Peter Bradshaw is not taking any prisoners, comparing the win of Touch Me Not to Brexit and the current U.S. president. “This is a quasi-fictional documentary essay about sexuality, which deluged me in a tidal wave of depression at how embarrassingly awful it was, at its mediocrity, its humourless self-regard, its fatuous and shallow approach to its ostensible theme of intimacy, and the clumsy way all this was sneakily elided with Euro-hardcore cliches about BDSM, alternative sexualities, fetishism and exhibitionism.”
Tag: 02.25.18
The Medieval Origins Of The Word Craft, Not To Mention Craft Beer
You can start a big fight by calling something a craft instead of an art, but that’s not how it got started. “The Anglo-Saxon word ‘craeft’ is distinct from our modern word ‘craft’ in spirit and in practice. ‘Craeft’ means having the wisdom of one’s surroundings, understanding nature and the seasons, and knowing one’s materials, as well as how objects and systems fall apart.”
David Greer, Scholar Of English Songs Of The 16th And 17th Centuries, Has Died At 80
Greer, who published two volumes on lute songs and a new edition of John Dowland’s music,”was never happier than when working with old manuscripts and printed sources; he developed an extensive knowledge of these sources, their provenances and their locations.”
As Hollywood Expectations Rise, So Does ‘Black Panther’ In The Record Books
The “euphorically reviewed” movie hasn’t opened in China or Japan yet, but may be headed for one of the best box offices of any movie, not just any Marvel movie.
There’s A Lot More Going On In Gender-‘Flipping’ Shakespeare Than You Might Think
Critic and scholar Hailey Bachrach on having, for instance, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing played by a woman: “We must think about these things beyond just the blanket assumption that any opportunity for women is narratively good – especially in a play whose embedded gender politics make ‘gender blindness’ more or less impossible.”
What’s It Like Being A Showrunner For A Culturally Specific Comedy In The Trump Era?
One of the showrunners for Netflix’s remake of One Day at a Time says that the writers’ room is basing a lot of plot details on real life – for instance, the time post-election when someone told her Cuban-American brother to “go back to Mexico,” and that made it on to the show. “It’s like, ‘What’s happening?’ We try on the show to show many points of view. Obviously, the show has a liberal bent, but we try to show all sides of an issue so all sides of the conversation can start. This is something we thought would affect this family, so how would they talk about it? What would that look like?”
What’s Up With Hardback Books?
Publishers might want to phase them out – they’re more expensive, of course – but they’re worth 20 percent of the market, and more than that: “The hardback is a mark of quality and a demonstration of intent on behalf of the publisher: it shows booksellers and reviewers that this is a book worth paying attention to. In fact some literary editors will still only review fiction (on first publication) if it’s published in hardback.”
Top AJBlog Posts For The Weekend Of 02.25.18
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-02-22
Magic time
The Alley Theatre’s production of Satchmo at the Waldorf had its first technical rehearsal (known to theater people as “tech”) last night, and I relished every minute of it. Tech is the time when the … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-02-22
The Alley Theatre’s production of Satchmo at the Waldorf had its first technical rehearsal (known to theater people as “tech”) last night, and I relished every minute of it. Tech is the time when the … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-02-22
Marilynne Robinson Says We Need To Celebrate Human Traits And Talents
The author of Housekeeping and three other novels has just published a new book of essays. “One thing I cannot understand about contemporary society is that, as we learn more, and become more aware of the incredible singularity of our Earth, we cannot seem to allow ourselves to recognise it. And even if one day we were to discover there is another planet out there, just like ours, that fact would just mean that, in all this universe, there were only two things so absolutely extraordinary.”
Turns Out Abstract Cave Art Was Made By Neanderthals, So Maybe We Should Stop Using That As An Insult
This is big. “The reason it is so eerie to think of a Neanderthal making a hand-image is that the painted hands – not to mention bison, horses and mammoths – found in European caves have come to be seen as the moment when the modern human mind itself is born: the first evidence not just of the intelligence of Homo sapiens but our capacity to imagine and dream, to reflect, in short to possess consciousness. What does it mean if another kind of human species shared those traits? Is there nothing special about us at all?”