“What has gripped everyone’s attention is the exorbitant character of the anger Tea Party members express. Where do such anger and such passionate attachment to wildly fantastic beliefs come from?” J.M. Bernstein suggests that the rage, and the consequent willingness to believe things that aren’t true, arise from the place where the American myth of rugged self-sufficiency meets the shock and fury of a lover suddenly rejected.
Tag: 06.13.10
Five Choreographers And The Jerry Springer: The Opera Guy Do A Soft Shoe Revue
Richard Thomas – not the actor, but “the ingenious writer and composer best known for the scabrous comic phenomenon Jerry Springer: The Opera” – is working with five choreographers, including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Kate Prince and Stephen Mear, on a revue all about shoes. (Yes, Imelda Marcos makes an appearance.) Says Thomas, “It’s an essay in joy.”
Microsoft Uses Cirque Du Soleil To Roll Out New Video Game Technology
“On a blustery January morning, Michel Laprise found himself in a private conference room within Microsoft Corp.’s labyrinthine campus here, surrounded by 15 of the company’s sharpest analytical thinkers. Laprise started his presentation by dumping a pail full of sand on top of the conference table” and used only “three rocks, a small wooden elephant and a flashlight.”
Charleston To Fix Acoustics Of Spoleto USA’s Largest Venue
The Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, a 2,730-seat cavern that opened in 1968, has acoustics so poor that the Spoleto Festival USA won’t even sell seats in some sections. Beginning in August 2012, “the space will be rebuilt with a brand new seating arrangement that includes tiers of box seats. The number of seats in the house will be reduced to about 1,800, making the auditorium … more intimate.”
Why Emmys Should Nominate Series, Not Individual Writers
“The case for nominating programs as opposed to single episodes goes as follows: Comedies are generally gang-written. … For everyone but the chosen series, moreover, there’s really no nice way of saying what results like last year’s imply: The fourth-best episode of ‘Mad Men’ is more deserving than the best of ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Damages’ or ‘Big Love,’ to name a few.”
Boston Resistant To ‘One Book, One City’ Program
“Chicago has one. So do Malibu and San Diego, Denver and Poughkeepsie, Seattle and Philadelphia … a One Book, One City program, in which an entire community reads the same work and launches into a series of discussions, lectures, readings, and occasionally film screenings.” Yet “Boston, which has rested comfortably on its haute literary perch for ages, has never had one,” and nobody wants to take the lead in starting one.
A Great Big Art Park In Indianapolis Museum’s Backyard
The Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, opening next weekend, “is one of the largest in the United States and rare in its focus on temporary, site-specific commission. ‘We’re resisting this tendency in the last few decades to collect giant sculptures and then try to keep them forever outside,’ [the park’s curator] said. ‘These things have lives to live and at a certain point will be retired’.”
What Philadelphia Needs, And What Yannick Brings: Fun
David Patrick Stearns on Yannick Nézet-Séguin: “Has the Philadelphia Orchestra ever had a fun music director? … Levity has never been a priority in the serious world of classical music. We’re talking about a musical CEO here – and huge responsibilities to deliver world-class Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler. So here’s a conductor who appears on his Facebook page in a swim suit.” (Is he hot?)
No Nudity Allowed In iPad Version Of Graphic Novel Ulysses
“James Joyce’s Ulysses is one of the most famously banned books of the 20th century. But while the US legal system has basically given up on the regulation of sexually explicit literature, … the creators of Ulysses Seen, a Web-comic adaptation of Joyce’s masterwork, had to remove nudity from its pages in order to win Apple’s approval to sell the work to iPad owners.”
Aussie Gov’t Says Retirement Funds Should Not Invest In Art; Artists Object
An Australian government report has concluded that “art is a collectable and should not be counted as an investment that boost[s] retirement savings. … If implemented, the estimated $100 million [Aus] invested in art by self-managed [pension] funds each year would be lost.” Artists, dealers and auction houses are reportedly “quite outraged.”