Today’s fun-to-argue-over listicle features a mix of famous and lesser-known title, no Disney productions, and at least one film that, while it’s wonderfully executed and a total blast, isn’t what one would call pretty.
Tag: 10.02.16
Michael Clark Has Become Part Of The Dance Establishment (Imagine That!)
“Despite his reputation as a punkish provocateur and iconoclast as well as his own self-destructive behaviour, the Michael Clark Dance Company is now 32 years old, an achievement that, one senses, surprises its founder as much as the rest of us.” And he himself has a CBE.
Once They Thought It Was A $25 Copy – Now They Think It’s A $25 Million Raphael
“The painting, a Madonna composition, had been obscured by discoloured varnish and was attributed to a minor hand. Its potential as a work of one of the giants of art history, as revered as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, was initially spotted by the historian Bendor Grosvenor.”
Groups Are Smarter Than Individuals. But Groups Are Stupider Too. So How Do You Get Smart Groups?
“Over the past decade, study after study has attempted to decipher and bottle the qualities of the ‘smart group’. Just as psychologists have tried to uncover the ‘g’ factor responsible for an individual’s general intelligence, they’re digging into the ‘c’ factor – the secret sauce of collective intelligence. And most importantly, we want to know how to bring that ‘c’ factor to all our collaborative work, whether that’s in the boardroom, the classroom, the lab, backstage, the woods or even in space.”
For Some Reason, We’re Still Obsessed With Mid-Century Design. Why?
“Art Nouveau, 1920s Spanish and shabby chic were all looks that the cognoscenti embraced at one time or another, but never for this long. It’s as if the mechanism that refreshes cultural trends every few years has developed a glitch.”
Norman Lebrecht: Remembering Neville Marriner
“He loved orchestras, couldn’t get enough of their gossip and intrigues while always respecting the players’ craft and commitment and never indulging in malice. Those who fell out with him – Christopher Hogwood, for instance – found themselves embraced in reconciliation. So many musicians, down in the dumps, were picked up and set on their feet again by the ever-patient Neville.”
Remembering Neville Marriner
Mr. Marriner and his group were part of a huge revival of scholarly and popular interest in music of the 18th and early 19th centuries that began in the 1960s and has continued to this day. Washington Post arts critic Philip Kennicott once described the original appeal of the St. Martin’s performances and its interpretation of classics. “The Academy played them like chamber music,” he wrote in 2001, “with reduced forces and an emphasis on clarity; it also played them fast, which produced a broad architectural overview. This was revelatory in an age when conductors often got bogged down milking each phrase for its maximum romantic yield.”
Looks Like Publishing Powerhouse Gannett Is About To Buy The LA Times And Chicago Tribune
“Confidential sources have told POLITICO that asset purchase agreement drafts have been exchanged by Gannett, the country’s second-largest newspaper chain and publisher of USA Today, and Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing and the publisher of such broadsheet mainstays as The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun. The announcement of a deal could come as soon as business opens on the fourth quarter of the year, as early as Monday morning.”
A Cartoonist Who Used Kickstarter To Document The Lives Of Refugees In The Middle East
“Even as her friends hunted down compelling stories – here was a group of refugees living in one of Saddam’s former prisons; there was a supposedly innocent man who’d been deported from America after his name appeared in the 9/11 commission report – they always had to keep one eye pragmatically, even ruthlessly, on what might go down well at home.”
Online Reaction To The Italian Journalist Who ‘Investigated’ The (Possibly) Real Name Of Elena Ferrante Is Fierce
“Readers called the alleged scoop an intrusion into the life of one of the world’s most influential female writers. Some were afraid it would stop Ferrante from ever writing again, saying the story had been driven by the ego of the reporter and the New York Review of Books.” (The alleged author is identified in this article as well.)