The island of Amami Oshima is renowned for its unique mud-dyed silk. The BBC documentary series Handmade in Japan follows the island’s artisans through the complex, meticulous steps required to produce the subtly patterned fabric and tailor it into a kimono. (text and video)
Is Square Dancing The World’s Whitest Dance Form? Actually, No
As early Americans adapted the country dances of Europe, African-Americans (often enslaved, alas) were right there – first as musicians, then as callers. Erin Blakemore gives us the history.
Does A Playwright Really Have The Right To Control Discussion Of A Play?
It is a well-established, incontestable fact that playwrights may exert veto power over both casting and creative teams, too, for unlike film and TV, playwrights hold all the cards in the theater. I use the word “incontestable” very much on purpose, for the playwright, indeed, has a legal basis for that level of control, even if — as with those now accusing the estate of Edward Albee of being raging racists — we dislike the result. The question is to what degree the “scope” of a dramatic work legally extends beyond the experience and performance of the play.
A Dance Critic Gets To Dance (For Seven Seconds) In An Yvonne Rainer Work
Siobhan Burke: “‘Greetings, folks,’ the email began, addressing a BCC-ed list of recipients to which I was sure I had been added by mistake. I read it twice, three times, refreshed the page. Because it’s not every day that you hear from Yvonne Rainer – the choreographer, dancer, writer, filmmaker and game-changing force in dance history – with an invitation to dance in her work.”
Fort Worth Symphony Hires ‘Mr. Fix-It’ As Interim President
Just a month after the CEO who led management through last fall’s bitter strike, Amy Adkins, resigned, the orchestra’s board has engaged David Hyslop, whom Michael Granberry describes as “the Mr. Fix-It of troubled arts organizations. He swoops in to clean up the mess and then goes back home to Minnesota.”
$12 Million Worth Of Art Stolen From Storage Locker In Queens
“The stolen artwork included masterpieces from minimalist painter Frank Stella and French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, owner William Pordy told police.” (Yes, he kept a Toulouse-Lautrec and a Stella in a garden-variety storage unit.) The thief did leave behind five paintings, evidently on purpose.
Musicologist Richard Taruskin Wins $450K Kyoto Prize
“The [¥50 million] Kyoto Prize, given annually since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, recognizes three winners in a rotating array of subcategories under the headings of Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy.” Taruskin is the first musicologist (as opposed to composer or performer) to win the award.
Should Canadian Culture Be Supported With An Internet Tax?
“So why shouldn’t a small levy – say 3 or 4 per cent to recognize the other uses – help update our support for Canadian culture? Politicians clearly see anything that can be characterized as an Internet tax as the third rail, but public reactions seemed based more on the ideological instinct that the Internet is beyond the reach of regulation than on any full examination of what the benefits might be.”
American Quilting Has Been Dragged Into A Political Muck-Fest
“The traditional American hobby has – like knitting, baking and other skills – been given a new lease of life by social media, through Reddit discussions, online commerce and the ease of spreading tips and knowledge via digital videos. But in recent weeks, online communities and bloggers have been discussing a series of screenshots which appear to show socially conservative quilters organising campaigns and hurling insults about other enthusiasts who don’t share their political beliefs.”
Here’s The Reason The Roxane Gay-Written Marvel Comic Was Canceled
And no, it wasn’t “diversity.” Nope – it’s a system of how comic books are sold, “a system that rewards the status quo, instead of taking risks and breaking new ground.”
How A Man Who Hadn’t Finished A Book In 35 Years Became A Reader
It all began with a conversation with his daughter about craft. “It doesn’t just happen?’ he asked. I clenched my fingers into my palms. ‘No,’ I told him. ‘I don’t just create something in one sitting.’ Finally, I told him that if he tried to read, he’d understand better.”
‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Shows That Producers Need To Go Beyond ‘Colorblind’ Casting
Yes, good, more high-profile jobs for actors of color. Except … “There could be something powerful in showcasing life in Gilead for people of color, but the show rarely, if ever, goes there.”
