“Christmas isn’t a national holiday in Japan … yet a bucket of ‘Christmas Chicken’ (the next best thing to turkey – a meat you can’t find anywhere in Japan) is the go-to meal on the big day. And it’s all thanks to the insanely successful ‘Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!’ (Kentucky for Christmas!) marketing campaign in 1974.”
Tag: 12.14.12
One More Time: Why The Nobel Committee Made A Terrible Choice
“Mo’s comments were still unforgivable because behind his stance on censorship lies a commitment to collective cultural amnesia. Beyond the perpetual balancing act of state collaboration that China’s artists play, Mo’s position betrays a suffocating sickness in China’s literary scene.”
Yayoi Kusama Also Leaves The Gagosian
Damien Hirst isn’t the only dot-making artist leaving the gallery.
Want To See Almost Any Publicly Owned Oil Painting In The UK?
Now you can – but not just from museums: “Art held by police stations, zoos, hospitals and a lighthouse have also been included.”
The Torture Debate: Not Over, Says Zero Dark Thirty
“Zero Dark Thirty appears to make a case for the Bush administration’s use of ‘enhanced interrogation tactics’ to extract vital information from terrorists.”
Visiting Writers’ Houses (From The Comfort Of Your Couch)
“Whether seen in person or in a photograph, the effect of viewing any revered author’s home is similar: histories once subject to biographers’ caprice take on the irrefutable weight of physical reality.”
Penelope Wilton And The Show That Made Her Famous
On sitcoms: “It’s very nerve-racking. You rehearse very nicely all week, and then on Sunday night when you do a recording you have a car crash.”
Happy Jubilee, Queen! Here Are Some Extremely Interesting Works Of Art
“In 2012 there is no sense of dutiful deference.”
Who Trained Gollum For The Hobbit? This Theatre Professor
Sarah Shippobotham worked with the actors who needed to speak in Orcish: “I love the ugliness of it. You have to be careful to not go too Russian because it had a sort of Russian feel, but the ‘L’ wasn’t as dark, like Russian. I was always thrilled when there was an Orcish scene.”
Stop With The Cameras In Traumatized Kids’ Faces
“It was arresting. It was heartbreaking. And it was rash, unnecessary and wrong. There is no good journalistic reason to put a child at a mass-murder scene on live TV, permission of the parents or not. There’s not even a bad-but-practical reason to do it.”