To Arabs, whose experience of imperialism and colonialism is brutal and direct, talking about their land as delectable bits of food, sweets to be consumed, can feel like more than mere caricature. It’s the way that the West has perceived the lands of the Middle East—something for our consumption. “It’s our oil, after all. It’s our Holy Land, after all.”
Tag: 01.23.18
LA County Museum of Art Looks To Expand Off-Site In South LA
The City Council vote on Friday would give Lacma a 35-year lease for an 80,000 square-foot building in a recreation area known as South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. The lease will be first discussed on Wednesday during the council’s “arts, recreation and river committee” meeting, which is open to the public.
Constructing Dessert: A New Wave Of Pastry Chefs Trained As Architects
“Why [make] such a radical career shift? In interviews, several said they realized while working in architecture that pastry required a similar skill set, and they found baking a cake a lot more interesting – and immediately gratifying – than designing a building.”
Foreign Galleries Are Expanding To Italy
The move makes some sense. Despite a fluctuating economy, Italy has a strong collecting tradition. François Chantala, a partner at Thomas Dane, says: “The scene in Italy has always been discreet, established and savvy—not dissimilar to Germany, Holland and Belgium in the 1960s and 70s.” But with little evidence the domestic market is expanding, does Italy have the critical mass of high-level collectors required to sustain these galleries, or is their arrival merely a symptom of the enduring appeal of la dolce vita?
State And Local Governments Take Up Efforts To Preserve Net Neutrality
Montana is the first state to take action to encourage broadband providers to follow the principles of net neutrality, but others, including California, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington are considering legislative action. Meanwhile, New York City officials published a request for information about how the city can best monitor the connection speeds and network performance of broadband providers. Mayor Bill de Blasio promised the city would do “everything within our power to keep the internet open and accessible for all” after the FCC voted to repeal its rules.
A Tech Backlash Is Building. But Let’s Be Careful…
“The smartphone is today’s emblem of whether one believes in progress or decline. It is a powerful tool, and any such tool has the capacity to do harm as well as great good. Finding balance has never been a human strong suit, but it has never been more needed.”
Male Dancers Are Body-Shamed Too
“My entire career, I stood out too much to fit in. And that whole time, I was the one who couldn’t accept that short, fat and bald could be the next best thing on the block. I had to change how I saw myself. All of my accomplishments were not in spite of my short, fat, bald body, but because of it.”
If Houston’s Alley Theatre’s Longtime Artistic Director “Retired” Why Was He Paid $383,000 Severance?
More than 20 current and former Alley employees have told the Houston Chronicle that Gregory Boyd’s 28-year, Tony-winning tenure at the theater was tainted by abusive behavior, particularly toward young actresses. Boyd, who abruptly retired with two days’ notice on Jan. 11, did not respond to requests for comment.
How Randy Rainbow Became An Internet Sensation Using Show Tunes To Mock Trump
Comedy is a great unifier. I hear from people every day from both sides saying, “We don’t have the same beliefs, and, you know, I hate gay people and I hate white people and I hate black people and I’m an awful person—but I laughed at your video!”
The Technology Revolution That Enabled The World’s First Novel
“The book was written about 1,000 years ago, at a time when a lot of literature was still produced by scribes, collected from various sources and cobbled together by editors. The foundational epics and religious texts in circulation then were very different from the reading material we’re used to. In that context, Murasaki’s diary felt to me like a turning point in the history of literature—it sounds so recognizable, so intimate, so modern.”