“[There’s a] mode of memoir that I think is fundamentally puritan, in the sense that you have to publicly accept your sinfulness and describe your path of sin so as to be forgiven. The whole game annoys the hell out of me.”
Tag: 03.23.13
Animals Are Brainier Than We’d Known
New – and better-designed – research is demonstrating time and again that many animals are both more intelligent and more empathetic than scientists had acknowledged. (Turns out they were testing for the wrong things.)
Oregon Symphony Plans Week Of (Almost-)Anything-Goes Concerts
“The musicians want listeners to toss etiquette out the window. Not all etiquette. Don’t expect to stand on your chair and sing along. But you will be encouraged to take photos, tweet, text and clap anytime the spirit moves you. … Afterwards, you can even ask the musicians questions.”
The Royal Ontario Museum Built A Flashy Museum. But The Hoards Didn’t Come. Now What?
“Now, as the ROM begins the countdown to its 2014 centennial, the museum is shifting gears: addressing the reality of stagnant attendance and a sometimes awkward building by starting a new conversation with visitors.”
If The Ensemble Theatre Audience Were A Weather Phenomenon …
Is the audience more like morning dew, or is the theatre company more like a squid?
The World Of The Literary Mash (And Hate) Note
“The wine down here has a flavor of dead cockroaches and God knows how they make it. But I wanted something, for your letter excited me. If you are the Henry Miller I know, it is a great thing for me to know how you feel about my work.”
Half Of Blockbuster’s UK Stores Sold
“The new owners said the surviving shops would reopen under the Blockbuster brand, licensed from U.S. satellite TV company Dish Network, which owns the American operation.”
Need Some Renoirs In Your Movie? Hire The Greatest Renoir Forger
“To call Mr. Ribes a colorful character is putting it mildly. Born in a brothel to a prostitute mother and a gangster father, he’s a former member of the French Foreign Legion and a lifelong devotee of the great painters. Although he created and sold his own work early on, he also provided paintings ‘inspired’ by the masters to a criminal art ring that sold the paintings as genuine.”
Finally, Britain Is Taking Note Of Women’s Voices (But … )
“Of course, it would be better if there were more women running large arts organisations. The argument is plain and based on natural justice. The current arrangement is daftly skewed.”
Derek Watkins, 68, Trumpeter For James Bond
“Watkins was described as ‘Mr Lead’ by jazz great Dizzy Gillespie; as well as the Bond films he played with the Beatles, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.”