I have a suggestion for any opera company that commissions a new opera. And I don’t mean this as a joke. Once the work starts to take shape, show it to someone at HBO. And if they say it isn’t good enough for them, pull the plug.
Blog
The “Irrelevant” Made Blindingly Relevant
Respect for children means respect for the adults that they will one day become; it means helping them to the knowledge, skills, and social graces that they will need if they are to be respected in that wider world where they will be on their own and no longer protected. For the teacher, respect for children means giving them whatever one has by way of knowledge, teaching them to distinguish real knowledge from mere opinion, and introducing them to the subjects that make the mind adaptable to the unforeseen. To dismiss Latin and Greek, for example, because they are not “relevant” is to imagine that one learns another language in order, as Matthew Arnold put it, “to fight the battles of life with the waiters in foreign hotels.”
‘Cli-Fi’ — How Science Fiction About Climate Change Is Envisioning The Roasting Of The Planet
Katy Waldman: “There is something counterintuitive about cli-fi, about the fictional representation of scientifically substantiated predictions that too many people discount as fictions. … Literature has always been a humanist endeavor: it intrinsically and helplessly affirms the value of the species; its intimations of meaning energize and comfort. But what if there is scant succor to be had, and our true natures are not noble but necrotic, pestilential?”
How Will Students Know About Shakespeare If They Never Go To A Play?
If Shakespeare is the only named author on the national curriculum, how is it that 31% of those surveyed failed to recognise the playwright’s name? That only 53% had been on a school trip to a theatre is equally depressing, but the two stats might be related…After all, why should they know of him as a playwright if they have never experienced his plays as ‘play’?
I’ve Done Lots Of Public Radio Pieces, But NPR Spiked This One Because Of My Accent
Gisele Regatao: “My accent? It’s mild; Americans can tell right away that I am not a native English speaker, but foreigners can’t. I moved to the US from Brazil 20 years ago, though most people can’t tell where I’m from. … I knew accents could be taboo for some radio people, but I thought NPR would be thrilled to have a piece about a Brazilian artist by a Brazilian journalist. Plus, I’d voiced stories for WNYC and PRI’s The World many times before.” She completed the piece, but NPR wouldn’t air it.
When The Machines Start Telling Our Stories It Can Be Potently Emotional
With its heavy focus on artificially intelligent curation, Google Photos suggests the dawning of a new age of personalized robot historian. The trillions of images we are all snapping will become the raw material for algorithms that will curate memories and construct narratives about our most intimate human experiences. In the future, the robots will know everything about us — and they will tell our stories.
Extreme Close-Ups: Why, And How, Dramatic Movies Are Relying On Them
“Long a staple of television, the technique has gained traction in recent years as an antidote to the kind of smash-cut film editing that first became popular in the ’90s before passing into cliché. But the execution of extreme close-ups requires a certain bravery on the part of actors: nary a blemish, a crow’s-foot wrinkle, or clogged pore will be spared the camera’s unblinking scrutiny.” Thank heaven for CGI.
Austria Returned Wrong Nazi-Looted Klimt To The Wrong Family
Austria has been criticised for moving too slowly to return works looted from Jews in the Nazi era. But now the country is facing criticism for returning a painting too hastily—and to the wrong Jewish family.
Toning Down The Asian Stereotypes In ‘Nutcracker’
Marie’s tour with the Nutcracker Prince in Act II includes, of course, Spanish chocolate, Arabian coffee, and Chinese tea. New York City Ballet is one of several companies that has rethought how those dances — tea, in particular — play to American audiences in the 21st century. To wit: out go the Fu Manchu mustache and pointy fingers.
Two-Thirds Of A Billion Euros To Rebuild Berlin’s Natural History Museum
“The budget committee of the German parliament’s lower house has approved €330m — a sum to be matched by the city of Berlin — to finance a ten-year renovation and extension of Berlin’s Natural History Museum and create an online database of its collections. … The €660m exceeds the budget for rebuilding the city’s royal palace and creating the Humboldt Forum cultural district around it.”