“In the film Selma, as marchers were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, audiences saw a crowd of extras mouthing dialogue and shouts — but they were hearing loopers, who recorded the shouts and screams in postproduction.”
‘Parks And Recreation’ Co-Producer Found Dead At Home At Age 30
Harris Wittels was found by his assistant. “On ‘Parks and Rec,’ whose seventh and final season concludes Feb. 24, Wittels also served as a writer and occasionally appeared as an animal control staffer.”
Suddenly, Baby Boomers Want To Write Big Checks, And U.S. Museums Are Cashing Them
“‘Coming out of the biggest financial crisis in virtually all of our lives, people are optimistic and are searching for legacy,’ says Dennis Scholl, a vice president at the Knight Foundation.”
Can Los Angeles Bring Back Its Own Broadway?
“Nowhere in the world can visitors walk by so many historic theaters and movie palaces. Block after block, stunning Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and revival-style buildings attract the eyes upward, teasing out its many intricate details. Famed acts such as the Marx Brothers, Houdini, and Duke Ellington once walked here, but it seems that time has dimmed the street’s glamour.”
Before Goodreads And Twitter, We Had Marginalia For Insults And Epiphanies, And Cake
“The London Library’s copy of Edmund Husserl’s Logical Investigations, for example, contains such striking remarks — some clearly motivated by the text, some apparently not — as ‘What the devil does this mean?’ and ‘above all there should be cake.’ They were entered by T.S. Eliot.”
Kazuo Ishiguro’s New Novel Is About A Knight Slaying A Dragon (Wait, What?)
Yes, the author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go has written a book in which Sir Gawain, “now an old man responding – just like John Wayne in The Searchers or James Coburn in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid – to one last call to arms. ‘Dressed in rusted chainmail and mounted on a weary steed’, Gawain’s ‘sacred mission’ is to slay the she-dragon Querig.”
There Ought To Be An Oscar For Best Dramatic Research
“Imagine a category that rewards excellence in blending fact and fiction in in an original manner (this is distinct from Best Adapted Screenplay, which celebrates the adaptation of a previous, distinct work.) … This is a category that doesn’t nitpick the details, but appreciates a film’s attempt to bring together the realms of fiction and nonfiction.” And it might shut the nitpickers up (but probably not).
Actor Alan Howard, 77, Mainstay Of Classical British Theatre
“Alongside Ian McKellen, Howard was the leading heroic actor of his generation, someone whose voice … thrillingly encompassed, said the critic Irving Wardle, a sardonic croak, a lyrical caress, a one-man brass section and a whinnying cry of horror.”
Valery Gergiev: I Just Wanna Play Music, So Why Does Everybody Keep Bothering Me About Putin? (Oh, By The Way, Speaking Of Ukraine, …)
“People come to hear music, not to hear shouting. And to go on stage and scare Netrebko, how can the Met let this happen? If someone were to shout an anti-American slogan on the stage of the Mariinsky, it would be my fault.” The conductor then goes on to talk about Ukraine and Crimea.
This Greek Artist Is Hacking The Euro
“A handful of euro notes have circulated depicting ominous events like people fleeing buildings, hanging themselves, and writing bloody-looking graffiti that reads, ‘THE END IS NIGH.’ Playing off the typical euro note’s blandly interesting and politically approved historical architecture, this altered money strikes right to the heart of the crisis.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.19.15
Audiencing: The New-York-in-January Laboratory
AJBlog: We The Audience Published 2015-02-19
Portland 2015
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-02-18
Norm Macdonald, SNL40, Paul McCartney, Eddie Murphy…
AJBlog: blog riley Published 2015-02-19
Your Museum as an Essential Community Space
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-02-18
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“Not Indifference But Detachment” – Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer
“I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work and my friends. I shall no longer look at NewsHour every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming. … I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future.”
Your Pocket Guide To This Year’s Oscar Controversies
“While we all know about the major controversies underpinning this year’s [awards race] – such as the shameful lack of diversity in this year’s #OscarsSoWhite nominees – no film is immune from its own internal drama. Here’s a look at some of the specific quarrels and criticisms that have plagued 10 of this year’s nominated films.”
Multicolored Birds, Giant Flowers, And Heads With Wings Are About To Devour Philly
Well, its museums, anyway. The Museum of Art, U. Penn, the Free Library, and Winterthur are all featuring Fraktur, the wildly colorful and whimsical Pennsylvania German folk art: “Drawings of hybrid fish with the heads of men. Humans mottled like snakes. Long-tongued lions.”