“Arts Council England is to take over key responsibilities from the [abolished] Museums, Libraries and Archives Council but will only get 75% of its budget, it was announced today.”
Tag: 12.09.10
The Playwright’s Play About Quitting Theater (Performed in His Living Room)
When seeing Our Town brought him exactly no solace over the death of his father, Ed Schmidt had a revelation: “If great theater is no use to him in a moment of crisis, then it’s not worth spending his life trying to create it.”
Architecture’s Godfather of Postmodernism, James Frazer Stirling
Ada Louise Huxtable: “He was, in a sense, the anti-LeCorbusier, or the anti-Mies, looking for ways to recapture some of the things swept away by the modernists’ messianic zeal – connections to history, place and the environment. What we build, he believed, ‘should not be disassociated from the cultural past’.”
Rehabilitating Benjamin Britten
“Mauled by prurient biographers and television documentarists, the most successful composer of operas in the English language stands accused of paedophilia, pro-Sovietism and disloyalty to friends … Yet his midlife letters … reveal quite a different man” – warm, supportive and often gracious.
Paris Man Sues Met Museum Over Cezanne
“A Paris engineer is suing New York’s Metropolitan Museum over a Paul Cézanne painting he says was stolen from his great-grandfather in Russia. Pierre Konowaloff says the art collection owned by his great-grandfather, Ivan Morozov, was seized on Lenin’s orders in 1918 during the Russian Revolution.”
Tango Catches On in the Middle East
“Over the past two years, tango dancing has become increasingly popular in the Middle East, from Syria to Turkey to the United Arab Emirates. … Milongas, or tango dance parties, take place in restaurants and hotels almost every night of the week in main cities.”
Texas Film Commission Refuses to Pay Promised Incentives (They’re Totally Insulted)
“[Robert] De Niro’s portrayal of the fictional Sen. John McLaughlin in Machete … has apparently made some folks in Austin upset. The Texas Film Commission says it will refuse to pay $1.75 million in state incentives to the movie’s producers citing a state law that allows the state to refuse to pay incentives for ‘content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion’.”
Hungary Auctions Off Communist Kitsch
“More than 20 years after the collapse of communism here, Hungary’s government is holding a vast rummage sale, auctioning off socialist-era paintings, sculptures and photographs that have been gathering dust in storage.”
To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain, Try Imagining Stuffing Yourself
“[If] you want to fend off the flab, pushing thoughts of mince pies out of your mind might be counterproductive: indulging thoughts of eating a particular food may help us to eat less of the real thing.”
There Are Sing-Along Messiahs, So Why Not a Dance-Along Nutcracker?
At the annual holiday show of the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, “the audience straps on tutus and storms the dance floor. Imagine a ballerina’s mosh-pit with tinsel wands and street shoes, and you’ve got the right idea.”