“You could make the case that among the area’s larger resident theaters, Lewis has displayed the most consistent appetite for challenge. Where the cluttered Washington theater scene is driven by niche programming (classical, musical, silent, etc.), Lewis’s Center Stage is the dominant figure on Baltimore’s landscape, and for 20 years Lewis has made sure it has played the field in a serious way.”
Tag: 02.13.11
NEA Chief’s Suggestion There’s Too Much Art Provokes Public Debate
“Was Rocco Landesman really advocating the shutdown of temples of art, suggesting that subscription theaters be subject to the same economic laws as restaurants and shoe stores? Did he seriously mean to single out the art form in which he has made his name? Or was he playing devil’s advocate, knowingly lighting a fuse so that people would be compelled to respond?”
The Indispensable 21st Century Music Instrument
“An endlessly variable drum machine, it’s been an essential tool for producers, integral to hip-hop’s sonic development. It’s been used, less prominently, as a live tool too. But in the last few years, thanks to musicians like Araabmuzik, Divinci, Exile and others, it has become a stand-alone object of fascination.”
Why Were 2010’s Movies So Homogenously White?
This year’s nominations are “more racially homogenous — more white — than the 10 films that were up for best picture in 1940, when Hattie McDaniel became the first black American to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.” In view of recent history the whiteness of the 2011 Academy Awards is a little blinding.”
NY State Cites “Spider-Man” For Safety Violations
“None of the accidents cited in the violations involved sequences in which actors flew over audience members, but rather happened on stage. The sling-shot technique, which catapults performers from the back of the stage to its lip, caused one performer to break both of his wrists and another to injure his feet.”
The Words We Invent To Avoid Bad Words
“So long as humans have had things to be discreet about, they’ve had names that furnish some rhetorical distance from the things themselves.”
Great Expectations – The Books You Didn’t Read
“As much as I enjoy the books, I often find that the book I have read is somehow not as exciting as the book I had imagined reading.”