“The stakes are so high to land some kind of a career, and the stature of a teacher is incredibly intimidating even if your teacher is respectful and kind. You are going to feel vulnerable because you want to play music after you graduate so badly, and most of the teachers at Curtis are celebrities.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
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Shoji Sadao, 92, Architect Who Realized Visions Of Buckminster Fuller And Isamu Noguchi
“Fuller was pursuing out-there ideas in design and architecture, and it often fell to Mr. Sadao to do the practical work of implementing them. … [He] filled a similar role with Noguchi, the acclaimed sculptor and landscape architect. He helped turn Noguchi’s concepts, whether for the Hart Plaza fountain in Detroit or the 400-acre Moerenuma Park in Sapporo, Japan, into reality.” – The New York Times
LACMA’s Fundraising For New Building Has Stalled
LACMA’s crumbling infrastructure is a genuine predicament. But weak philanthropy, a longtime but misleading L.A. stereotype, is not the reason the museum’s funding campaign has stalled. Instead, the weakness is in a poor idea that has met escalating costs. – Los Angeles Times
Why Wile E. Coyote Is A Great Mythic Protagonist
“The Road Runner … can run through paintings, or invisible brick walls, or across vast stretches of open sky. His pursuer cannot. Wile E. Coyote’s schemes and traps sometimes fall apart due to his own hubris, but like any Greek tragic hero, he’s doomed from the start. The universe has it out for him.” – Vulture
China Gives Surprise Endorsement For Greece’s Campaign To Get Parthenon Marbles Back
Xi Jinping’s support is just one measure of the growing affinity between the countries, underscored by a two-day visit during which their leaders signed 16 new agreements, and China committed millions more in investments in Greece. – The New York Times
Ballet Helps Veteran Recover From PTSD
“‘Keep your fingers straight and off the trigger. Do not point the rifle at anyone you do not intend to shoot.’ That’s Roman Baca, a U.S. marine and Iraq War veteran. But he’s not speaking to the company of soldiers he led during his tour as a sergeant in Fallujah, Iraq. Here, Baca is instructing a company of ballet dancers” in the documentary short Exit 12: Moved by War. (video) – The Atlantic
How Technology Has Changed How Comic Books Are Made
“I recall in the late ’80s, we were all so sure that every discipline of comics creation would switch over to being done with the aid of the personal computer. Well, 30 years later, people pencil and ink comics in relatively the same way that they have since the art form began. But the job of colorist and letterer has changed and been completely taken over by the computer.” – The New York Times
Should We Be Casting Only Disabled Young Actors As Tiny Tim In ‘A Christmas Carol’?
“Now, in an era in which authenticity and representation have become entertainment industry watchwords, the presenters of some of the many theatrical adaptations that are staged every winter are rethinking who gets to play this iconic role … In London, the casting call for the role made it clear: ‘Applicants without a disability will not be considered.’ In New York, the language was subtler: ‘Performers with disabilities are encouraged to audition.'” – The New York Times
Why Do We Even Need Fiction? Asks Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Why invent things when nature and life supply so many strange events? … Why bother proving a lie when truth needs no preface? I sometimes fear that all of humankind may sooner or later come to my conclusion: that reading fiction is a waste of time. But why should I be afraid? Just because I would personally be one of the victims? No, it’s not just that.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
The One-Sentence-1,000-Pages Novel Missed Out On The Booker, But It’s Won This Prize
Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport was an obvious choice for the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize, which honors “fiction at its most novel.” Jury chair Erica Wagner said, “In her gripping and hypnotic book, Ellmann remakes the novel and expands the reader’s idea of what is possible with the form.” (In a separate essay, fellow judge Anna Leszkiewicz writes about why Ducks, Newburyport is the winner.) – New Statesman