Drew Calvert recounts the year he spent in an informal English-Chinese poetry study and translation group in Beijing – and what it taught him about the natures, strengths and deficits of the two tongues.
The Colorization Wars Are Back, Now Over Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”
Payne and his colleagues did create a color version of the famously black-and-white 2013 release – but only because his contract with the studio required one, mainly for overseas television; Payne publicly said he hoped no one would ever see it. Now a premium cable/satellite service is presenting it – as a “world premiere”, no less – in the U.S.
The Japanese Literature Trend That’s Half Cupcake, Half Decapitation
“A load of laundry, a batch of cupcakes – followed by a child murder, a matricide, and an attempted school bombing, all with a cherry on top. … Why has this particular brand of violence, half cupcake and half decapitation, so thoroughly captured the Japanese imagination? In part it is because there are so many delectable Japanese cupcakes to corrupt.”
So Cincinnati’s Lumenocity Was A Massive Success – What Next?
“The hard part now may be turning a moment into a movement. Will the tens of of thousands of people who watched the show help create a cohesive community, one that acts and spends and advocates for the arts? One that celebrates place? We may be about to find out.” (includes video)
Shakespeare Was A Conservative, And His Plays Show It
“His political allegiances were clear … He supported early modern England’s status quo and established hierarchy, which meant defending the Crown’s view of divine monarchical right and opposing the radicals, often Puritan, who questioned it.”
Ballet San Antonio’s Founder Starts City’s Second Professional Company
“With performances during its inaugural season under its belt, organizers of … Ballet Latino de San Antonio, are working on the fall 2014 schedule as well as plans for performing abroad next year.” The company was established by the city’s ballet madrina, Mayra Worthen, who stepped down as Ballet San Antonio’s artistic director in 2011.
UK Jewish Film Festival In Fight With Host Venue
“A north London theatre has refused to host the UK Jewish Film Festival while it is sponsored by the Israeli Embassy amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza. The Tricycle Theatre … said it would not accept any funding from ‘any party to the current conflict’. It has offered to use its own resources instead.” Festival management calls the condition “unacceptable” and says it will move.
A Primer On The Man Who’s Replacing Craig Ferguson On “The Late Late Show”
“But who is James Corden? Well, he’s a Tony winner, for starters; he’s the Baker in Into the Woods; he’s in Begin Again with Keira Knightley; and he’s pretty damn famous in the U.K. But he’s not a household name in the U.S. – yet. Here’s your quick and easy guide to Corden’s career so far.”
Could A Three-Day Work Week Really Work?
Maria Konnikova: “When we own more of our time, we feel like we’re in charge of our lives and our schedules, which makes us happier and, ultimately, better at what we do. Our health and happiness also increases in the course of our lifetimes and, with it, our value to the workplace and to society as a whole. Additionally, we may finally recover from chronic sleep deprivation.”
The Problem With Ivy League Colleges Isn’t A College Problem At All
Joshua Rothman, responding to William Deresiewicz’s broadside against the Ivy League and its students: “I tend to draw the opposite conclusion from Deresiewicz’s data: the fact that you can feel soulless in such an intellectual paradise suggests that the problem is bigger than college. … Deresiewicz makes a mistake in ascribing to his students, as personal failings, the problems of the age in which they live.”
Classical Music’s Past Is In As Much Danger As Its Future
Tim Smith: “Today, you tend to hear more talk about what orchestras are playing, not how; more about what operas are being staged, not how they are being sung. I don’t think there’s nearly enough attention paid by current musicians and audiences to the many ways that music used to be played and felt, how differently it communicated – and how much more grippingly it could be performed today.”
Misty Copeland Has The “Wrong” Body For Ballet? Then We Need More “Wrong”
George Balanchine “had a very particular aesthetic. … As a result, great ballerinas in the American tradition (just like their Russian counterparts) are slender and taut. They have small heads, long limbs, and downward-sloping shoulders. They have tiny waists, narrow hips, and often a visible sternum. They are porcelain white. Then there’s Misty Copeland.”
