Omid Djalili: “My English side really loves the royal family, and my Iranian side hates me for this. … You can tell I’m a very, very British person, but I’ve kept my roots quite strong. I still speak Farsi. I find Arabs hilarious.”
Geoffrey Hill On The Point Of Poetry: It Should Be Surprising And Shocking
“The idea that you write to express yourself seems to me revolting. The idea that you write to glorify or to make glorious the art of expressiveness seems to me spot on.”
Arts Crowdfunding Is Catching On In Britain
“Already well established in the US, crowdfunding has begun to establish itself in the UK with beneficial consequences for producers keen to create and promote new shows and for companies struggling to cope with the ever-tightening purse strings of public funding.”
The Kennedy Center Needs Better Theatre
“Theatrically, the Kennedy Center over the past decade has been like some lumbering, dozing giant that occasionally wakes, gets some exercise — and goes back to sleep.”
Why Are So Many Of Washington’s Arts Leaders Jumping Ship?
“For many, the vacancy is sheer coincidence, an alignment of slots in a city known for its turnover. But others ask a dreaded question, one that looms over federally funded institutions: In a time of government shutdowns and regular budget brawls, does top talent really want to deal with us?”
What’s Needed For the Next Smithsonian Director
“Ask around, and when people think about what kind of person should replace G. Wayne Clough as the next secretary, they don’t talk in terms of skill sets, or professional background.”
Look, New Zealand Isn’t Middle Earth
“I don’t find a lot of neat answers when I put a map of Middle Earth next to one of New Zealand, and I haven’t decided once and for all if I can get down with LOTR’s politics.”
Synthesizers: The Death Of TV And Movie Music?
“One always has to take that into account, that distance from the actual production of the sound. That gives it a slightly dehumanised quality.”
Little Books Looking For The Sweetest Reading Spot
“The wish is that a short book can navigate both print and digital with buoyant grace, where a bigger one might capsize. ‘Somewhere between a long magazine article and a book’ is the sweet spot that many publishers describe.”
Fixing The National Portrait Gallery
“Early in her career, [Alice Instone] wrote to Cherie Blair, explaining her mission to give women the painterly attention lavished on men. She was thinking of women of influence – the National Portrait Gallery, she points out, is overcrowded with paintings of famous men.”
Honey Waldman, 87, Theatre Restorer And Producer
“Ms. Waldman and Mr. Becker transformed the former German Exchange Bank building, a cast-iron landmark in Manhattan, into the Bouwerie Lane Theater, a 140-seat Off Off Broadway stage at the Bowery and Bond Street that kept the Dutch spelling.”
Can Creative Fashion Help You Avoid Face-Identification Tech?
“Since facial-recognition algorithms rely on the identification and spatial relationship of key facial features, like symmetry and tonal contours, one can block detection by creating an ‘anti-face.'”
Apparently, NPR Listeners Like To Read About Sex (On Mobile Devices)
“While people browsing, say, biographies or science books were happy to do it from their desktops, a disproportionate number of you were looking up the sexy sexy books on mobile. Didn’t want the boss looking over your shoulder, huh?”
Fashion Shops Are Coming To Eat Your Art Galleries
“Westminster City Council, in central London, is proposing new measures to protect art galleries in Mayfair from encroaching fashion shops.”
Want To Remix The British Library’s Image Collection?
Now you can: The institution released more than a million images to Flickr for public reuse and remix and … anything you want.
When A Private Museum Fails
“Situations like this are very complicated. There’s the safety of the work, there’s the protection of the work. You know, how do you sustain a collection? How do you have it support itself as a collection?”