“Given his devotion to empirical fact, it seems odd to think that Galileo’s most important ideas might have their roots not in the real world, but in a fictional one. If Galileo hadn’t given himself over to the “triumph of artifice and imagination” of the poetry he loved, he would never have achieved the insights that shaped the Scientific Revolution, and by extension the modern world.”
Tag: 01.09.11
Germaine Greer: Sydney Opera House Is So Much Less Than A Gehry Building
“The Sydney Opera House may be one of the best known structures in the world, but it is also a worse building than anything Gehry would want to put his name to.”
The Best New York Building?
“Like other kinds of art, great buildings contradict everything else. They make us think. They start conversations, so people talk about what it means to fit in, what it means to have courage. It’s okay for some buildings not to work.”
Theatre Luminaries Gather to Pick Best Musical Of All Time
“That’s why the musical could only have been born here: New York is all these little countries sharing a city. All the different rhythms of those different communities is what made the American musical possible.”
Malangatana Ngwenya, 74, Mozambique’s Top Artist
“[A] beloved national hero in Mozambique, [he] was one of the few African artists to gain substantial worldwide recognition while staying in Africa … He had cosmopolitan tastes; his knowledge of global art was wide; and he was a born performer who composed music, sang songs in five languages and periodically broke into spontaneous dancing.”
Wicked: The TV Miniseries (Brought to You by Salma Hayek)
“ABC is getting back into the miniseries business, partnering with Salma Hayek to develop a new take on Wicked. Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) is writing the script; aim is to turn the book that inspired the long-running Broadway tuner into an eight-hour miniseries.”
Scholar Claims To Have Pinpointed Town Featured In Leonardo’s Mona Lisa
“A small town in northern Italy is basking in new-found celebrity after an Italian art historian claimed it featured in the background of the world’s most famous painting – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.”
Peter Maxwell Davies: Too Many Conductors Are Lazy
“Today too many conductors are just churning out production line performances. They are doing far too many concerts. Maybe it is to do with the money.”
Canadian Actor Peter Donaldson, 58
“Donaldson, known to television audiences as Ian Bowles on the series Emily of New Moon and Reverend Leonard on Road to Avonlea, was an in-demand talent with a strong masculine stage presence who continued to act steadily in Toronto and Stratford, Ont. even as he waged a battle against cancer over the last two years.”
Huge Audiences Turn Out For Jazz
“There is an audience for jazz, you know. Off the books, it’s bigger than you think. Sometimes the culture around it feels spread out and invisible, like pollen in the air.”