Gabriele d’Annunzio “was a thrill-seeking megalomaniac best described as a cross between the Marquis de Sade, Aaron Burr, Ayn Rand, and Madonna. He was wildly popular … and he essentially invented Fascism as an art project because he felt representative democracy was bourgeois and lacked a romantic dramatic arc.”
The Movie Star, Her Gangster Boyfriend, Her Daughter With A Knife, And The Massive Hit Movies Based On Them
“This is one matter when it comes to art imitating an adult woman’s life, even when that woman’s life encompassed a number of scandalous relationships; it would be another matter when the movies started to imitate Lana Turner’s daughter’s life. By the time Cheryl Crane was 14, and watching her unstable home life reflected back to her in one of her mother’s biggest hit movies, reality and fantasy must have seemed pretty confused.” (podcast plus text)
Tehran Symphony Cancels Concert When Authorities Object To Women Musicians
“I said all of us will perform together or we will leave the hall. Some tried to resolve the problem but eventually they said the women cannot be allowed to perform, so I said we will not perform.”
Why Is Theatre Casting So White? Laziness, Says British Equity Head
Malcolm Sinclair: “‘The default position if you see a part that has no particular ethnic characteristic, is to presume it is white. Why should you? There are maybe more parts [specifically] for black, asian, south east Asian actors now, but why can’t they be playing all the other parts? … You have to call the people that actually make the decisions to account, which is the producers and directors.”
Barnes & Noble Tries To Morph From Bookstore Chain To ‘Lifestyle Brand’
New CEO Ron Boire wants to turn around the company – reeling from both the relentless rise of Amazon and continuing losses on the Nook e-reader – by offering toys and games, electronics, and even LPs and turntables. “Everything we do around learning, personal growth and development fits our brand,” he said.
Confessions Of A Nielsen Ratings Junkie
“[I] never developed much of a rooting interest in big-league sports. Instead, I fell in love with the ratings game – the sport – of network television. ABC, CBS, and NBC were my teams; their dozens of shows my players; the Nielsen chart the playing field.”
Plan To Lift A Broadway Theatre 29 Feet – A Sign Of Things To Come?
“As Broadway theatres have begun to pass the 100-year mark, it’s impossible not to wonder how these tourist draws will fare over the long term. As ticket prices continue to rise and make Broadway into an increasingly luxury brand, the beloved but antique interiors may seem increasingly problematic to patrons: steep staircases, small lobbies and tight bathrooms come quickly to mind.”
The Wiz Was A Hit On TV – 11.5 Million Viewers
The 3.4 demo rating is 42% above that earned by last year’s live musical presentation of “Peter Pan” (2.4/7 in 18-49, 9.21 million viewers overall). It wasn’t quite up to the level of “Sound of Music,” which averaged a 4.6/13 in the demo and 18.32 million viewers.
Understanding ISIS’s Sideline In Selling Looted Antiquities
“ISIS manages oil and antiquities under the same bureaucratic umbrella, the ‘Diwan al-Rikaz,’ an archaic phrase that literally translates to ‘Department of Precious Things That Come Out of the Ground.'”
Paris Theatre To Offer English Translations Via Google Glass-Type Device
“The team at Theatre in Paris has announced that it is rolling out special glasses for non-French speakers that send perfectly synchronized translations into the air by the stage.” Says company co-founder Carl de Poncins, “It’s very similar to Google glasses, except the screen is larger and the words are positioned closer to where you’re looking.”
The Man Who Acted With Orson Welles, Produced Alfred Hitchcock, Played Tennis With Arnold Schoenberg’s Son, And Watched Hanns Eisler Pass Out
Alex Ross: “One morning last May, I walked up a driveway in Mandeville Canyon, on the west side of Los Angeles, and stepped back nearly eight decades in time. I had entered the home of the actor and director Norman Lloyd, who turned a hundred and one on November 8th.” (includes audio interview)
Teaching Kids To Choreograph – Even Five-Year-Olds
“[Ellen Robbins] has been teaching modern dance to children as young as 5 since the 1970s. She has a knack for tapping into the creativity of her students while painlessly introducing the rudiments of music theory and compositional structure … Even the 5-year-olds are given a chance to make up their own dances. By the time they are teenagers, they’re composing multipart group works.”
