“To be sure, the current mania over data-driven thinking and its seemingly limitless applications to journalism, education and all aspects of government has huge upsides that are themselves incalculable. But in focusing too heavily on economic multiplier effects and other such pieces of data, we risk standardizing cultural experiences to meet those fantasy numbers in the same way education has been standardized to achieve acceptable test scores.”
The First Woman Ever To Write A Book In English Lived Walled Into One Room Alongside A Church
What’s more, it’s possible you’ve heard of her and didn’t realize she was a woman. And nobody knows her real name.
Mandy Patinkin Explains The True Meaning Of ‘The Princess Bride’ To Ted Cruz
“Inigo Montoya spent his life trying to avenge the murder of his father. He found the six-fingered man, and he killed him. But he realized that that did not bring his father back. It didn’t do any good. Inigo realized that he might have made a different choice to do something else with his life. If they ever did a sequel, you would see all the good he has done for the world.”
We Can All Learn To Be Better At Christmas … From Pre-Conversion Scrooge
“The point of the tale is this: Most people are irritating and selfish, especially around Christmastime. They march around in gaudy cheerfulness, braying good wishes to everyone within earshot, repeating the tiresome pieties of the season—Happy Holidays!—and pestering friends and relations and employers for all sorts of favors and boons and cash gifts.”
Can We Even Call This Thing ‘Television’ Anymore?
“The soul of television has escaped the box, and is now flowing and taking on a whole range of different shapes, each with its own unique characteristics.”
The Australian Ballet’s Director Talks About The Hidden Side Of Sydney
“When you go up Argyle Street and there’s that big arch, you feel like you’re taking a step back in time. There’s a real sense of history there. I like when you’re off the tourist path and there are these beautiful old terrace houses.”
Detroit Is An Underappreciated Theatre Town
“I have found an artistic home in Detroit as it has launched my professional theatre career in many ways. It is the first place I was paid to act, direct, and write. Without Detroit, I would probably still be in SoCal working at the YMCA, and hoping for a big break … or any break.”
The Tension Between French Literature And Real Life In The Arabic World
“Well before tensions between France’s Muslim and non-Muslim populations rose in response to the terrorist attacks last month, the Islamic world had been looming large in French literature this season — a sign of the powerful influence the Middle East and North Africa play in the nation’s cultural imagination.”
Disney Scores Big With ‘Star Wars,’ But Sees Its Stock Fall Anyway
The problem is ESPN: “Richard Greenfield, media analyst with BTIG Research, said in a report released Friday that Disney has overpaid for sports rights ‘based on overly aggressive multichannel video subscriber projections.'”
The Numbers That Make Something – A Vine, An Instagram Post, A Broadway Show – A Hit
“Identifying a hit movie, record or book is easy, because it follows well established criteria. But what about a hit tweet? Or a hit podcast? When it comes to other creative works, defining a blockbuster is not so simple.”
The Last Gift From A British Museum Director Emphasizes Refugee Tragedies
The acquisition, Neil MacGregor said, “will allow all visitors to the museum to reflect on this significant moment in the history of Europe, a great migration which may change the way we understand our continent.
We Need To Calm The Heck Down About So-Called Spoilers
“Why does the enjoyment of spoiler freaks hold more social value than those who want to enjoy talking about an experience? Indeed, we build community in discussion. Keeping mum builds nothing.”
Unqualified Ballet Teachers Aren’t Just A Problem; They’re A Danger To Young Bones
“It’s not just relatively advanced techniques like pointe work that can cause problems, the academy warns – but forcing ‘turnout’, where dancers splay out their feet and open their hips, can also cause damage.”
The Rehabilitation Of One Of Los Angeles’ Most Contested Pieces Of Public Art
“‘He wanted to invent a new theory that would interweave color and music through the technology of the Triforium,’ said Leslie Young, one of the artist’s two daughters who spoke recently at the fundraising event. ‘As part of his fantastical plan, my father proposed that laser beams would shoot skyward from the three concrete pillars, tapping out Los Angeles in Morse code,’ said Cecily Young, Joseph Young’s other daughter.”
London ‘Garden Bridge’ Idea Hits Some Serious Bumps
“The fairy lights of a Christmas market twinkled through the windows while tourists shuffled along the south bank clutching cups of mulled wine, oblivious to the heated debate going on inside the chamber. The mayor had been summoned, along with the head of Transport for London Mike Brown and its planning director Richard de Cani, to explain themselves to the Greater London Authority’s Oversight Committee over the murky genesis of the proposed garden bridge. And Boris, chief bridge booster, was getting increasingly hot under the collar.”
Why The Hartford Symphony Is On The Brink
“The symphony spent most of the year in violation of federal labor rules, failing to make offers to individual musicians as required. More broadly, management has failed to raise enough money or present enough new programming to stanch the bleeding, which is now $1.3 million a year.”
New York Has Solved Public Art (But At What Cost?)
“So what am I supposed to do when cultural forces I loathe are responsible for something like a new golden age of public art, which I always felt was important, but also maybe something like impossible?”
So What Has Happened To The Corcoran’s School Of Art?
Every once in awhile, we hear news about the fate of select pieces from the former museum’s collection, many of which have been claimed by the National Gallery of Art. But little is known about the plight of the college, its staff, faculty, and students since it was taken over by George Washington University.
Broadway Wins Tax Benefit In Just-Passed Congressional Budget
“The change, part of a broader tax-cut measure approved by the House on Thursday and the Senate on Friday, extends to live theater a tax benefit already provided to the film and television industries.”
Is The Criticism Of The Crowd Drowning Out Professional Critics?
“As the fans and the publicists conspire to drown the rest of us with information, it can become difficult to honestly experience the film on the screen. The irony here is that the bigger and busier the conversation about movies becomes, the more it tends toward consensus; it’s the paradox of the Internet where infinite information is channelled through oligopolies.”
The Boiling Bolshoi Behind The Scenes
“The world of the theatre is cruel. It looks beautiful from the outside, but underneath everything is boiling.”