The “(Old) New Atheists” – Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens – would say “Nothing.” A different group – call them “the New New Atheists” – beg to differ. Alain de Botton, Karen Armstrong, Francis Spufford, Jim Al-Khalili and Richard Holloway weigh in.
Tag: 03.27.13
Indie Dance Company In Minnesota Makes Change Through Allegory
“The power of dance is that it tells stories that are not realistically told,” says Chatterjea. “It suddenly clears a space where many peoples’ minds can meet, and some deep aspects of humanity are suddenly revealed to you. To me that’s the power of dance. It’s metaphor; it’s physical immediacy.”
Belarus Free Theatre Campaigns Against Capital Punishment – In English
This summer in London and Edinburgh, the 21st century’s most famous refusenik theatre company is presenting its first production in a foreign (to them) language – Trash Cuisine, which argues that the execution of criminals by the state just fosters more violence in the wider culture.
Now Arts Orgs Can Hit People Up For Money Via Cell Phone
“The [UK] scheme, called Donate, encourages people to give money to arts groups via a mobile phone or tablet device. To start it off, 11 institutions have signed up … The idea is that people will be so cheered by what they have seen – whether a play or an exhibition – that they will feel moved to donate electronically, perhaps as little as £3.”
Shia LaBeouf Cheers For The Show He Was Fired From
The actor, “who was fired from the Broadway play Orphans last month after clashing with the director, Daniel Sullivan, and his co-star Alec Baldwin, attended the first preview performance of the play … sitting in the first row on the aisle and leaping to his feet before any other audience member to give a standing ovation at the end.”
Put A Bully On It (Or At Least In The Title Somewhere)
‘The intention is service, to help the teachers and librarians who are looking for resources,” one marketer said. “At the same time it is definitely an opportunity for us to gather sales because it is such a hot topic.”
Tilda Swinton At MoMA? Oh, Yawn
“The piece as it has been presented does invite snickering. Conceptual art has been around long enough that even non-experts will now recognize certain tropes or motifs. Sitting in a glass box in an art gallery is one of them.”
Next Up At Netflix: The Wachowskis (And Another Genre)
“Netflix has done political thriller (‘House of Cards’), horror (the upcoming ‘Hemlock Grove’) and comedy (the upcoming resurrection of ‘Arrested Development’), so it makes sense that science fiction is next on its development slate.”
Poetry Magazine Editor Wins Needed Funds By Writing, Yes, A Poem
“I’ve never even won a raffle. I don’t go in for competitions – the only other time I did was decades back, when I got runner-up,” she said. “But I’m really down on my finances – I edit Agenda, and was really struggling, and thought this was probably better than a gamble on the horses.”
Drawing All Of The Buildings In New York
“Maybe it’s not necessary to do every single brownstone in Park Slope or every single building in Alphabet City. But they’re not all exactly the same. That’s what I love about brownstones. You look at them closely, and the cornices are different, or maybe the way the steps come up to the doors is different. That’s what makes drawing different from Instagram.”