author Started Giving Them A Voice

Theodora Goss noticed something about European horror, or at least Euro-monsters who were women: They didn’t speak. So she wrote her own short story, “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter,” “which explores the lives of female monsters such as Justine Frankenstein, Diana Hyde, and Catherine Moreau. ‘All these girl monsters have found each other and they’ve formed a club, and they live together in London,’ Goss says. ‘That’s the premise'” – and now the story is a book.