“Jonathan Franzen’s approach raises larger questions about the male literary establishment’s familiar, deep-seated ambivalence about women and ambition. How many male writers cite or talk about women authors who have influenced them? How many do they include among their jostling, competitive peers? It is, clearly, much easier to sustain the fraternal order, huddling together in a corner snarking about the plain girl in the expensive dress, than acknowledge that maybe she is smart, capable, and worthy of their competition.”
Tag: 03.01.12
UK’s National Gallery Saves Second Titian For Nation
“Titian’s masterpiece Diana and Callisto has been secured for Britain after the National Gallery stumped up £25m from its reserves and the painting’s owner dropped the asking price by £5m … It now joins its pair, Diana and Actaeon, in the shared ownership of the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland.”
Who Cares If You Listen? Not Unrepentant Modernist Peter Eötvös
“I don’t think it’s important,” says the Hungarian-French composer. “If you start from a point of view of doing something for the public, you won’t create a new world. … Never give what the public asks. You must give the public what it needs – even if they do not always know it! Many people will understand 100 years later.”
Mark Morris Dance Group To Make Chinese Debut
“The Mark Morris Dance Group will make its first foray into China, performing in Guangzhou and Macao from May 25 to June 2, the company said on Thursday.”
Why ‘African Tribal Fabrics’ Are Neither African Nor Tribal
The curious history of how Dutch businessmen took Indonesian-style batik designs, mass-produced cloth with them and made them into high-fashion staples for West Africans.
Carrie‘s Creators Always Knew They Had A Good Musical In There Somewhere
Michael Gore, composer of Broadway’s most notorious flop, now re-worked and resurrected: “Had we seen a version of the show that we liked, and perhaps people didn’t like it or the critics didn’t like it, that’s one thing. But, you know, the reason we went back to this was hopefully for us to sit through this show from beginning to end and go, ‘This is what we had in mind.'”
UK Passport Office Declares: “Acting Is Not A Proper Job”
A West End performer’s reference for a passport application was rejected because the passport office ruled that “acting was not a proper job”.
Tone Of The Times: Berlinale Film Festival Features Conflict At Every Turn
At every turn, the Berlinale dished up a healthy does of rebellion, from the festival’s French opening entry, “Farewell My Queen,” a lush costume epic about Marie Antoinette and the women around her in the final days of the ancien régime, to the restored version of Sergei Eisenstein’s “October,” which was given a gala screening with a full orchestra.
Frank Gehry’s New Signature Theatre – A “Quietly Potent New Kind Of Space”
“For years, the Signature bounced around, renting space from the Public Theater downtown or holing up in a black box on Bond Street and then on far, far West 42nd Street. In 2004, the company was selected to be part of a revitalizing cultural mecca promised for Ground Zero. Mr. Gehry would be the architect of a new $700 million performing arts center, and the Signature would share marquee space with the Joyce Theater. But by 2007, with the whole site mired in controversy, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. decided to cut costs and disinvite the Signature, a blessing in disguise.”
“Billions” Of DVD’s To The Cloud?
“To get consumers excited about managing their movies online and steer them away from cheap rentals and piracy, Warner Bros. wants to lead the way in persuading people to convert billions of DVDs into digital files.”