The backer of a British tour of Jerry Springer The Opera says he may pull out. The backer, who was to have provided 40% of the funding for the tour, was targeted by Christian Voice, an evangelical group that has condemned the musical — based on the American television show — as “filthy and blasphemous”.
Tag: 02.27.05
Did Drugs And Alcohol Kill Hunter Thompson’s Talent?
“His greatest period of creativity certainly commences with Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, written in 1972. The Great Shark Hunt, published in 1979, contains his last work of any merit. The 11 books Thompson published in the next 25 years were a patchwork of half-finished columns and poorly researched articles, the occasional flashes of brilliant prose serving only to illuminate his lack of coherent thought and the ever-dimming light of his genius. As he retreated from the front line of journalism, he became a freak show on the corner of American pop culture. The books kept getting smaller. The print kept getting bigger.”
Hemingway House To Become Museum
Ernest Hemingway’s house in Idaho will stay where it is and become a museum. “The board of The Nature Conservancy’s Idaho chapter voted Friday to move ahead with a plan to turn the 13-acre property near Sun Valley into a literary library and museum. The Nobel Prize-winning author fatally shot himself at the home in 1961. Neighbors had agreed to pay market value for the property — which could fetch an estimated $5 million — on the condition the house be moved. Neighbors fear the nonprofit group’s plans will disrupt the residential character of the upscale Ketchum community.”
Depicting Rwanda’s Massacres – Documenting, Or Apalling Atrocity Tourism?
“The massacres in Rwanda were real enough and there are, at present, no shortage of artists – film directors, novelists, script writers – engaged in the complicated process of trying to imagine exactly what happened over those 100 days in 1994, in all its desolating detail, and then recasting it in fiction. What is one to make of all this western interest in the unhappy central African state? Is there not something indecent in the haste with which non-African film-makers are competing with each other to be first with the cinematic news about the events of 1994? Is there not an element of atrocity tourism at work here – as well as a kind of stylised poetics of misery?”
Trustees To Vote On Cleveland Expansion
One week from now, the board members of the Cleveland Museum of Art have a huge decision to make: should they commit to a $225 million expansion and renovation of their building, as designed by architect Rafael Vinoly? The advantages of such a project are obvious, but the complications for the museum could be myriad. The city of Cleveland is fighting decades of decline and is currently in a deep financial hole, limiting available civic funds for the museum project. Board members have already raised some money for the expansion, but there are questions about whether they have the connections necessary to raise the rest. Still, there’s little question that Vinoly’s design, if realized, would be a huge boon to the institution, and that may trump all other concerns.
The Lucky Few
Getting a first book published is a monumental undertaking for most authors, particularly if their tome is not a new-age self-help book or a shrill political diatribe. So for those writers who manage to get a publisher interested in their work and make it to press, the anticipation of publication is a heavy time, and every wannabe’s road to success is unique.
How The Age Of Reason Begat A Simmering Backlash
It seems clear that one of the hallmarks of the 21st century American mind will be the increasingly popular devotion to blind faith over intellectual pursuit. Call it the Age of Unreason: “If Americans are flocking to religious faith, to revealed dogma, to creationism, to a place where no one pays any heed to a logic based on if x then y, it’s because reason gave us a world that hardly makes sense anymore… Face it: People want Truth and Beauty. They want to be touched. They want mystery, because without it, life would be dreary indeed.”
Curtis Institute At A Crossroads
Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute may be the most exclusive music school in the world. “Curtis has thrived under the smiling and benevolent leadership of Gary Graffman, who, himself a Curtis graduate (he entered the school at age 7) and major-career pianist, restored order to a turbulent institution after he took over in 1986. Now, Graffman has announced his intention to step down, and despite his strong leadership, the school will soon have to undertake enormous change if it wants to protect its much-envied traditions.”
Form & Function, Together At Last
How do you get a community to embrace the construction of a water treatment plant in its backyard? Hire a really good architect, and build the coolest-looking water treatment plant ever. “From New Haven to Hiroshima, architects best known for signature museums and concert halls are now designing buildings filled with tanks and filters… Why shout ‘Not in my backyard!’ if your backyard can be made to resemble a sculpture garden?”
Perhaps Some Directors Are Going Through Mid-Life Crises?
Broadway seasons tend to have an overall feel to them, a theme through which various disparate productions can be linked. This season, the common thread seems to be men behaving like perfect louts. “A look around town suggests that male dysfunction is providing much of the dramatic grist in the current season. By any fair count, there are a lot more than 12 angry men working the stages of Manhattan.”