“[W]hen it comes to his female characters, it’s as though Lee can’t decide whether to worship them or punish them. […] Lee’s latent misogyny stings because, from the very beginning, his was the voice of the black hipster intellectual … You expect a little more enlightenment from him than you would from, say, Ice Cube or from Tyler Perry with his scheming evil buppies.”
Tag: 06.24.09
Down With The Michelin Guide!
A growing number of France’s gastronomes think that the once-all-powerful guide has “become a dead weight for French cuisine. It discouraged creativity, demanded a level of opulence that made fine dining appealing and accessible only to rich fogeys, and was unacceptably opaque about its reviewing methods.”
New Exhibition Space Opens In Times Square
“New York City has a new exposition center that will primarily launch large-scale, experiential exhibitions. The Discovery Times Square Exposition opens this week with two blockbuster shows. One recounts the poignant story of the Titanic and the other the discovery of the 3.2 million-year-old fossil known as Lucy.”
Hollywood’s Next Big Thing: Board-Game Adaptations
“It might seem like trying to turn board games into event movies is the height of creative laziness. Actually, Land of the Lost is the height of creative laziness. But there might be some rationality to the board game idea.”
UK Film-Rating Board Tightens Rules On Language, Sex
“Rachel from Friends, as seemingly inoffensive as any sitcom character can be, has cost the latest box set of the series a PG rating under new, tighter age guidelines announced yesterday. … Although the [British Board of Film Classification] described the revised guidelines last night as ‘a tweak’, nonetheless they will subtly alter the nation’s viewing habits. They always do.”
Hidden Inside A Wall At The MFA, A Letter From The Past
“[O]n June 4, a laborer working on construction of the new American Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts knocked a hole in a wall and saw an envelope sticking out of the rubble.” It was “a typewritten note from 1926, a letter to the future from a long-ago laborer who helped build the wall.” A historian who directs the museum’s libraries and archives “has enlisted the help of history buffs, genealogists, and archivists – as well as the power of the Internet – to piece together his story.”
Filmgoers Shocked — Shocked! — When Judi Dench Swears
“Judi Dench is so loved by the UK’s filmgoing public that viewers are almost certain to make complaints whenever she swears on camera. The phenomenon was identified after the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) revealed in its annual report that a small number of viewers had complained about Dench’s foul mouth in the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.”
Second Banksy Mural Is Vandalized In Bristol
“A second mural in central Bristol by the graffiti artist Banksy has been defaced. The Mild Mild West, which depicts comic policemen and a bear, has been splattered with blue paint. On Monday, a picture painted on the side of a wall in the city’s Park Street was vandalised with blue paint splashes.”
Tate Britain Director Deuchar Leaving To Head Art Fund
“Stephen Deuchar is to become the new director of the Art Fund, the U.K. charity announced today. Deuchar, 52, is director of Tate Britain and chairman of the 2009 Turner Prize jury. He will take up his new post on Jan. 4, 2010, the Art Fund said in an e-mailed statement.”
London Impressionist Auction Sales Plummet 74 Percent
“A painting by Claude Monet and one by Pablo Picasso sold for 12.1 million pounds combined ($20 million) at Christie’s International in London last night as the auction market for Impressionist art contracted 74 percent. Christie’s 44-lot sale tallied 37.1 million pounds with fees, just above the low estimate of 36.85 million pounds, based on hammer prices.”