Ennio Morricone “never sloughed off any assignment. Even B action pictures like ‘Guns for San Sebastian’ and ‘The Five Man Army,’ both from the late ’60s, sport glorious themes befitting far better movies. His thrillers veer into the avant-garde. Even infamous bombs, such as ‘Exorcist II: The Heretic’ and ‘Mission to Mars,’ were inevitably buoyed by Morricone music.”
Psychopathic, Narcissistic Machiavellians – What Makes Con Artists Tick
“So wherein lies the truth: Is the con artist psychopath, narcissist, Machiavellian? A little bit of all? It is possible, it turns out, to possess all the tenets of the dark triad, and then some, and still not turn to con artistry.”
Kanye West, Donald Trump, And Martin Luther King (There’s More In Common Than You’d Think)
“Despite a career-long alignment to both Jesus and God, neither is actually what Kanye truly seems to be aiming for. Nor is the perfect Martin Luther King of legend. … [And] if you peel back a layer, Trump and Kanye actually share a lot, at least as public characters, starting with many rhetorical gestures, a truly messianic sense of purpose, and an amazing conviction that one’s ego is itself a kind of messianic purpose.”
‘Theatre Has Been The Last Bastion Of Segregation,’ Says Playwright Lynn Nottage
“You see plays by African American playwrights, by-and-large, have majority Asian or African American cast and are produced either on smaller stages or produced in theatres that are specifically geared towards work by people of colour.”
Why Should ‘American Psycho’ Be A Musical? Let The Composer And Director Tell You
Rupert Goold: “You’re in a public environment with [Patrick Bateman] when youire in a theater, you’re all in one room with his very sexually present energy. It’s like Phillip Glass or Depeche Mode in that it moves heavily and intensely, with a chill, but the emotional payload at the end is incredibly powerful, because we haven’t been belting our hearts out at each other throughout the whole thing.”
Iranian Media Have Pooled Funds To Increase The Bounty On Salman Rushdie’s Head
“Forty state-run media outlets in Iran have pooled together to raise $600,000 to add to the fatwa on writer Salman Rushdie, 27 years after Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called for Rushdie’s assassination following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.”
Using Dance To Teach Math (It Works)
Teachers call such melding of art and traditional subjects “art integration,” and it’s a new and increasingly popular way of bringing the arts into the classroom. Instead of art as a stand-alone subject, teachers are using dance, drama and the visual arts to teach a variety of academic subjects in a more engaging way.
The Numbers Are In: Hollywood (Lack Of) Diversity Detailed
“The top-line takeaways from USC’s Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment, released today, paint a bleak picture of inclusivity in Hollywood, at a time when movements including #OscarsSoWhite and a campaign to reduce the gender gap seem to be constantly making headlines. The statistics also undercut the critics or viewers who claim that “political correctness” rules TV casting decisions.”
Why The Met Museum’s New Breuer Museum Could Change Art In New York
“Per the institution’s own recent messaging, the Met’s commitment to an historically and geographically expanded view of modern and contemporary art means the museum can contemplate doing the one thing New York museums have ignored for decades—namely, reconsider today’s market-driven contemporary canon.”
We’re Addicted To TV. Can The Arts Compete?
“Given the tendency to be distrustful of television, we were curious: are people going to be worse off on average watching TV instead of engaging in other, potentially more enriching, activities? Is there an opportunity here to improve wellbeing through the arts?”
The Wooster Group’s Pinter Misfire (The Right To Go There?)
“The Pinter estate is under no obligation to explain its thinking, of course, regardless of how much theatregoers might disagree. But the premature closure of this production is a loss not only to the respective bodies of work of Harold Pinter and the Wooster Group, but to the theatre in general.”
China: No More Weird Architecture!
A directive issued on Sunday by the State Council, China’s cabinet, and the Communist Party’s Central Committee says no to architecture that is “oversized, xenocentric, weird” and devoid of cultural tradition. Instead, buildings should be “suitable, economic, green and pleasing to the eye.”
‘Hamilton’ Wins $100K Award For Historical Drama
“The hit Broadway show, which uses hip-hop and other contemporary musical styles to chronicle the life and death of Alexander Hamilton, seems tailor-made for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, which, as its name suggests, seeks to honor ‘a new play or musical that enlists theater’s power to explore the past of the United States.””
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.22.16
Pat Martino And Kenny Barron At The Portland Festival
Pat Martino and Kenny Barron, two of the many Philadelphians appearing at the 2016 Portland Jazz Festival, led their groups in a concert at the Winningstad Theatre. First up, guitarist Martino’s trio with organist … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-23
Misprision
In performing Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” some singers deliver the subtle, and possibly difficult to pronounce word combination “distingué traces” as “distant gay traces.” A British lawyer or Harold Bloom might call this a “misprision.” … read more
AJBlog: PianoMorphosis Published 2016-02-22
Charles Lloyd & Gary Peacock In Portland
Rather than the electrified two-guitar quintet he calls the Marvels, the saxophonist CharlesLloyd brought his traditional quartet to the Portland Jazz Festival. They played a memorable concert. Supported by players decades younger, the … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-02-22
Swingin’ with Mezz and Menck
Mezz Mezzrow is one of those fascinating, exceedingly odd figures in jazz history about whom I could write instructively and at length if I felt so moved. Alas, I don’t, at least not today, so … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-02-22
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Umberto Eco Taught The World To Think About Conspiracies And Fascism
“Suddenly Eco was back in my feed, being used to prove that one of the most notorious presidential candidates in US history was no worse than Mussolini or even Hitler.”
Just Another ‘Hamilton’ Award Post (Hint: More To Come)
“‘Hamilton,’ the hit Broadway show, which uses hip-hop and other contemporary musical styles to chronicle the life and death of Alexander Hamilton, seems tailor-made for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, which, as its name suggests, seeks to honor ‘a new play or musical that enlists theater’s power to explore the past of the United States.'”
Use This One Little Word In Your Thriller Title To Turn It Into A Bestseller
“There’s this sort of shorthand that if it has ‘girl’ in the title, then I know what to expect.”
Ukraine Uses Eurovision Competition To Send Pointed Message To Russia
“The lyrics begin: ‘They come to your house, they kill you all and say: ‘We’re not guilty’.'”
Why Are So-Called Bad Words Actually Bad?
It might have little to do with the sound or force of the words: “Swearing is a form of dispreferred linguistic behaviour.”
Advice For The New Contemporary-Focused Met, From Contemporary New York Artists
“The half-hearted attempts at diversity, minor noodling with the canon, and ‘re-presentations’ of collections are not enough. New histories are needed, a major reboot, if these institutions want to be relevant to future audiences.”
How A Small Site Used Crowdsourcing – And Money – To Become A Powerhouse Of Celebrity Information
“TMZ resembles an intelligence agency as much as a news organization, and it has turned its domain, Los Angeles, into a city of stool pigeons. In an e-mail from last year, a photographer reported having four airport sources for the day, including ‘Harold at Delta, Leon at Baggage service, Fred at hudson news, Lyle at Fruit and nut stand.'”