“If wide notice is taken of a current spat over what we can read about Shakespeare’s sexuality into the sonnets in the correspondence columns of the Times Literary Supplement, Sonnet 20 may be a future favourite at civil unions. “
Chinese Government Tries To Ban Wordplay And Puns In The Media
The State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television “has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children.” Problem is, puns have been enmeshed in every single aspect of Chinese culture, from the New Year’s menu to wedding gifts to people’s own names – for a few thousand years now.
China’s Massive New Audiences For Movies Being Powered By Mobile Ticketing
An “important role has been played by convenience of mobile ticketing, which enables flexibility, impulse buying and seat selection that is valued by the 80, 90 and 00 generations (i.e. born in those decades), who are the main drivers of China’s cinema growth.”
Serious Writers Go To Work For Big Brands
“A number of companies are latching on to a broader advertising notion of ‘the writer,’ either as a conceptual, disembodied mascot or, in the case of Chipotle, by gathering literary luminaries to form a collective ‘spokescribe.’ As serious literature becomes further marginalized, cloistered from the cultural Kardashians at the gate, brands may be tapping into a quality associated with it that historically seduces aspirational consumers: elitism.”
Prizewinning Author Who Was The Target Of Racist Watermelon Joke Explains Why It Was So Painful
“Slowly, the hideousness of the stereotype began to sink in. In the eyes of those who told and repeated the jokes, we were shuffling, googly-eyed and lesser than.”
When A Board Chair – And Formidable Philanthropist – Steps Down
“In her 20 years on the board, Ms. Weill built a formidable legacy: Ailey’s endowment grew to $61 million from less than $1 million. In 2005, the company moved into a custom-built $54 million building, which includes rehearsal studios and a theater.”
The Star Wars Trailer Has A Black Stormtrooper & The Internet Freaks Out
“A black stormtrooper can very well be a black stormtrooper in the Star Wars Galaxy without there being any great significance to it. It’s not that simple in the fraught universe of Hollywood, though.”
Will Lars Von Trier, Newly Sober, Ever Make Another Film?
“Von Trier explained he felt a daily bottle of vodka helped him enter a ‘parallel world’ necessary for creation and that coming off both alcohol and drugs might mean he could only produce ‘shitty films.'”
You’re Not Crazy – Web Speed Is Actually Slowing Down (For Mobile Users, Anyway)
“The last time the desktop metric was as slow as the current cellular metric is, it was ten years ago. Basically, we’ve lost a decade of innovation, by innovating.”
Will Someone Donate Hundreds Of Thousands To Buy William Blake’s Cottage For England?
“The cottage campaign … would see the building made into a public centre celebrating Blake and welcoming visitors, poets and artists to continue his legacy.” (But it’s more than £400,000 short right now.)
Actually, Even Equity Tours Might Not Be That Great For The Performers
The minimum wage on Broadway is “more than triple the minimum on some of today’s currently running Equity tours. These tours aren’t Broadway and marketing them as such is frankly disingenuous.”
Guy Who Steals The Show As An Angel At English National Opera Is An American Street Dancer
“Banks, whose real name is James Davis, did not even have a biography in the programme for English National Opera’s production of The Gospel According to the Other Mary – he became a Twitter enigma with audience members tweeting the question, who is he?”
If You’re Taking A Child To The Theatre, Plan For Her To Be Seen – And Heard
“Engagement can take many forms, and treating the theatre as if it’s a church where everyone must be reverent is not my idea of fun. Particularly not at most Christmas shows.”
Is ISIS Being Funding By Sales Of Antiquities?
“Profits from the sales of conflict antiquities are clearly partly underwriting Islamic State operations, and thus partly underwriting repression, war and genocide. And regardless of the precise numbers, that reality reinforces the need for cultural property protection, antiquities trade regulation and powerful policing.”
Frank Yablans dies at 79; Ex-Paramount and MGM/UA Chief
“He reportedly signed an eight-year contract that paid him $225,000 per year, plus 1.5% of gross profits, and presided over the studio during a time in which it released the first two installments of “The Godfather,” “Serpico,” “Paper Moon,” “Chinatown” and “Day of the Locust,” among others.”
That Lost Shakespeare Folio Was Mistakenly “Left Behind”
“Clitheroe’s Stonyhurst College began as St Omers College there in 1593. A spokeswoman said the “dog-eared” book must have been “overlooked” when the college was ordered to leave in 1762. The Folio collects 36 of Shakespeare’s 38 known plays for the first time, and was originally printed in 1623, seven years after the playwright’s death.”
This Is Where The Next Generation Of America’s Wealthy Arts Supporters Is Coming From
“For decades, arts organizations outside the U.S. have raised money by registering their nonprofits here, such as the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra or the Royal Shakespeare Company’s RSC America. Now U.S. arts groups are flipping the script, but with a twist.”
Writer P.D. James, 94
“Ms. James was one of those rare authors whose work stood up to the inevitable and usually invidious comparisons with classic authors of the detective genre, like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham.”
Is Our Art Reflecting Our Time?
“I would never tell artists that they had to address social issues in their work, because as soon as you tell artists that they have to do something, they turn around and poop on the floor. Tell them, instead, that these questions are difficult, that the story is missing something without them, that they are another dimension, and then see what happens.”
Families Try To Recover Art Seized By Cold War-Era East German Government
“While the loss and anguish of Nazi art looting is well known, a second series of German art seizures, decades after World War II, has largely gone unnoticed. Between 1973 and 1989 the East German police, known as the Stasi, seized more than 200,000 objects in hundreds of raids, according to experts and official archives.”