“Part of the excitement of being a critic was that I never knew when a work was going to undo me in this fashion: to leave me so intoxicated that, when writing about it hours or days later, it was still racing through my bloodstream.” — The Observer (UK)
Blog
UK Cinemas See Highest Attendance In 48 Years
“Britons went to the cinema 177m times in 2018, the highest number since 1970, when hits including M*A*S*H, Love Story and Airport helped attract 193m admissions … The lack of a Star Wars blockbuster failed to dampen enthusiasm, with attendance rising thanks to a diverse slate of US and domestic films.” — The Guardian
Chopin Was The Quintessential Composer For The Piano. But Was He A Great Composer?
Alan Walker’s Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times, which came out in the U.S. last October, is the first full-scale English-language primary-source biography of Chopin.1Best known for his definitive three-volume biography of Franz Liszt, Walker has done an equally thorough and thoughtful job of recounting the life of Poland’s foremost composer, of whose music he is an unstinting admirer. – Commentary
How To Create A “Viral” Play (What Is That?)
Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour: “Marketing-wise at the time I didn’t have anyone helping me, so I put my email address in the show. I urged people to write to me. I asked a random audience member to keep the script after the show; it’s my way of spreading the word. It was a strategy and it worked.” – American Theatre
All-Or-Nothing? Following Dreams Is Fine, But It’s Not Everything
Advocates of dream-following, of commitment and career leaps of faith, often say: ‘You’ll regret it if you don’t.’ They might be right about that (actually, they almost certainly are). But here’s the rub: regret is not the sole preserve of the cautious compromiser. A failure to compromise can also beget future unhappiness. – Aeon
A Scaffold Is Intruding On A Historic James Turrell Ceiling “Window”
The obstruction seems to be protruding from the gargantuan high-rises going up across the street from PS1, at 22-44 Jackson Avenue. These two residential buildings, which replaced the former legendary graffiti haven 5Pointz, are also called 5Pointz and will house 1,115 units total (including 223 affordable housing units) when they’re finished. – Gothamist
Can Translations Be Anything More Than Compromises?
Doesn’t translating a work of literature inevitably involve moving things around and altering many of the relations between the words in the original? In which case, either the original’s alleged perfection has been overstated, or the translation is indeed, as pessimists have often supposed, a fine but somewhat flawed copy. – New York Review of Books
It’s Popular To Dump On “Rich” Cities. Why?
Well, there’s bad traffic. And unaffordable housing. Unaffordable everything. And income inequality. And forget about getting anything done. But why should this be? Rich cities should be places where things get better. The fact they don’t lies with policy. – James Russell
Rock ‘n’ Roll Laundry: Meet The Guy Who Washes The Clothes For The Superstars’ Touring Shows
“The world’s top specialist for tour laundry, [Hans-Jürgen] Topf has traveled with many of the world’s biggest music acts, including Madonna, Pink and Beyoncé. As tours have become bigger and more professionalized, their logistics have become increasingly daunting. … That’s where ‘der Topf,’ as he likes to call himself, comes in.” — The New York Times
Propwatch: the suicide note in Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’
There aren’t many props in dance. Some may intrude on classical ballet; otherwise, anything that gets in the way of bodies is considered clutter. That’s not the case with Bourne’s Swan Lake, in which the prince’s suicide note turns out to be the key to the story’s emotional power. — David Jays