“His plays belong to the jazz age, full of the wit, sophistication and, some critics claim, shallowness of the roaring 1920s and decadent 1930s. … Now fans and producers say modern sensibilities are bringing a new appreciation to the full complexity of Coward’s work – often about sexual morality and society’s double standards – that was overlooked at the time.”
Tag: 09.19.10
Why Are Poets Using So Many Epigraphs?
“When T. S. Eliot quotes Dante and Heraclitus, it’s because Eliot wants to be seen as binding together thousands of years of Western culture. When a contemporary poet quotes the same authors, however, it’s more likely that he wants to be seen (whether he knows it or not) as T. S. Eliot.”
Ntozake Shange Back in the Spotlight
“Her feminist war cry of a play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, is [her] signature work, produced on Broadway in 1976 when she was in her 20s. Now 61, her speech and movements slowed by a series of minor strokes but her intensity undimmed, Ms. Shange is having another moment, or two, this fall.”
Bass Laszlo Polgar, 63
While he performed on most of the opera world’s great stages, in such classic basso parts as Mozart’s Sarastro, Verdi’s Philip II and Wagner’s Gurnemanz, Polgar was best known for the title role in Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, for which he shared a Grammy with Jessye Norman and Pierre Boulez.
India Teaches Literacy With Music Videos. Result: Literacy Rates Soar
“India’s public karaoke-for-literacy experiment is the only one of its kind in the world. Technically known as same-language subtitling, or SLS, it manages to reach 200 million viewers across 10 states every week. In the last nine years, functional literacy in areas with SLS access has more than doubled.”
When Great Writers Die, What Happens To Their Libraries?
“Most people might imagine that authors’ libraries matter–that scholars and readers should care what books authors read, what they thought about them, what they scribbled in the margins. But far more libraries get dispersed than saved.”
A Modern Dance Empire in San Francisco
“Were Winston Churchill to describe the ’empire’ of ODC/Dance-ODC Commons-ODC Theater, he would say ‘Never in the field of modern dance was so much done for so long by so few’.”
Baltimore Finally Honors Frank Zappa Properly
“Rocker Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore but gained greater popular acclaim in Europe than in the United States. On Sunday, devout European fans of the late musician brought his mustachioed likeness back home in the form of a bronze bust.”
The Nuts And Bolts Costs Of Buying Owning And Selling Art
“Many people don’t understand the intricacies involved with collecting art. The auction house premiums, the framing, the storage, the upkeep. First-time buyers are often shocked.”
Where Denver Is Lacking In The Arts
“Why doesn’t Denver measure up when it comes to giving to the the arts? Is it home to fewer big-muscle corporations and foundations? Is there less of a long-established tradition of arts philanthropy? Or do local arts organizations just not stack up?”