“A Japanese game maker has teamed up with the nation’s leading mobile phone network carrier to enable users to play an orchestra with their fingertips.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Hollywood, Having Come to the Banlieue, Turns Around and Leaves
“Filming for a new John Travolta movie in a troubled suburb of Paris has been cancelled after ten stunt cars were destroyed by fire.” So much for that initiative by Luc Besson.
Guillaume Depardieu Dies at 37
The tempestuous actor son of France’s most famous tempestuous actor died of a sudden case of acute pneumonia. “[His] health had never fully recovered from a life of drug addiction, a road crash and a hospital infection which forced the amputation of his right leg five years ago.”
Christopher Buckley Says He’s Been ‘Fatwahed’
The son of ur-conservative William F. Buckley has resigned his freelance gig with the magazine his father founded, National Review, after publishing (elsewhere) a column endorsing Barack Obama and receiving a ferocious backlash. “In fact, the only thing the Right can’t quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless.”
This Is Much More Intellectual Than Break-Dancing
Over the past 16 years, in the gritty suburbs of Paris, a group of young dancers who call themselves traceurs have been interacting with the urban environment through movement – “they can be seen pulling off anything from gutsy leaps from roof tops to sublime balancing acts on metal railings.”
Anthony Hopkins, Composer
The man who has played Hannibal Lecter, Titus Andronicus and Richard M. Nixon has been writing music for 50 years, and the Dallas Symphony is giving him a world premiere concert this week.
Truth in Vocabulary
To clear up any confusion, author Chris Offutt has assembled a glossary of modern literary jargon. E.g., “short story: An essay written to conceal the truth and protect the writer’s family”; “chick lit: A patriarchal term of oppression for heterosexual female writing”; “deconstructionism: A moderately successful attempt by the French to avenge the loss of Paris as the global center of literature.”
Lovelace: The Rock Opera
Yes, seriously. Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Gos and Anna Waronker of the band “that dog” have created a musical on the life of the woman who was called “Miss Holy-Holy” in high school and went on to become a byword for 1970s porn and (later) a feminist cause célèbre.
Ballerina Nadia Nerina, 80
“Nadia Nerina, an enchanting and virtuosic ballet dancer who inspired choreographer Frederick Ashton’s enduring comedy La Fille mal gardée and outperformed Rudolf Nureyev, died Oct. 6… [she] was one of the major classical ballet dancers of the 1950s and ’60s and a reigning presence in the Sadler’s Wells company, which became the Royal Ballet.”
Zubin Mehta Proposes Kashmir Peace Concert
“I would love, if I had the time and the sponsors available, to just do music to bring the people of Kashmir – the Hindus and the Muslims, who are at odds with one another – together,” says the Indian-born conductor, doubtless keeping in mind the similar efforts of his colleague Daniel Barenboim in the Mideast.