Laureline, the badass heroine of a 50-year-old French bande dessinée, has her roots partly in feminist texts including Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. “She was, from the start, a radically impressive figure who set the bar high for women in science fiction. No mere beautiful figure, Laureline has a piercing intellect, a near-indomitable pride in herself, an endearing but acid wit, and formidable fighting skills. And yet she resists being an archetype of female perfection.”
Blog
The Live Music Scene In Hong Kong Could Be Superb – If The Rules Didn’t Get In The Way
The regulations are a problem, stifling creative growth, but so is expensive real estate. “Hong Kong’s indie bands are forever searching for places to perform — a further indignity for working-class musicians and fans in a financial hub where the night life caters largely to people on corporate salaries..”
It’s Time To Rediscover The Greatness Of Mary McCarthy
Ignore Norman Mailer and his evaluation of McCarthy’s books. “This is a perfect moment, in terms of the progress of our political development as well as the sand through feminism’s hourglass, for the Library of America’s release of McCarthy’s complete fiction. The two volumes comprise a body of work that retains startling and unsettling relevance. “
Top AJBlogs Posts From The Weekend Of 07.09.17
Stop Talking: More on Deleting the Formal
On the day of the Comey hearing, we sat in a bar in Paris watching CNN. Lordy, that was a lot of talking. As if to balance that experience, we went to a piano … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-07-09
Other Matters: Mount Adams And The Moon
With the abeyance of certain physical annoyances, cycling is back in more or less full swing. Glorious weather makes it a pleasure to be on the road again, but only if the … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-07-09
Consistency within Variety
Jessica Lang Dance performs at Jacob’s Pillow July 5 through 9. Jammie Walker and members of Jessica Lang Dance in Lang’s Lyric Pieces. Photo: Christopher Duggan Jessica Lang graduated from the Juilliard School and danced … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-07-08
Followup: Gunnarsson Quartet Seen And Heard
Moments after I posted yesterday’s Riftides review of Fanny Gunnarsson’s Mirrors, I came across a video of the pianist and singer with her quartet performing a piece from the album. Again, the … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-07-07
Where Have All Of Ukraine’s Lenin Statues Gone?
Two years ago, the statues were banned by governmental decree. Since then, “some statues have been turned into public works of art, some have simply ended up in shop windows and one has even been remade into an effigy of Darth Vader.”
One Way To Fix Hollywood’s Pay Gap: Stop Paying Men More Than Women
Emma Stone: “In my career so far, I’ve needed my male co-stars to take a pay cut so that I may have parity with them. … And that’s something they do for me because they feel it’s what’s right and fair.”
What Do We Really Want From Amelia Earhart?
She’s not the hero of a fourth-grade report, but “her brazenness is bewitching at a remove, as are the mythical accomplishments of a demigod.”
Kansas City’s American Jazz Museum Has This Little Problem Of Being Too Identified With 18th And Vine
The city’s former mayor Emanuel Cleaver, during whose administration the museum was opened, says that the financially troubled museum – in a building owned by the city, with artifacts owned by the city, and with a third of its budget coming from the city – needs the entire city to view it as a point of pride. City Councilor Quentin Lucas: “When you look at the successful museums in Kansas City, those that have broader buy-in from a larger community are the ones that are successful.” But how to make that happen?
The Two ‘Brown Girls’ TV Shows Being Developed Say Something About Two Futures For The United States
“Americans are preparing for different eventualities. The president is promising a border wall, even as the nation’s biggest networks pour cash into Telemundo and Univision. This year and last, Atlanta and Insecure and Moonlight and Moana moved the spotlight away from white characters and writers, and eyes and hearts and wallets moved, too. … The nation’s heartbeat holds the quick pulses of those brown girls and black boys, and executives tried to match fare to that pace. Others, famously, could not keep up.”
In Paris, An Open-Air Concert, With The Musicians Playing From Balconies [VIDEO]
Composer Pierre Sauvageot’s piece “mixes building noises with classical tones” – and the residents, who also speak various words or phrases as part of the piece.