That expectation of the professional, 24-7 politician wasn’t there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The last proper intellectual Prime Minister was Arthur Balfour, in Downing Street from 1902 until 1905. Balfour may not have been a great Prime Minister, but he was a serious philosopher. His series of Gifford Lectures in 1914 at Glasgow University, on “Theism and Humanism”, were published as a book in 1915. C. S. Lewis said it was one of the ten books that influenced him most.
Alison Bechdel Named Vermont’s Cartoonist Laureate
Yes, Vermont has such a post, and the author of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For is actually the third to hold it. (Her predecessor, whose work you might recognize from the illustration at left, was New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren.)
The Extraordinary Off-Broadway Theater That Created ‘Natasha, Pierre, And The Great Comet Of 1812’ (And Gives Its Staffers Full Benefits!)
“Ars Nova is unusual – creatively, structurally, and otherwise. It’s not a traditional theatre company; it’s a finder, developer, and nurturer of unconventional artists working in hybrid forms.” And yes, it provides medical and dental insurance to its employees.
Julian Stanczak, 88, Leader Of 1960s Op-Art Movement
“Stanczak’s acrylic paintings often tended toward brightly colored shapes and grids. … They highlight the act of seeing, in the process showing that, when we look at two unlike forms put together, an unexpected element can result: movement.”
Being A Flamboyantly Gay Man In The Ballet World Is Not Easy, But These Two Are Doing It Fiercely
A Q&A with James Whiteside, 32 and a principal at ABT, and Parker Kit Hill, a 21-year-old student at the Joffrey Ballet School with triple-threat talent, a decidedly un-classical look, and a big social media presence.
Westminster Choir College Is Officially For Sale
The college’s parent school, Rider University (which bought Westminster in 1992), has been facing financial pressures and declining enrollment (though Westminster’s enrollment is healthy), and wants cash from the sale. The Rider board’s stated preference is for a buyer to continue to operate Westminster at its Princeton campus, though separate sales of the school and its real estate are possible as well.
Frank Delaney, 74, ‘The Most Eloquent Man In The World’
As NPR’s Scott Simon said of the broadcaster, author, and literary scholar, “We kept asking him back to talk about books, Ireland and even soccer because no one could make more of a ceremony out of a sentence.”
Podcasts Are Hugely Popular Right Now. Why?
“Many of those podcasts are destined to sail out into the ocean and never be heard from again. They are often too detailed, too niche, too chatty. A lot of people produce podcasts in which they simply ramble on for hours about themselves and their lives. There is something very poignant about the volume of human desire to be heard out there in the Wild West of podcasts. One gets the impression that for many podcasters, audience size is almost irrelevant. The point is to put your voice on record (which is now easy and cheap to do), and leave it there for someone to find, ponder, and perhaps even enjoy.”
Okay, Guys, Here’s Garrison Keillor Explaining How To Write Poetry For Your Beloved
“Men are wired for combat, to bash the enemy into submission, and it’s hard to wipe the blood and gore off your hands and sit down and write, ‘O wondrous thou, the wonderment of these my happiest days, I lift my pen to praise thy shining beauty’ and so forth. But you can do it. The first step is: Imitate.”
How Do You Turn John Cage Into Staged Theater? With A Chess Match, Of Course
In Chess Match No. 5 from Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, “the two people onstage are conspicuously playing chess; they also make toast, fiddle with a radio, drink tea and trade disconnected aphorisms and anecdotes [from Cage]. They are not visibly doing theater, if that means plot, traditional characters or singing cats.”
Should Translators Of Books Receive Royalties Just As Authors Do?
This is one of those questions that becomes more complicated the more you think about it – not to mention the fact that the views of translators, book publishers, and original authors on the matter may vary. Tim Parks, both author and translator, gives the issue a serious look.
One Of Calder’s Greatest Mobiles Goes Into Storage As Fight Over Ownership Drags On
Universe, which has been on view in the lobby of Chicago’s Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) since 1974, is being packed up as the building’s latest owners prepare for a major renovation of the building as two previous owners (including Sears, which commissioned Universe and claims title to it) continue a years-long struggle.
Making An Opera Libretto Out Of The My Lai Massacre
It’s not easy, obviously – especially when you know nothing about opera. Harriet Scott Chessman writes about how she met the challenge when composer Jonathan Berger invited her to write the text for his opera My Lai.