Turns Out Shakespeare’s Iambic Pentameter And Fantastical Characters Might Be Great For Students On The Autism Spectrum
The play that seems to work the best is The Tempest. “That particular play, McClatchy explains, ‘seemed to go right to the heart of the matter in a lot of ways, in terms of being locked on an island and feeling like ‘the other.’'”
More Than $4.5 Million Disappeared From The Malaysian Government … To Fund ‘Dumb And Dumber To’?
Well, some of it, at least. Some may also have been used to finance – this is real, people – The Wolf of Wall Street. “Now, the US government is looking to claw some of that money back—and, in a bizarre turn of events—wants Hollywood to fork over millions in assets the DOJ says were purchased with dirty money.”
Looks Like Car Hitler And Car Stalin Existed In Pixar’s ‘Cars’ Universe
The theory runs: “The Cars-verse includes a World War II–era Jeep named Sarge, who explicitly references events like the Battle of the Bulge. In the direct-to-DVD film Planes (made by Disney but not Pixar), there is an actual WWII flashback in which the plane Skipper recalls losing his entire squadron in the Pacific Theater. Assuming that Car WWII occurred, and that it contains the same contours as the actual WWII, we can assume that there were Car Axis powers, and thus a Car Hitler.”
What Is Going On With The Met’s ‘Tosca’?
Soprano Kristine Opolais, who was supposed to play the title role, has now withdrawn, a few months after star tenor Jonas Kaufmann withdrew. The show “is being closely watched in the opera world. Early in his tenure Mr. Gelb replaced an opulent, beloved old production by Franco Zeffirelli with a starker, more sexually charged one by Luc Bondy, alienating large swaths of the audience. So there is a lot riding on the new staging.”
Finishing The Story Of The Barber Of Seville – On A Dark Note
In ‘La Mère Coupable,’ a lot more secrets come to light. “It takes these people everybody knows and transplants them to a Raymond Carver story.”
Translating Jokes When There Are Simply No Words
Translator Jessica Cohen, who along with author David Grossman just won the Man Booker International Prize for A Horse Walks Into a Bar: “Obviously if you have to explain something, it’s not funny. There were some cases like that where I managed to come up with a kind of equivalent. Some things we just had to drop.”
Now Many Theatres Bearing The Name ‘Shakespeare’ Are Getting Death Threats
Well, people are still mad they didn’t get to play Mercutio in their high school production of Romeo and Juliet … but seriously, what? “For the summer festivals — often leafy affairs for families, picnics, and a bit of Shakespeare under the stars — the venting has been a jarring reminder of the country’s political divisions. And while company directors say that Shakespeare, whose works are wildly adaptable to a variety of social contexts, is no stranger to controversy, the current maelstrom has taken their breath away.”
Basquiat Is Driving Sales At Art Basel
Though some dealers think U.S. galleries are putting up prices too quickly, “others are reassured by relentlessly rising values — and by the cachet of buying blue-chip works from international ‘brand’ galleries.”
Now Apple’s Trying To Push Into Original Programming
And they snagged two high-level Sony executives to help them out, too. What does this mean for your Fire stick or Chromecast? Well, it might be time to snag an Apple TV.
How Do You Get The Best 20 Minutes Of Television In A Very Long Time?
Hire women playwrights. “In the ‘I Love Dick’ writers’ room, staffed exclusively with women and those who don’t identify as male or female, writers were asked to share their own sexual experiences. After a week binge-watching films by artists such as Hito Steyerl, Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman, [playwright Annie] Baker and [playwright Heidi] Schreck assembled those stories into the four monologues.”
Los Angeles Lights Up City Hall With The Bat Signal In Honor Of Adam West
Hundreds of fans, some in costume, cheered as Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck switched on the iconic signal and splashed a yellow oval with a bat silhouette high up on the wall of City Hall.
Should The Wishes Of The Dead Outweigh The Needs Of The Living?
“Imagine that a legal structure were erected to execute the wishes of the dead, and that the law would side with the dead even when their wishes conflicted with the needs of the living, or with the wellbeing of future generations.”
Where All The Art Goes When The Art Fair Is Over
Art storage facilities have become a big, global business, and one art storage mogul (yes, they exist) estimates that 80% of the world’s artworks is in storage at any given time. Georgina Adam takes a look inside the often-secretive industry.