Author: Matthew Westphal

The Ten Types of Booker Prize Winner

The Guardian‘s blog breaks down the 40 years of the award into such categories as “the literary ‘Long Service Good Conduct’ medal,” “This is Britain’s premier fiction prize, but let’s show how ‘post-British’ we are,” “A Star Is Born” and “Let’s give it to a f***ing good f***ing novel that isn’t afraid to use the word f***.” Where does this year’s victor fall?

Amid the Bombs, Political Satire Plays Baghdad

Playing to determined crowds who travel to the National Theater after dark, Ali Hussein’s cabaret-style two-act Bring the King, Bring Him “portrays Iraqi politicians as petty, corrupt and detached from the people they govern. […] So out of touch is one politician that he proposes (just like a real-life legislator) erecting a huge Ferris wheel ‘so people can cool off in the summer heat’.”

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

“Andrew Vactor was facing a $150 fine for playing rap music too loudly on his car stereo in July. But a judge offered to reduce that to $35 if Vactor spent 20 hours listening to classical music… [he] lasted only about 15 minutes.” The idea of the sentence “was to force Vactor to listen to something he might not prefer, just as other people had no choice but to listen to his loud rap music.”

Was the Roman Polanski Trial a Miscarriage of Justice?

A new BBC documentary argues – with agreement from both the defense and prosecuting attorneys – that the director’s notorious trial for statutory rape was distorted by an ambitious judge. “It really isn’t about whether Polanski is likeable or not. It’s about whether he was treated fairly under California state law. And clearly he was not.”

Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves

Brendan Kiley has a list of urgent suggestions to save the art form from its imminent doom – from the inventive (provide child care, letting the kids play theater games in a rehearsal room while the parents groove to Pinter) to the risky (provide lots of cheap alcohol) to the unlikely (no more Shakespeare). Money quote: “Fringe theater shouldn’t be in the game of ennobling, it should be in the game of debasement.”

China Cracks Down on Sacred Classical Music

Despite the runaway success of Western classical music there, the Chinese Communist authorities have recently become nervous about works with Christian themes, regardless of their place in the canon. A Messiah by the visiting Academy of Ancient Music was made invitation-only; the Mozart and Verdi Requiems have been restricted; even part of Carmina Burana(!) was censored.

Carlos Santana, Man of the Cloth

The legendary Latin-jazz-rocker tells Rolling Stone, “I’m going to stop playing when I’m 67 and work on what I really want to do, which is to be a minister, like Little Richard.” Meanwhile, he tells his band, “the theme of this tour is ‘live your light.’ I want the audience to be reminded that before they had all this stuff, this DNA and flesh and bones, they were made out of light.”