Lula Washington: “[Director James Cameron] wanted them to have their own culture and … their own rituals and their own ways of greeting and own ways being intimate with each other and walking and sitting. He said, ‘Well, these characters are eight feet tall, how would they sit?’ So we actually got down on the floor in his office and sat in different positions.”
Tag: 01.27.10
The Cartoonists Who Chronicled Gay Liberation
They “put everyday gay experience on the page. By default they were documenting the history of gay liberation in Britain. They turned gay people from the butt of the joke to those delivering the punch lines.”
L.A. Opera’s 2010-11 Season Smaller, But Not More Timid
Compared to “its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the company offered 75 performances of 10 productions, next season will see 42 performances of six productions.” But the season will open with a world premiere, of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino, and end with The Turn of the Screw, which will launch a four-year Britten celebration.
When Urban Foodies Turn To Yoga
“India has become to American yoga what France is to American cuisine: an ancient source of wisdom to be reinterpreted, democratized and repackaged by its acolytes here.” Much of that reinterpretation is now happening around food: “yogier-than-thou” vegans; the use of bacon as “a yogic teaching tool”; a coach telling her class, “Ssssmell the squassshhhh waaaafting through the air.”
At Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, An Eight-Hour Sonic Genome Project
Says composer Anthony Braxton, “[The piece] breaks down the linearity of a one- or two-hour sonic experience. … I would ask the [listeners] to walk inside the music, just like walking inside the House of Mirrors.” (We’ve spared you the theory-speak.)
Accidents Happen: The Met’s Picasso Mishap Was Not Unique
There was the Lucian Freud drawing accidentally put through a shredder at Sotheby’s. The Qing dynasty vases shattered by a man who tripped on his shoelaces. The de Chirico painting damaged by a wrecking ball demolishing the house next door. The Impressionist canvases that were carted off with the trash. Says one art insurer, “These are the ‘oops’ claims.”
West End Topped £500M Mark In Record-Breaking 2009
“The Society of London Theatre has announced that the total receipts for 2009 were £504,765,690,” a West End record. Attendance, too, was up. “While in previous years it has been musicals that have driven the increases … in 2009 the rise was almost entirely accounted for by the performance of drama at the box office.”
Getty Gives Another $3.1M To Spotlight History Of L.A. Art
“The grants,” to 26 arts institutions taking part in the project “Pacific Standard Time,” “nearly double the foundation’s financial commitment to the exhibitions. Most of the grants … will support art shows and catalogs initiated by an earlier, $3.6-million round of Getty research and planning grants.”
Lyric Opera Of Chicago Downsizes Performance Schedule
“Although eight operas will continue to be presented in 2010-11, the company will cut back the number of performances to 68 from 77 in the current season. As a result, 32,000 fewer tickets will be put on the market.”
Will Apple Tablet Mean Better E-Book Deal For Publishers?
“[U]ntil now, Amazon’s grip on the e-book market has been so complete that publishers have had to accept its terms on everything, including the price of e-books.” Apple may be offering a more palatable, profitable arrangement.