“[D]ozens of standups from around the world are in Edinburgh this year, here to perform comedy in a language – English – that is not their own. In this most verbal of artforms, one that’s intimately bound up with cultural references, identity and wordplay, can they possibly succeed?”
Tag: 08.17.10
France’s Newest Hot Young Novelist Is 15
Carmen Bramly’s debut novel, “Pastel Fauve, due out next week, is about a 14-year-old girl losing her virginity and the precocious young author began working on it at the same age.”
Creating a New Dance Festival, All by Himself
“Sion Irwin-Childs could write the book on multi-tasking. With an ambition verging on audacity he’s set out to fill a hole in Toronto’s summer dance calendar by producing a new festival called Dance 2 Danse. … ‘I’m an army of one,’ he says. ‘It’s the way I like it’.”
Why That Girl in the Bar Looks Hotter After You’ve Had Five Beers
“Everyone looks better after you’ve tipped back a pint or two, and now we may know why. It turns out that alcohol dulls our ability to recognize cockeyed, asymmetrical faces, according to researchers.”
The Great Moral Questions, Now Available for Xbox and Wii
“In the past, videogames have often been blood-thirsty and amoral, but a new generation of popular games are asking players to consider the moral consequences of their actions.”
Finally – Cell Phones For Deaf People
“Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a system that helps deaf and hearing-challenged users communicate using video chat efficiently and at low cost over 3G networks. With video chat, they can use American Sign Language, just as they do in face-to-face conversations.”
Kurt Vonnegut Museum Planned For Indianapolis
“Part library and part museum, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Vonnegut’s hometown will chronicle his life and his long literary career. Museum founder Julia Whitehead says it will include a replica of his writing studio, an art gallery featuring Vonnegut’s distinctive line drawings and a gift shop.”
What’s With all The Architect-Bashing?
“Risk aversion has become the rule, however, in part because bashing big-name innovators is in style. I.M. Pei and other celebrity architects are frequent whipping boys. America’s prowess in design and construction has eroded.”
Patricia Neal – On Screen, She Wasn’t Like Other Girls
“Look at her at 35 years old in 1961’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s, playing a married decorator who’s keeping the young writer Paul Varjak: Neal was only two years older than George Peppard, and three years older than her other co-star, Audrey Hepburn. Yet she seems a lifetime more knowing and seasoned than either one.”
Lost BBC Anna Karenina With Connery and Bloom Resurfaces
The 1961 adaptation, with Claire Bloom in the title role and Sean Connery as Vronsky, had been broadcast only once and was thought to have been destroyed.