“Nearby our camp was a cave high up in the mountainside – if one squinted one could see the malevolent glint of a TV screen in the cave mouth. This is the infamous Cursed TV of Paro – a family bought it when television was first introduced to Bhutan in 1999, but within months of the purchase half the family members had died. They sold it to another family … “
Tag: 06.10.10
You Think Punk Is Authentic And Real? F*** That
“Punk is, after all, more than 40 years old. The half-shaved, dyed-black hairdo; mesh tank top; and leather wristbands of the heroin-chic character St. Jimmy is already a historical costume. … The function of theater is to exaggerate life. … Nothing is real in the theater; there is only commentary. And fabulous outfits. Funnily, this is also the function of punk. Including the outfits.”
A Pop Critic And Theatre Critic Debate The New Musical Theatre
“I think the Broadway musical is trying to figure out how to be new in the face of enormous financial pressures. I’m encouraged by the diversity of influences on theater music, but I worry that the holy of all holies — marketing — is dictating the offerings.”
The Yellow Light Conundrum
“What dictates whether a driver hits the brakes at a yellow light or races through it?” A new study identifies the factors.
Former Evening Standard Editor (Finally) Gets London Arts Chief Job
“[London mayor] Boris Johnson has announced that Veronica Wadley is to be the next London chair at Arts Council England. The appointment … [ends] one of the most hotly contested arts administration tussles in recent times.” Johnson tried to name Wadley to the post two years ago, but the appointment was vetoed by the national Labour government then in power.
‘The Biggest Public Artwork In The World’, Part I: Anish Kapoor’s Temenos
“The gently twisted take on a vast butterfly net is the first of five interlinked giants of Teesside which will lay claim, on completion in the next decade, to being the biggest public artwork in the world.”
There’s An Opera Company That’s Growing? In This Economy? Yes, In Long Beach
The plucky, innovative Long Beach Opera “is ending its 2010 season with a double splash. The company, which is staging Ricky Ian Gordon’s swimming pool-based [sic] Orpheus and Euridice this weekend, is also finishing in the black – with a 35% increase in subscribers.”
Barack Obama To Write Foreword To Nelson Mandela’s Diaries
The two Nobel laureates “will join forces … to mount an assault on autumn’s bestseller charts with the publication of the former South African president’s private journals.”
Tonys Are Getting Bigger, Literally
“The Tony Award statuette – a medallion mounted on a black pedestal with a curved armature – has gotten taller and heavier in advance of Sunday night’s ceremony at Radio City Music Hall. It now stands at five inches tall, up from three and 1/4 inches, and weighs three-and-a-half pounds, a two-pound gain.”
Why Aren’t Today’s Women Choreographers As Angry As Martha?
Wendy Perron: “Any way you slice it, the source of Graham’s theatrical fury is a source for contemplation … and for wondering, Where is that energy today? What female choreographer will bring us that kind of vehemence?”