Jazz Saxophonist Arthur Blythe Dead At 76
Nate Chinen: “Blythe was a commanding figure whose music connected jazz’s root system with its freer outgrowths, seemingly without a second thought. It was implicit in his broad-shouldered tone – ’round as Benny Carter, ardent as John Coltrane,’ in the words of Gary Giddins – and through the vibrato that often amplified the sensation of fervency.”
William McPherson, 84 – Pulitzer-Winning Book Critic Who Chronicled His Own Descent Into Poverty
He freelanced, but bad investment decisions and health reversals shriveled his savings. To considerable attention, he wrote a self-lacerating essay in 2014 about his slide into what he called the “upper edge of poverty” — not quite destitution but where “a roof over your head and a wardrobe that doesn’t look as if it came from the Salvation Army is as good as it gets.”
When A TV Show Is A TV Show Is A Movie
The 10- or 13- or 73-hour-movie idea rises out of the same impulse as “novelistic” TV, or television that treats its episodes as “chapters,” or even from the urge to reframe an entire first season as a “pilot.” While the connotations of those terms may differ slightly, the underlying message is the same — one episode of TV is not enough.
DC’s Georgetown Looks To Its Historic Canal For A Signature Park
Georgetown Heritage, a nonprofit organization formed to rethink the one-mile, nine-acre portion of the canal in Georgetown, has hired the architect of Manhattan’s High Line in hopes of creating an equally buzzy, reimagined urban park along the now-staid industrial strip of land. It’s part of a broader plan to once again make the historic neighborhood a leading destination in the city amid competition from other booming neighborhoods.
David Arben, 89, Violinist Who Survived Seven Nazi Concentration Camps
In 1941 he was pulled out of a group of Jewish inmates who were digging their own mass grave by a guard who recognized him as a violinist and thus useful. Arben made his way to the U.S. after the war and ended up playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra for 34 years, retiring as associate concertmaster.
‘Prestige TV’: 13 Ways To (Let Everyone) Know Your Series Is *Art*
“1. ‘It’s like a novel.’ It’s not TV – it’s literature, but with title credits and a ten-episode season order.
2. ‘It’s like a movie.’ …“
Why Can’t People Let Go Of The Idea That High-Quality Television Has To Be Like *Cinema*?
“For some reason, [people seem to think] TV can’t stand on its own as a ‘prestige’ narrative. For TV, prestige means getting reframed as something else and basking in the reflected glow of another art form’s cultural currency.” Kathryn VanArendonk looks at why this idea seems to stick, and why it’s so frustrating.
Roberta Knie, Wagnerian Soprano, Dead At 79
She was known particularly for her performances of Brünnhilde (including at Bayreuth) and Isolde (opposite Jon Vickers at the Met). She had to give up performing in 1991 when her retinas began to detach from the sheer force of the vibrations from her larynx.
Gainsborough Painting Back On View, Just Ten Days After Attack
“The much-loved 1785 painting, Mr and Mrs William Hallett (‘The Morning Walk’), received two scratches of about 1-metre and 65cm long in the incident, which happened on a busy Saturday afternoon.”
Another Principal Dancer Leaves Pennsylvania Ballet (But This Time, For A Happy Reason)
Amy Aldridge’s retirement evidently has nothing to do with the major personnel changes (and associated hard feelings) following the arrival of Ángel Corella as artistic director. She’s been dancing with the company for 23 seasons, 16 of them as a principal, and it’s time to retire.
Firestorm Erupts As Copenhagen Jazz Festival Turns Down Israeli Musician For ‘Political Reasons’
“In response to asking whether it was possible for his jazz band to attend the festival, the Israeli musician Alon Farber was informed that Copenhagen Jazz Festival did not accept Israeli musicians due to ‘political reasons’.” Farber posted this on Facebook, word got around the internet, Copenhagen’s deputy mayor demanded an explanation and made noises about city funding – and the festival’s director is claiming that this is all due to a misunderstanding of what he meant by “political.”
Philadelphia’s Old Metropolitan Opera House To Reopen (Though Not For Opera)
The 4,000-seat theater was built in 1908 by Oscar Hammerstein I (grandfather of the Broadway lyricist) on what is now a gentrifying section of North Broad Street; it served as a cinema, ballroom, circus, and church before being abandoned a number of years ago. Now a real estate developer is renovating the Met and has signed Live Nation to operate it as a performance venue.