“A new writing award in honour of Harold Pinter has been launched today by London’s Royal Court Theatre. The Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award is a new bursary for playwrights and has been granted by Pinter’s widow Antonia Fraser.”
Tag: 01.31.11
Rare Footage of Original Ballets Russes Surfaces
“A tiny lost treasure of ballet history has been discovered – 30 seconds of the Ballets Russes dancing in 1928, the only film ever found of a performance by one of the most influential and famous companies in dance history.”
Why Do Americans Report Such High Levels of Anxiety?
“[Even] as our streets become safer, our cars more crash-proof, and our food and drugs better regulated, we still keep finding ways to become more tense. And don’t assume that this is a problem that affects all nations equally. … I spoke with scores of psychologists and neuroscientists about this question, and I picked up three main themes in their replies.”
The Ancient Egyptians, Inventors of the Afterlife
“Wondering what happens after death was an Ancient Egyptian preoccupation. (Maybe because most had their children when teenagers and died by age 35.) They left more writings about the subject than any equivalent civilization. Certainty about the afterlife was a cultural given.”
Yo-Yo Ma In A Train Station – A Citizen Musician Movement
“The folks behind the new Chicago Symphony Orchestra-led Citizen Musician initiative would love for this happening to be a microcosm for how their movement plays out across Chicago and beyond, starting with a core of musicians and spreading in a way that’s planned yet spontaneous, until it envelopes anyone who has any contact with or appreciation of music.”
American Moralizing Makes For Big Audiences But Bad Public Discourse
American absolutism means that their cultural handle on sex veers from ignorant to hypocritical, but rarely settles at normal or compassionate.
How To Fix NBC
“You don’t want to overestimate the importance of bitter words in Hollywood. People may not have liked NBC, but that didn’t stop most of them from working there if it offered the best or only job available. Still, the network would be better off with better relations with its suppliers and its competitors, if only to stem the public perception that it’s become the TV stop of last resort.”
A SuperBowl Bet On Art
“If the Steelers win, Carnegie Museum will be on the receiving end of “Boating on the Yerres,” an 1877 painting by Gustave Caillebotte owned by the Milwaukee Art Museum. But really, isn’t it just a little un-American to bet two French Impressionists in the Super Bowl?”
Take Your Ballet Classes Online?
Mary Helen Bowers trained Natalie Portman for “The Black Swan.” She “has created Ballet Beautiful, a workout that can be taken privately in person or online through Skype. Classes run 30 or 60 minutes, individually or in a group with the others all logged in via Skype from their own locations.”
Concern Rises About Safety Of Egyptian Art Treasures
“According to reports, two mummies have been ruined. The worrying question is which mummies, for at the heart of this museum is a collection of resin-coated bodies removed from the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. These are, as they say in Sicily, excellent cadavers – the mummies of some of ancient Egypt’s greatest rulers.”