“During much of the 18th century in France, female painters defied the usual constraints on their gender and thrived among the kings, queens and nobles soon to lose their heads.” Then came the French Revolution – destroyer of (bourgeois) women’s careers.
Tag: 03.02.12
You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Immediately – It Might Take Seven Years)
Rereading Marion Milner means thinking hard about desire. “We think of our desires as being pure and instinctual, never really understanding the influence cultural norms, or what we see on television or in pornography. We feel pulled toward something we consider magical and totally individual, and then we get our hands on it and realize it’s not having much of an effect on us after all. Why were we craving this again?”
Quebec Cinema Is Booming. Great, But Why?
Why is Quebecois cinema suddenly so popular with the Oscars (Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar) and with filmgoers? “For way too long, Quebec cinema was stuck in a pure-laine universe that was virtually entirely white and Franco. Quebec cinema is opening up to the real Quebec and that’s partly why the world is opening up to Quebec cinema.”
How To Make Scouting Relevant Again: It’s The Technology, Stupid
Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts: The venerable organizations have lost thousands of members. But with badges for 3-D printing or biohacking, a virtual troop or an iPad app, they could adapt – and thrive.
Julie Taymor Sues Spider-Man Producers For Fraud
“Taymor’s lawyers claim in the document that producers ‘fraudulently induced’ her to continue working on the musical even though they were ‘secretly conspiring to oust Taymor and use and change her work without pay.'”
What We Talk About When We Talk About Classical Music (And How To Do It Better)
“Yes, classical musicians can be amazing, and their performances are the result of a kind of intense dedication (those hours of practice) that rightly inspire respect in those who don’t do it themselves. Yet all artists spend hours and hours making their art, and few other artists are greeted with the same kind of awe simply for doing what they do (‘You wrote a BOOK? All those WORDS? Wow!’).”
Reviving (Dance On) Broadway
Choreographing for actors who aren’t quite triple threats yet, Kathleen Marshall “uses chess pieces to help block scenes involving lots of characters. She tracks other details, like calculating when performers can catch their breath, since actors can’t dance at full tilt at the same time they’re supposed to belt out a solo.”
Why Do Poets Always Seem To Be Fighting?
It’s a long, grand tradition…
How Much Skin To Show? (Their Are Contracts For That)
“The subject of nudity clauses has come up with increasing regularity these days, particularly as more flesh is being revealed on network television. Though naked actors may be more prevalent than ever, the choice not to show all is also more accepted.”
This Year’s Whitney Biennial Reinvents And Redeems
“In a way that is at once superbly ordered and open-ended, densely structured and, upon first encounter, deceptively unassuming, the exhibition manages both to reinvent the signature show of the Whitney Museum of American Art and to offer a bit of redemption for the out-of-control, money-saturated art world.”