Or start a garden. Or plant a tree – get to SOMETHING green: “The relationship of happiness to trees was similar to well-known correlations, like unemployment.”
Gangs Of Non-Pros Dance Matthew Bourne’s ‘Lord of the Flies’
“‘Why did we ever think this was a good idea?’ mutters choreographer Scott Ambler as a barrage of boys in trainers comes thundering across the room.” Why? Because every time Bourne and Ambler put out a call for local young men – regular blokes – to perform in this project, they get hundreds of responses.
The Code, And The Movies Worth Watching Before It Came Down On The Heads Of Hollywood
The Code “explains why so many lovers in classic films kiss like nobody else on earth, namely by grabbing one another tightly, smashing their lips together, and then not moving in the least for at least 4-5 seconds (I call it the ol’ seize-and-freeze).”
The Fired Creator of ‘Vampire Diaries’ Bites Back With Fan Fiction
“In one of the stranger comebacks in literary history, Ms. Smith is independently resurrecting her stories about the adolescent undead. She’s publishing her own version of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ digitally on Amazon, as fan fiction, creating a parallel fictional universe that many hard-core fans regard as more legitimate than the official canon.”
Dancers Have iPads, Not Discipline, Says Choreographer
The 88-year-old Gillian Lynne “claimed teachers were tougher when she was starting out, adding that venues such as the London Palladium were ‘run with a rod of iron.'”
American Sidewalk Cafés Try So Hard, And Get It All So Wrong – Why?
“They might have the appropriate Bistro Collection Café Chairs. But everything else is slightly awry and amiss, as if designed by someone whose understanding of European café culture arose from having once, long ago, seen the Disney film The Aristocats. The café is poorly positioned, poorly arranged, or too exposed to loud traffic and passing cellphone shouters.”
Pandemonium At San Diego Opera Board Meeting, Followed By New Chairman And Rescue Plan
Karen Cohn, the board chairman who presided over the sudden plan to dissolve the company, stormed out of the meeting, as did several other members as well as general director Ian Campbell and his deputy and ex-wife, Ann. Carol Lazier, who gave $1 million toward saving the company, is now acting board chair, and she declined to say if Campbell is still affiliated with the Opera.
Oliver Stone Tells The Chinese – To Their Faces – To Make Critical Films About Mao
At the Beijing International Film Festival: “It’s about time. You got to make a movie about Mao, about the Cultural Revolution. You do that, you open up, you stir the waters and you allow true creativity to emerge in this country. That would be the basis of real co-production.”
Cast of ‘Fun Home’ Wades Into South Carolina’s Legislators-Against-Lesbians War
A group of state lawmakers threatened the College of Charleston with a budget cut after a reading list for incoming freshmen included Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir. So the cast and creators of the musical based on the book are going to Charleston next week for concert performances and discussions.
‘The Best Documentary Ever Made On The Basis Of A Dubious Premise’
“The filmmakers follow the narrow limits of a self-imposed rule, and their obstinacy courts cinematic disaster. They set the movie entirely within the capsules of a cable-car line in Nepal that connects the ancient mountaintop temple of the title with a neighboring village. The film’s two-hour duration is filled solely with a dozen ten-minute trips.”
So You Think You Can Be An Actor, Tough Guy?
Alex Andreou: “I have worked 14-hour shifts in a travel agency, seven days a week, for six months during the Greek tourist season, with no day off. I have handled multi-billion industry investigations as a competition expert, with days and weeks which I thought would never end. None of it compares – not even close – to the self-imposed temporary obsession that preparing for a part demands.”
Gary Shteyngart Resigns From Blurbing Books (Here’s His Resignation Letter)
“It is with deep sadness that I announce that the volume of requests has exceeded my abilities, and I will be throwing my ‘blurbing pen’ into the Hudson River during a future ceremony, time and place to be determined.” (He is making exceptions, though, including all owners of long-haired dachshunds.)
Resetting ‘Three Sisters’ Among Expats In Yemen
The isolated Arab country “presents a conflict zone, but not one that gets international attention; far-flung but not exotic; visitors who hope to do good with varying degrees of conviction;” and the “claustrophobia” of life in an expatriate community.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.17.14
What is big data for?
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth | Published 2014-04-18
Creatures Under the Skin
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-04-17
Voice of a generation
AJBlog: Sandow | Published 2014-04-17
Bilious About Billboards: A Dissenting BlogBack from Advertising Association and Heated Tweets
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-04-17
How Important is a Writer’s Routine? Plus, McMansions
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-04-17
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Legal Landscape Still Murky For Detroit Institute Of Art Collection
“Like every aspect of the Detroit bankruptcy, the legal issues surrounding the DIA and its multibillion-dollar collection remain a landscape of uncharted territory and foggy complexities.”
Can Loud Music Really Make Your Ears Bleed?
“If you are close to a sound source – such as a speaker – you are close to a lot of pressure waves. Direct sound exposure often doesn’t cause capillaries to burst, it’s the pressure.
Research: Artists’ Brain Structure Is Different
“Participants’ brain scans revealed that artists had increased neural matter in areas relating to fine motor movements and visual imagery.”
Survey: Most Dancers Have Been Criticized For How Their Bodies Look
A group of 74 female dancers, training primarily in ballet and from six vocational dance training colleges across the UK, were asked if they could recall someone ever making a “critical comment” that their body “should be a certain shape, weight, or that there was a need to diet to lose weight or increase food intake to gain weight”.
Artists Plan To Recreate 1914 ‘Human Zoo’
“Norway celebrates the 200th anniversary of its constitution this year, and, the artists Mohamed Ali Fadlabi and Lars Cuzner plan to re-enact one of the main attractions from the centenary in 1914: ‘The Congo Village’, in which 80 Africans were put on display, living in cabins with palm roofs surrounded by African artefacts.”
Edward J. Sozanski, 77, Longtime Philadelphia Inquirer Art Critic
“Over three decades [he] became a major figure in describing and documenting the city’s cultural transformation from regional byway to the national main stage.”
New La Scala Scandal: Incoming Boss Buys Productions From His Current Employer
“Alexander Pereira, who is scheduled to take over the Milan opera house on Oct. 1, signed an agreement to buy four productions for La Scala from the Salzburg Festival, where he is the director, without the approval of the Italian authorities.”