That expectation of the professional, 24-7 politician wasn’t there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The last proper intellectual Prime Minister was Arthur Balfour, in Downing Street from 1902 until 1905. Balfour may not have been a great Prime Minister, but he was a serious philosopher. His series of Gifford Lectures in 1914 at Glasgow University, on “Theism and Humanism”, were published as a book in 1915. C. S. Lewis said it was one of the ten books that influenced him most.
Tag: 03.28.17
Alison Bechdel Named Vermont’s Cartoonist Laureate
Yes, Vermont has such a post, and the author of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For is actually the third to hold it. (Her predecessor, whose work you might recognize from the illustration at left, was New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren.)
The Extraordinary Off-Broadway Theater That Created ‘Natasha, Pierre, And The Great Comet Of 1812’ (And Gives Its Staffers Full Benefits!)
“Ars Nova is unusual – creatively, structurally, and otherwise. It’s not a traditional theatre company; it’s a finder, developer, and nurturer of unconventional artists working in hybrid forms.” And yes, it provides medical and dental insurance to its employees.
Julian Stanczak, 88, Leader Of 1960s Op-Art Movement
“Stanczak’s acrylic paintings often tended toward brightly colored shapes and grids. … They highlight the act of seeing, in the process showing that, when we look at two unlike forms put together, an unexpected element can result: movement.”
Being A Flamboyantly Gay Man In The Ballet World Is Not Easy, But These Two Are Doing It Fiercely
A Q&A with James Whiteside, 32 and a principal at ABT, and Parker Kit Hill, a 21-year-old student at the Joffrey Ballet School with triple-threat talent, a decidedly un-classical look, and a big social media presence.
Westminster Choir College Is Officially For Sale
The college’s parent school, Rider University (which bought Westminster in 1992), has been facing financial pressures and declining enrollment (though Westminster’s enrollment is healthy), and wants cash from the sale. The Rider board’s stated preference is for a buyer to continue to operate Westminster at its Princeton campus, though separate sales of the school and its real estate are possible as well.
Frank Delaney, 74, ‘The Most Eloquent Man In The World’
As NPR’s Scott Simon said of the broadcaster, author, and literary scholar, “We kept asking him back to talk about books, Ireland and even soccer because no one could make more of a ceremony out of a sentence.”
Podcasts Are Hugely Popular Right Now. Why?
“Many of those podcasts are destined to sail out into the ocean and never be heard from again. They are often too detailed, too niche, too chatty. A lot of people produce podcasts in which they simply ramble on for hours about themselves and their lives. There is something very poignant about the volume of human desire to be heard out there in the Wild West of podcasts. One gets the impression that for many podcasters, audience size is almost irrelevant. The point is to put your voice on record (which is now easy and cheap to do), and leave it there for someone to find, ponder, and perhaps even enjoy.”
Okay, Guys, Here’s Garrison Keillor Explaining How To Write Poetry For Your Beloved
“Men are wired for combat, to bash the enemy into submission, and it’s hard to wipe the blood and gore off your hands and sit down and write, ‘O wondrous thou, the wonderment of these my happiest days, I lift my pen to praise thy shining beauty’ and so forth. But you can do it. The first step is: Imitate.”
How Do You Turn John Cage Into Staged Theater? With A Chess Match, Of Course
In Chess Match No. 5 from Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, “the two people onstage are conspicuously playing chess; they also make toast, fiddle with a radio, drink tea and trade disconnected aphorisms and anecdotes [from Cage]. They are not visibly doing theater, if that means plot, traditional characters or singing cats.”