Abu Dhabi’s Glorious Culture District – A Louvre And Guggenheim! (But Behind The Facade, Dark Problems)
“The most simplistic accusation against Abu Dhabi is that by building branches of the Louvre or Guggenheim, the city is buying culture. This logic pretends that Cleopatra’s Needle ended up in Paris through the goodness of Egyptian hearts, or that Lord Elgin didn’t just pillage the marbles that bear his name. Those accusations also perpetuate another myth: The UAE has no culture of its own.”
Neuroscientists Find Differences In Brains Of Heroes
“There were 16 heroes, including 11 women, who rescued the trapped man. Nineteen others, including 12 women, passed by without helping. The remaining 8 tried to help but gave up – they were omitted from the subsequent brain analysis because they were so few in number.”
How Our Kids’ Brains Are Being Rewired By Technology
“Almost from day one, the allotment of neurons in those brains (and therefore the way they function) is different today from the way it was even one generation ago. Every second of your lived experience represents new connections among the roughly 86 billion neurons packed inside your brain. Children, then, can become literally incapable of thinking and feeling the way their grandparents did. A slower, less harried way of thinking may be on the verge of extinction.”
Taking Children To See Art Is A Waste Of Time? That’s Stupid Talk
“Exploring the message behind artistic works is a valid enterprise. Telling people not to help their children experience art is detrimental and irresponsible.”
Study: Minority Roles In Hollywood Are Scarce
“On Tuesday, USC’s Annenberg school released a study that found just 26% of speaking roles in film went to minorities last year. The study, which analyzed 3,932 characters, revealed that Latinos had only 4.9% of those parts, even though they represent 16.3% of the population.”
Study: People Believe That True Stories Are More Compelling Than Fiction
“In a series of experiments, it finds people incorrectly believe they will have a stronger emotional reaction to stories that are based on fact, or ones that are set in the recent rather than the distant past.”
Soprano Dislocates Knee Onstage, Finishes Opera Anyway (With No Painkillers!)
“Opera singer Christiane Karg soldiered on until the end of a performance at Glyndebourne despite dislocating her knee during the show. The German star fell on stage during the first act and received swift medical treatment. But she declined painkillers and performed the rest of her role in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera seated.”
Calling Its Tactics “Extortion”, Judge Orders Conan Doyle Estate To Pay Legal Fees
“The US Court of Appeal described the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd’s efforts to charge licence fees to for which there is ‘no legal basis’ as ‘a disreputable business practice’.” Judge Richard Posner ordered the estate to reimburse plaintiff Leslie Klinger more than $30,000.
Carolyn See, Longtime Washington Post Book Critic, Retires
“See, who celebrated her 80th birthday earlier this year, has been championing great books and wittily skewering bad ones for decades. (Her first review – of C.Y. Lee’s China Saga – ran in The Washington Post on Sept. 3, 1987.)”
Broadway Will See Its First Black Cinderella
“Apparently, being the youngest person in television history to host her own talk show wasn’t enough. Actress Keke Palmer will be making history yet again when she takes the Broadway stage in the title role of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” beginning Sept. 9.
Metropolitan Opera Forecasts ‘Significantly Larger’ Deficit This Year
“Last year’s $2.8 million deficit followed a backlash to an increase in ticket prices that, along with superstorm Sandy, hurt box-office sales. The latest disclosure document, dated July 25, attributes this year’s deficit to a decline in charitable contributions.”
Rupert Murdoch Drops Attempt To Take Over Time Warner
“He was put off both by Time Warner’s apparent hostility to the prospect of the deal and by the response of his own shareholders, who have been driving the price of Fox’s stock down since news of the offer broke, fearing he would overpay to secure victory.”
Critic Launches Foundation To Support And Commission American Music
“Lawrence A. Johnson, a Chicago music critic, got tired of complaining that musical organizations were not performing enough American music and decided to do something about it. Mr. Johnson, the founder of The Classical Review, a group of websites with Chicago, Boston, New York and Florida editions, … [has founded] the American Music Project, a nonprofit foundation that hopes to put a brighter spotlight on the American repertory, old and new, and to commission new works.”