There’s a reason the artist has no known self-portraits. “Art historians have long known that Michelangelo wasn’t exactly handsome, but this is the first time that an exhibition focuses on the physical likeness of the Tuscan master as well as on rumors of his horrible personal habits and lack of hygiene.”
Author: French Clements
“How Fiction Works” – All Here, In A Book
“Under the guise of a reader’s handbook, an introduction to the primary elements of fictional narrative (voice, detail, character, dialogue), [James] Wood has written a manifesto – one with the singular feel of an etiquette manual, though none of its fussiness.”
Arts In LA – If The Traffic Doesn’t Discourage You, How About The Gas Prices?
But in the City of Angels, at least, “there is no solid proof that $4.50-a-gallon regular is driving culture lovers en masse to buses and trains – or that it’s discouraging many from going to concerts, plays and museums.”
Celebrity Culture, German Style
Germany has long been funny about its relationship to local stardom and to the very notion of celebrity. “It’s the reverse of America. You can openly be an intellectual elitist here, but materially you must act the same as everyone else.”
For Bloggers, Responsible Work Pays Off
“Want to build a great audience, composed of people you respect? Be picky about who you decide to overserve. Then do it with all the skill and enthusiasm you can muster.”
When Does a Reporter Become a Copy-Editor?
“Though an intrepid A-section reporter might be able to turn up names, ranks and serial numbers by pushing sources and insisting everything be said on the record, in proper English and for attribution, I’ll never accomplish all that with the crazy stuff on boards.”
The Album Title You Couldn’t Say In Public
Ever since his 1994 debut, the mighty Illmatic, Queensbridge, N.Y.’s Nasir Jones has been hip hop’s Hemingway… No matter what Nas’s new disc is called, “it’s hip hop’s most cogent deliberation on the N word in decades” and it’s had the music press in an uproar.
Following Near-Fatal Accident, Young Singer Flourishes
“Gardot’s work, for all its stylish veneer of Joni Mitchell-ish pop and occasional twang of country-and-western romance, contains a deeper strain of jazz. Like the footloose Madeleine Peyroux, she is winning over the kind of listeners who probably never thought they liked jazz.”
The Computer As Art Historian?
Researchers have taught computers how to “read” paintings and identify them. “A picture, after all, is more than a thousand words. It can be represented as bits of data, just like a bank account or music on a compact disc, and the researchers have sifted this information through the dispassionate filter of statistics. The authors… are quick to say that they don’t want to replace art historians. Their methods aren’t sophisticated enough to do so even if they wanted to.”
A First Step To A Major Spanish Ballet Company?
“Half a dozen international stars – American Ballet Theatre’s Angel Corella and the Royal Ballet’s Tamara Rojo among them – owe their fabulous techniques to Spanish training.” But there is no major Spanish ballet company for them to perform in. Now Corella has returned to start an academy and, hopefully, a major new company.