“It’s conceivable that some criminal organization or people might be wishy-washy about the $5 million. But it’s not conceivable that they’re feeling the same way about the $10 million.”
Blog
Why Today’s College Campuses Are Looking More Like Hogwarts
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first book in the series, was published in 1997. The film version of that novel appeared in 2001. This year’s crop of college freshmen was born between those two cultural milestones, which means a huge number grew up reading the Potter books or watching the movies or both. Many of them have an expectation (or perhaps a hope) that going off to college means going off to a campus that resembles the Hollywood version of Hogwarts, full of peaked roofs, gargoyles, stone floors, stained glass and huge dining halls warmed by multiple fireplaces.
The Role Of Theatre In Fraught Political Times
“Theater artists who really want to make a difference might be advised to break free from the constant stream of infuriating updates belching from their phones. It’s not that the stage should turn a blind eye to the latest outrages. Indeed, for too long American drama seemed blithely detached from the economic conditions radically transforming our national life. Yet playwrights have more pressing business than keeping up with the news crawl.”
If Our Artists Can’t Speak To The Powerful, Then?
Sarah Ruhl: “In dictatorships, the artists are often the first to go. Or maybe they are the third to go, after the press and the intellectuals. The refusal of the president to celebrate them is a chilling and clear departure from American values. Perhaps the Trumps didn’t want to compete with the Obamas, who at the 2016 Kennedy Center awards received the longest standing ovation of the evening.”
Expert Calls For Destruction Of “Hundreds” Of Fake Modiglianis
Marc Restellini says that French museums have legitimized fake artworks by showing them, and that these museums have profited from the deception.
Meet Amadeo. He’s The Last To Speak His Amazonian Language
“The entire fate of the Taushiro people now lies with its last speaker, a person who never expected such a burden and has spent much of his life overwhelmed by it.”
A Homeless Symphony
“There are about fifty-eight thousand homeless people in Los Angeles County. To walk through the streets of Skid Row to the Midnight Mission is to feel shame for the state of the city and the state of the country. Block after block, the sidewalks are crammed with tents, boxes, broken furniture, and shopping carts full of possessions. To enter the mission, you have to step over people in sleeping bags. It is, however, a different experience to visit the Midnight Mission with Vijay Gupta, an L.A. Phil violinist, who, in 2011, founded Street Symphony. He greets both residents and staff with smiles, handshakes, banter, and an explosive laugh.”
One Week Of Made For TV Christmas Specials Is A Special Kind Of Joy, Or Maybe Torture
Basically: “These aren’t just Christmas movies: They’re like Kay Jewelers commercials on steroids; movie-length advertisements for small-town America, capitalism and twinkle lights.”
How Atlanta’s High Museum Diversified Its Audience
Over the past two years, the museum’s nonwhite audience has tripled, from 15 percent to 45 percent. Now, its visitors more closely—although not exactly—mirror the population of the Atlanta metro area, of which 51 percent are people of color.
The Colorblind Artist
Children’s book illustrator Loren Long, whose mother told him immediately after he learned he was colorblind that he should still pursue the art he loved: “In general, I can’t tell the difference between the many shades of brown and green or blue and purple. They’re very similar to me. Light blue and lavender look the same, and tan and pale green are almost impossible to tell apart. My living room is a shade of gray, but if my wife had told me it was green I would have taken her word all these years.”