“The nation’s economy is in dire straits, but that hasn’t stopped theatergoers from flocking to the West End, where attendance last year topped 14 million and box office revenue hit a record 500 million pounds ($775 million).”
Tag: 04.18.10
The Deadening Balanchine Effect
“If anyone needs a demonstration of the stultifying effect that the national Balanchine obsession has had on new choreography, the Washington Ballet’s triple bill at Harman Hall is it. Minimalism reigns. Legs hit noses. Crotches — cranked open, screaming at you to notice — hit a new expressive high mark. But the choreography does not.”
Michael Buble Cleans Up At Juno Awards
“The crooner took three of the four trophies he was up for yesterday – the Juno Fan Choice Award, Single of the Year and the coveted Album of the Year for his latest release, Crazy Love.”
Ranking All The Movies Ever Made…
Brad Bourland “has ranked the greatest films of the 20th century. Sure, the American Film Institute and endless others have generated Top 10 or 100 Greatest lists. But Mr. Bourland goes them — well, one better isn’t even close. He has ranked the 20th century’s 9,200 greatest movies, watching more than 7,000 of them in the process. (He plans to reach 10,000 from readers suggesting titles he has overlooked.”
All Culture Is Local (Take That, Globalism!)
“It’s a widening realization, I think, that globalism, beyond banking, climate change and warfare, has always been a dubious concept, a misleading catchall for how the world supposedly works, to which culture, in its increasing complexity, gives the lie.”
A Revival For TV Sitcoms?
There is “a renaissance of sorts for the network TV sitcom, which not too long ago was pronounced terminally ill. On studio lots, where dozens of new shows are being fretted about and fought over ahead of the networks’ scheduling decisions in May, the number of sitcoms in development has spiked.”
A New Era For British Architecture? (The Record Is Spotty)
“A generation of young architects has grown up and been given the opportunity to prove their worth. British architecture was stagnant in the early 90s and now it’s not, for which some of the credit is due to Labour. But Labour has also presided over some of the poorest and most ill-considered housing of modern times, thanks mostly to the explosion of buy-to-let developments.”
Will Stephen Petronio Endure?
“It’s strange to begin grappling with safeguarding your art while still honing your voice. But dance, more than any other form — and especially modern dance, that idiosyncratic tradition — compels questions of mortality early on. Like the people who make it, it is forever disappearing.”
The New Perils Of Street Photography
Photographer Bruce “Gilden often used flash to surprise his subjects and to, as he put, it, “energise the frame”. He was the epitome of the in-your-face street photographer. Today, on the more fearful and aggressive streets of London, these kinds of approaches would, before long, get you arrested or beaten up.”
Groaning With Mel Brooks
“Humor is also where comedians go to hide, or even exploit, their own sadness. And Mel Brooks has a misty sadness about him even when he’s laughing that laugh, or handing over photographs of his adored grandchildren.”