Sirens (coming from the street) were heard wailing at the beginning of Sotheby’s Virtual Preview of Highlights from Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art — a fleeting but thematically appropriate soundtrack. – Lee Rosenbaum
Author: Matthew Westphal
Lear Lite
Shakespeare’s writing — all of it, poetry and plays — was repulsive to Tolstoy, who claimed in a pamphlet that whenever he read Shakespeare he was overcome by “repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment.” Orwell disagreed mightily: “Finally the most striking thing is how little difference it all makes.” – Jan Herman
Farther along
It’s just short of seven months since the death of my beloved wife, and not until recently did I feel that I was starting to become myself again. Sometimes the pain of Hilary’s loss takes me by surprise and I find myself crying — but not often. – Terry Teachout
Michelle Obama’s Editor Launches New Publishing House With Unorthodox Marketing Strategy
“Rather than relying chiefly on bookstores, retailers, advertising and other traditional channels to promote authors,” Molly Stern plans to have her new venture, Zando, “team up with high-profile individuals, companies and brands, who will act as publishing partners and promote books to their fans and customers.” – The New York Times
In Rural Nepal, Traveling Theatre Group Helps Villagers Challenge Child Marriage And Domestic Violence
Visiting isolated villages where many people have never seen a play before, the Nepali troupe called Shilpee does forum theatre, where a script is performed twice; the second time, audience members can stop the action and suggest or act out a different solution to the situation onstage. Says director Ghimire Yubaraj, “It would be easy to be judgmental and disregard the audience members as poor or uneducated, but their ideas can be brilliant.” – The Guardian
The Composer Who Has Her Students Cook And Do Nature Hikes
Gabriela Lena Frank hosts the young composers in her apprentice program at her mountainside farmstead in northern California, where, she says, “we get rid of the shame of wrong notes. We make good food and I say, ‘You get to make mistakes here.'” As one alumna put it, “It shows you that music making is an earthly thing, so why not connect to the earth while we make it?” – The New York Times
As Museums Sell Off Art, Will There Be Enough Buyers?
“The market generally loves deaccessioned works; museum provenance adds the lustre of validation, and consequently monetary value. But will there just be too many of these works on the block in the coming months? … And, with an inevitably smaller market due to the [COVID] crisis, can prices be sustained?” – The Art Newspaper
James Randi, Magician Who Debunked Magic And The Paranormal, Dead At 92
“An inveterate skeptic and bristly contrarian in his profession, Mr. Randi insisted that magic is based solely on earthly sleight of hand and visual trickery. He scorned fellow magicians who allowed or encouraged audiences to believe their work was rooted in extrasensory or paranormal powers. In contrast, [he] cheerfully described himself as a ‘liar’ and ‘cheat’.” He made something of a second career out of exposing (and fending off lawsuits from) psychics and faith healers; he spent much of his MacArthur “genius grant” on attorney fees. – The Washington Post
Quibi Was The New Coke Of Streaming Video
How so? Like New Coke, it was “product not enough real people wanted, a solution to a problem that didn’t really exist,” writes Josef Adalian. “There is an audience for bite-size entertainment with production values closer to Netflix than what you’ll find on social media, but I’m not so sure there’s a market for it.” – Vulture
Once Dance Was A Weapon In The Fight For Social Justice. Could It Be Again?
Gia Kourlas: “Back [in the 1930s], protests and social justice were part of the fabric of modern dance as it met the moment of the Great Depression and the rise of authoritarianism. ‘The Dance Is a Weapon.’ That was the title of the first recital of the New Dance Group, a socially minded collective formed in 1932. For me, that period of dance haunts the time we’re living in — the pandemic, the election, the uprisings against racial injustice — like a good, progressive ghost.” – The New York Times