“The Kafka that many of us read for the first time was in part a construction of Edwin and Willa Muir. Readers on the whole worry little about it, being grateful for access to foreign goods. Nevertheless, I often wonder what people mean when they say they like the way that, for example, Haruki Murakami writes. Or Pasternak.”
Tag: 06.12.11
Practicing Serenity: Nikolaj Hubbe At The Helm Of The Royal Danish Ballet
“Being at the helm of such an institution is like being at the helm of an ocean liner – it doesn’t turn on a dime. Since 1994 there have been six artistic directors including Mr. Hübbe, who has found it necessary to temper his naturally audacious streak with something a little more serene.”
A New Kind Of Conductor-Less Orchestra
Tom Service: “Spira Mirabilis represent a transformative vision of what a symphony orchestra can be. They are a revelation, proof that musicians can not only survive but prosper when liberated from the variously benign or malevolent dictatorships created by the world’s conductors.”
What Show Could Be Even Bigger And More Complex Than Spider-Man? Cirque Du Soleil, Of Course
Just as the tempest-tossed Spider-Man is set to formally open on Broadway, Zarkana, Cirque’s “own high-flying blend of circus and rock opera,” begins a four-month run at Radio City Music Hall. Both shows feature “a character soaring over the audience, a hard-driving rock score, a villainous spider lady and gravity-defying acrobats.”
Novelist Terry Pratchett Begins Process Of Assisted Suicide
“Sir Terry Pratchett, the fantasy writer who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008, said yesterday he had started the formal process that could lead to his own assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.” He says he has received the consent forms: “The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish.”
Street Artists At Work In Kabul
There’s “a small band of graffiti artists in the Afghan capital who, encouraged by a group of western ‘art activists’, are set on bringing tagging, wall-painting and graphic stencils to public spaces across the city. … ‘The idea is to make people ask questions’,” says one street artist.
Rene Magritte, Art Forger
“One is an original. The other, evidently, a copy. But René Magritte was a Surrealist, and the truth behind The Flavour of Tears suggests he was enjoying a huge – and probably lucrative – joke” by forging and selling his own painting. (But then, he had “made a living during the Nazi occupation of Belgium by forging Picassos and Renoirs.”)
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Is Remaking Itself
“Like a new owner in an old home, chief curator Michael Darling is overseeing a philosophical gut rehab whose ultimate goal is clarity. … By [next month], every last corner of the building … will have been re-imagined, perhaps for the first time in its 15-year history, with the museum’s permanent collection in mind.”
The Bright Indian Summer Of Errol Morris
“At the age of 63, and with an Academy Award in his pocket for The Fog of War, America’s most obsessive nonfiction filmmaker … has found himself at a peak of activity, with a new documentary coming out next month, a feature film in the works, and … most notably – after 40 long years of writer’s block – Morris has suddenly become a prolific writer.”
Dehortations (Also Known As ‘Neverisms’)
“Never send a boy to do a man’s job.” “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story” “Never look on the bright side; the glare is blinding.” The “dedicated quotation-collector” Mardy Grothe defines these maxims as “dehortations: statements intended to advise against a particular thing or action.”