Will The University Of Oklahoma Finally Return A Nazi-Looted Impressionist Painting?
“The terms of any possible agreement are unclear, and the discussions may yet founder. But the negotiations are an abrupt turnaround in a case that drew wide attention.”
When You’re Messing About In The Library And Stumble Across A First Edition King James Bible
“Brian Shetler, a doctoral candidate in book history who works in the library, discovered the Bible when he was hunting through the rare-book shelves, pulling a sampling of 17th-century books printed in England to show to a history class. It was in a box with a label mentioning ‘Bible,’ ‘1611’ and ‘R. Barker,’ a seeming reference to the London printer Robert Barker.”
The Women Of ‘Star Wars’
“In the ‘Star Wars’ marketing machine, Rey sits front and center in the Drew Struzan posters like a yin and yang symbol, holding the balance between the dark and the light side. Where she’ll fall in this world we’re not certain, but we do know that her main priority in the film isn’t political reformation or treaties with the Trade Federation.”
The Opera ‘Bel Canto’ Might Be A Little Too Real For Lyric Audiences
“‘We are living in troubling and volatile times,’ Mr. Freud wrote in the letter. ‘On an almost daily basis, the news is dominated by reports of horrifying and indiscriminate violence. Through its years of planning, none of us could have known how shockingly topical ‘Bel Canto’ would be at the time of its world premiere performances.'”
What’s It Like Being A New Dorothy At Age 19?
“‘Your world is about to ‘change its face’ but I know where you’re going…as far and as high as you want,’ Audra McDonald tweeted to her.”
Why Wally Lamb’s Next Novel Is Only Going To Be Available As An App
“There are obvious downsides to releasing a book exclusively as an app. ‘I’ll Take You There’ won’t be available in bookstores or even from e-book retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble when it comes out next spring. Instead, Mr. Lamb’s fans will have to buy it from the iTunes app store, and it will work only on Apple devices. Mr. Lamb said that as a music and film lover, he was excited by the prospect of enhancing a narrative with music, film clips and video.”
Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto Talks About Cancer, Writing For Movies, And Revenge
“The difference between European and Japanese music is that there is almost no common element, there is nothing shared between them. It’s a very different system. Like languages: the Japanese language is so far away from the European languages. When we see European languages—even English and French—they share 50,000 vocabulary words between them, but compared to the distance of all the European languages and Japanese language, it’s so far away. It’s the same with music. Very different.”
MFA Programs And Unpaid Internships Are Destroying Literature In The United States
“Who has more dedication: the person who has the financial wherewithal to spend time in a writing program, or the writer who writes despite having to work full-time, early in the morning, with absolutely no one but themselves for motivation?”
A Woman Was Stabbed At Art Basel Miami Beach, And People Thought It Was Performance Art
“Inside the convention center, security guards and event organizers worked quickly to clean up the scene, and to keep public attention focused on the art and not the stabbing. One bystander said he asked a guard what happened, and was told that a very expensive statue had fallen on someone.”
How Can Freelancers Possibly Make A Difference?
“As a freelance artist constantly looking for work, I literally can’t afford to take a stand. If I did, it might mean not getting hired at one of the few theatres in my region that offer a decent pay rate. In this close- knit community, speaking out about my frustrations with lack of diversity in a particular company’s season could get me labeled as a ‘difficult’ actor, and I could never work again.”
Google Dance Aims To Take Viewers Anywhere In The (Dance) World
“Dreaming of taking a tour of the Palais Garnier? Plop yourself center stage. Or better yet, watch Benjamin Millepied’s new Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward from every angle in this 360-degree video.”
Seiji Ozawa At 80
“Now 80 years old, recovered from serious illness (esophageal cancer, back surgery, several bouts of pneumonia), with nothing to lose and without the heavy workload he carried for so long, Ozawa is downright delightful.”
Cincinnati Symphony Guest Conductor Turned Back By US Immigration
Rafael Payare, a rising star who is making acclaimed debuts around the world and is married to American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, was unable to get through customs even though his visa is current, said Cincinnati Symphony spokesperson Christopher Pinelo.