Bill Arnett says he believes that Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley and others aren’t just great artists; he argues that in a colorblind world, they’d be held in the same esteem as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Willem de Kooning. He’s been so aggressive making this argument that more than once he’s been kicked out of museums. But there are those who appreciate his unyielding passion.
Tag: 03.01.17
What Makes People Troll, And How To Stop Them (Or At Least Slow Them Down)
A team of four computer science professors at Stanford and Cornell used studies to work out what moves ordinary people to start trolling online, when it’s likely to happen, and measures that can make it less likely to spread.
In A First, West End Theatre Asks Patrons Not To Eat In Their Seats
The Ambassador Theatre Group has asked ticketholders to the revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? “that no food be consumed during the performance.” (This may have been at the request of star Imelda Staunton, who has publicly complained about the practice.) This request is evidently unusual enough that ATG later felt the need to stress that food has not been banned outright.
This Picture Of Strawberries Contains (Believe It Or Not) No Red Pixels
“The strawberries appear red, despite their lack of any red pixels, because of color constancy, or the way that the human brain is designed to perceive the same colors under a range of circumstances. Remember The Dress? Same deal.”
If Pundits Are Going To Review Trump’s Performance As A Speechmaker, They Should Take Some Notes From Real Critics
As Slate‘s Jamelle Bouie noted in disgust the morning after Trump’s speech to Congress, “This morning is a good reminder that so much of what passes for political analysis is just theater criticism.” Alyssa Rosenberg responds: “On behalf of critics everywhere, I take a minor amount of umbrage: After all, we generally set higher standards for performances than ‘basic competence,’ and we tend to address style as well as substance. But … maybe political commentators could stand to take a few tips from those of us who practice criticism for a living.” Rosenberg offers three good ones.
The First Known Depiction Of The Cosmos Is On A 3,600-Year-Old Disk
“There’s been no shortage of controversy and speculation around the Nebra Sky Disk since it was … exhumed illegally in 1999 in Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. …”
This Director Can Turn Even A ‘Glass Menagerie’ On Broadway Into Experimental Theater
Journalist Sasha Weiss watches as Sam Gold – who won a Tony for Fun Home and set Othello inside a big plywood box – radically strips down Tennessee Williams’s setting and uses casting to upend everything we think we know about the characters.
Theatre Locations Are Getting Weird, Some Might Say Gimmicky
A great space isn’t enough; the plays have to match setting and theme, as in this Orpheus and Eurydice under a bridge: “We pass into a damp, dark space, press a coin into the palm of Charon and bend almost double to walk four steps and emerge into a chamber under the Clifton suspension bridge. The walls are mottled with mould. Fronds grow from the roof. Water drips. It’s as cold as hell, and that’s exactly where we are supposed to be.”
The Flour War: How One Greek Town Celebrates Its Mardi Gras
On “Clean Monday,” residents of the village of Calaxidi cover their houses with plastic and then hurl bombs full of colored wheat flour at each other. (It’s like Holi, but with more calories.) The tradition is said to go back to an act of defiance against the ottomans in 1801. (video and slideshow)
Our Historical Narratives Have Been Framed By Nation States. But In The Era Of Globalism?
“Until very recently, the practice of modern history centred on, and was dominated by, the nation state. Most history was the history of the nation. If you wander through the history and biography aisles of either brick-and-mortar or virtual bookstores, the characters and heroes of patriotism dominate. In the United States, authors such as Walter Isaacson, David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin have helped to give millions of readers their understanding of the past and the present. Inevitably, they wrote page-turning profiles of heroic nation-builders. Every nation cherishes its national history, and every country has a cadre of flame-keepers. Then, along came globalisation and the shake-up of old, bordered imaginations.”