How Blanka Zizka – who had slipped through the Iron Curtain as a pregnant 21-year-old – and her erstwhile husband built the Wilma Theater from a tiny, seat-of-the-pants collective into a powerhouse that galvanized Philadelphia’s theater scene.
Tag: 03.13
Will Massive Open Online Courses Kill Off Our Universities?
“One real possibility is that universities and colleges that are not so elite will be unable to survive in the new environment.”
Do We Need Professional Critics When Amateurs Will Do It For Free?
“I don’t pretend to understand the fine points of movie, restaurant or theater reviewing. What I know about product reviews, however, suggests that readers will pay for information they consider valuable and that you do better than anyone else. User reviews–what real consumers focus on, gripe or rave about–can help inform that coverage.”
Index Measures How The Arts Have Recovered Since Recession
“Arts industries turned the corner in 2010: Half of the 83 indicators increased in 2010–equivalent to pre-recession, 2007 levels. In 2008 one-third of the indicators were up; in 2009, just one-quarter increased.”
Of Morality And Neurology – What We Know (And Don’t)
“Those inclined toward the sentimental in their appreciation of morality would do well by mastering the empirical.”
Remembering A Philosopher Pianist
“Charles Rosen was the epitome of the philosopher-pianist, a hybrid species that risks extinction with his passing and which deserves more concentrated attention than he himself accorded it, and in much shorter sentences. So there.”
Has America Forgotten How To Think?
“For most of this broken country, shallow entertainments remain the only expected (and affordable) compensation for a shallow life of tedious obligation and meaningless work. This huge portion of the populace, kept distant from any true personal growth by every imaginable social and economic obstacle, desperately seeks some residual compensations in silly slogans, status-bearing affiliations, and, of course, the manifestly empty witticisms of politics.”
Why Are Today’s Romantic Comedies So Bad? Because We’ve Changed
“Among the most fundamental obligations of romantic comedy is that there must be an obstacle to nuptial bliss for the budding couple to overcome. And, put simply, such obstacles are getting harder and harder to come by.”
Gustavo Dudamel Ponders What Comes Next
“The prospect of Dudamel adding another dimension to his career is sufficient to send an ordinary head spinning.”