“Pavillon Notre-Dame would replicate the exact dimensions of the nave of the cathedral so that it feels familiar. The roof would be made from Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (EFTEC) cushions, a lightweight plastic membrane, and the walls from translucent polycarbonate panels.” – dezeen
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The Invention Of Money Changed Everything About How The World Works
“Paper money, backed by the authority of the state, was an astonishing innovation, one that reshaped the world. That’s hard to remember: we grow used to the ways we pay our bills and are paid for our work, to the dance of numbers in our bank balances and credit-card statements. It’s only at moments when the system buckles that we start to wonder why these things are worth what they seem to be worth.” – The New Yorker
PT Barnum, The Great Con (And He Considered Running For President)
Barnum’s peculiar gift lay in his relationship to his audience. Better than anyone who’d come before, the Prince of Humbugs understood that the public was willing—even eager—to be conned, provided there was enough entertainment to be had in the process. – The New Yorker
New Professional Company Will Tour Shakespeare Around Asia
Says producer Jamie Hendry, founder of the New English Shakespeare Company, “There’s an appetite for this. Audiences are being developed in a lot of cities around the world. We are focusing on the Middle East, Asia and South East Asia, and they are all beginning to become accustomed to NT Live and the big musicals. So to be able to provide some drama and something they would not receive otherwise is a fantastic challenge.” – The Stage
A Libertarian Think Tank Produces An Art Show, Hoping To Win Converts
The underlying theme of “Freedom: Art as the Messenger” was that a natural alignment exists between artistic and libertarian priorities, attitudes and approaches to the world. Artists were entrepreneurs, working independently to create something of their own free will and bringing it to the market where someone else was free to decide what they thought it was worth—a pure form of free trade in which government had no business or purpose. – The Baffler
Oakland’s Beloved Green Monster, Once Faded, Is Now Better (And Greener) Than Ever
The Mid-Century Monster, a children’s play structure created in 1952 by artist Robert Winston for the shores of the city’s Lake Merritt, had by 2015 become “a washed-up husk. Its chartreuse color had faded to a drab white. Several of its knobbly concrete limbs had begun to crack. … But this year, after a long restoration project, the monster has finally been let out of its cage.” – Atlas Obscura
What If Time Really Doesn’t Have A Direction?
We think that the way things are now depends on how they were in the past, but not on how they are in the future; we think of the laws of nature as telling the Universe how to evolve from earlier to later, and not later to earlier. And so on. – Aeon
Taking Over From Ohad Naharin At Batsheva Dance Company Is A Huge Challenge. Here’s The Woman Who Took It On
Gili Navot, who has been leading the company since last September: “For the past 30 years, Ohad was artistic director and choreographer, and this is the first time there was a separation between the two. … Over the course of the season we were able to go through a process in which he learned to let go and I learned to take. There was something harmonious about it and it is still happening and taking shape, but somehow it is clear.” – Haaretz (Israel)
Is It Time For Marin Alsop To Speak Up In Baltimore Symphony Plight? (And Would It Help?)
True, music directors don’t usually get involved in labor disputes. Also true is the severity of the money crisis, and the unlikeliness of Alsop being able to help with that. But Baltimore music critic Tim Smith writes that if anyone has the stature and the right to say enough is enough, it’s Alsop. – Tim Smith
How Far Ahead Of Her Time Was Ida Lupino? This Far
“In between Not Wanted [about unwed mothers] and Outrage [about a rape victim], Lupino had directed Never Fear, a movie depicting people surviving polio, which Lupino had contracted herself in the 1930s. If I told you even one of those movies had been made in the late ’40s or early ’50s you would probably be doubtful. That one woman was instrumental in bringing all three into existence is an astounding achievement.” – 3 Quarks Daily