"From the American Revolution until the late 20th century, the American elite was divided among regional oligarchies. It is only in the last generation that these regional patriciates have been absorbed into a single, increasingly homogeneous national oligarchy, with the same accent, manners, values, and educational backgrounds from Boston to Austin and San Francisco to New York and Atlanta....
"The pandemic will have caused frustration to students everywhere and it must have been difficult for university authorities to react to the ever-shifting situation. However, this last year has highlighted the extent to which universities are now dependent upon the money generated by the numbers of students they have, and the willingness of those students to go into debt,...
"I would like to officially state that I’m thrilled that the museum has collected art by women, in 2020 and in any other year, and the selections named in the press release are fantastic additions. However, I am confused about how the museum defines “diversifying a collection,” why they didn’t collect a lot more art by women at lower...
Those who have seen One Night in Miami will appreciate that the actor, singer, and star of Hamilton made a different choice, especially with his movie-closing performance of "A Change Is Gonna Come," Cooke's big civil rights song. The actor says, "There’s a part of me that feels like these projects I take on — and I could be...
Poet Lavinia Greenlaw, who chaired the committee for the T.S. Eliot prize, said of Kapil's How to Wash a Heart, "This is a unique work that exemplifies how poetry can be tested and remade to accommodate uncomfortable and unresolvable truths. ... It’s a book that one of the judges said, ‘Every time you start it, you have to finish...
Someone hire her, quickly. "Lockdown, I fear, is not the life Dench was born to. She used to practically eat and drink on the stage, but the theatres have closed, who knows for how long. She used to bounce from one film set to the next, but now production is mothballed and the industry has gone to ground. All...
Avian co-choreographed A Chorus Line with Michael Bennett, and choreographed Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard. He "directed a 2006 revival of A Chorus Line that ran on Broadway for almost two years, as well as productions of that show in London in 2013 and at New York City Center in 2018. He shared Tony Awards for choreography with Mr....
The artists of the Place du Tetre are feeling squeezed out by restaurants, and then there's the emptiness. One of the artists: "It’s a hard time for everyone, but it’s especially depressing here. ... Usually, this place is better than a studio because you are in contact with people from all over the place and that’s the pleasure. But...
There are shelves about "On the Troubles of Growing Up and Moving On" and "For Escaping Your Life," among many others. "Oh Hello Again owner Kari Ferguson, who previously founded Dickens Children’s Books in Vancouver, Washington, was inspired to create Oh Hello Again by Ellen Berthoud and Susan Elderkin’s concept of bibliotherapy—the idea that reading the right book at...
Some things have changed. But the news affiliates? Oof. The details of CBS Television Stations President Peter Dunn's racism - saying of an anchor, "He’s not doing that ‘jive talking’ anymore? Sometimes, he’s just not speaking my language," for instance - and sexism are damning. - Los Angeles Times
The designer of the exhibit: "Duke Kahanamoku, on a wooden board with no fins, surfed a wave that was over 25 feet tall on its face. And he surfed it for over a mile. And we wanted to have the audience experience that moment. So we built a 27-foot tall wave and put a replica of Duke's board in...
Online drawing classes are, for many people in lockdown in Britain, a lifeline to the outside world. And there's a plus: "Individual sessions can attract hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people, and moving everything online has made life drawing more accessible to a diverse crowd." - The Observer (UK)
Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero, who directed and wrote the new film Identifying Features, "don’t believe Mexican storytellers have the luxury of creating apolitically. Not at a moment in history when thousands disappear or are murdered as a consequence of drug-related violence and the widespread state complicity that enables it. Neither of them set out to make movies with...
Because we can't trust the art world to the elites. For instance, in recent years, "Major art collectors (mostly white) were benefitting from the Trump deregulation and tax cuts, while investing some of their surplus wealth into the rebranding opportunity offered by the anti-Trump resistance. They could literally turn a profit on fulfilling the activist demand." - Hyperallergic
It's an urgent question for many in lockdown - and in the UK, "whether we are in lockdown or not, four fifths of the UK population lives in an urban environment and one in eight homes do not have a garden."- BBC
