“Did you know that our brain function is entirely different when we think about our own honesty versus when we think about another’s honesty? That’s if the ‘we’ is American. For Chinese people their brains look identical when considering either.”
Tag: 11.27.10
What Went Awry With Peter Mark at Virginia Opera
Virtually everyone asked praises Mark’s achievements in founding the company and raising its standards and profile over 36 years. Yet some in the organization grew weary of what the board’s executive committee described in a letter as “Peter’s history of difficulties in working relations with staff, musicians and board leadership.”
A Born Theater Fan
“A performance of Jean Racine’s 1677 play Phaedra at Vienna’s prestigious Burgtheater was upstaged by real-life drama late Friday, when a theatre-goer gave birth in the foyer.”
Argh! Information Overload! (400 Years Ago)
“Human history is a long process of accumulating information, especially once writing made it possible to record texts and preserve them beyond the capacity of our memories. And if we look closely, we can find a striking parallel to our own time.”
Art Basel Miami – Up Significantly From Last Year
This year, galleries are back: Booth applications rose by 20% from last year. After robust fall auctions in New York, “we’re seeing people back in the market,” said Marc Spiegler, co-director of the Basel, Switzerland, fair and its sister event in Miami, now in its ninth year.
Louisville Orchestra Struggles to Make Payroll
“Amid new talk of a possible bankruptcy, and with major holiday concerts looming, musicians with The Louisville Orchestra will soon find out if they will still be paid for their work. … Robert Birman, the orchestra’s CEO, would not indicate whether players will receive their next paycheck on [Nov. 30] as planned.”
Tolstoy, The Man and the Myth – We Needed the Myth
In recent years, the common view of the author has mutated from the saintly image propagated by his secretary, Vladimir Chertkov – brilliant, slightly nutty, gentle and generous – into the more mixed portrait depicted in the diaries of Tolstoy’s monumentally put-upon wife. “But would Sofia’s understanding of her husband, as accurate a perception as it may be of the creative artist, have inspired peaceful revolutions in India and Alabama?”
Al-Qaeda’s New Details-Style Magazine
“The November special issue of Inspire, a slick new English-language Web magazine produced by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, aims to do more than report the news. It wants to make news, by inspiring young American Muslims to kill their neighbors.” Inspire is “calculated to appeal to American Muslims who grew up on glossy magazines like Details and GQ. It is also notable for its collegiate sense of humor.”
Writers, Beware the Lure of ‘Bore-geous’ Prose
Ayelet Waldman: “A ‘bore-geous’ novel is one that is packed with gorgeous, finely wrought descriptions of places and people … Bore-geousness happens when you are writing beautifully but pointlessly.”
Damascus Evolves Into an Art Market Hub
“Galleries with international ambitions have sprouted to recruit and exhibit local talents. Artists’ profiles have steadily surged, to say nothing of their prices. The only major restriction is that artists must be careful to avoid political subjects in this police state.”