“I really wanted to be an actor. It was the other thing I wanted to be. What’s difficult for me to work out is that, given that I was very involved in theater, and given that I was very obsessed with movies, I ended up doing this thing that you do by sitting alone in a room.”
Tag: 04.21.13
Tolstoy And The Boston Marathon Bombers
“On Friday, while CNN was making constant reference to the Tsarnaev brothers’ attempt ‘to go out in a blaze of glory,’ a micro-meme lit up social media: didn’t Leo Tolstoy have a novel about Chechnyan rebels, called Hadji Murad?” He did, and there are more (and sadder) parallels than one might think.
Live Goats, Leis, Marching Bands, And Bongs: L.A. MoCA’s Very Strange Gala
“It seemed only fitting that the MOCA gala celebrating the opening of Urs Fischer’s new chaos-skirting show, organized under the ‘creative direction’ of the crazy-making artist Rob Pruitt, would have a Dada sort of anti-logic. In other words, it was one weird night, packed with preposterous events and odd gestures that never quite connected.”
New Movement On Arts Funding (But Maybe Not In The Right Way)
After a long lull, we’re starting to see some action on the arts and related topics at the federal level.
Bringing Street Dance Inside: Stupid Move?
“‘I found a place to create my art,’ Martinez says, smiling at the pumping, diving, spinning, locked-in crowd.”
Ignorance Of The Law Excuseth … Internet Downloaders?
“As many as 44% of those who took part in an independent, online survey of 2,500 respondents … said they thought it was legal to upload commercially produced media to a file-sharing website, or did not know whether it was lawful or not.”
This Is Cornwall, And Ye Shall Know It By Its Celtic Cross
“”We hope it will become an iconic landmark, our version of the Angel of the North, so people don’t just pass by Saltash, but go in.”
A Volcanic Eruption Preserved The Town, But Will Italy’s Bureaucracy Kill Pompeii?
“Collapses at the site have alarmed conservationists, who warn that this ancient Roman city is dangerously exposed to the elements — and is poorly served by the red tape, the lack of strategic planning and the limited personnel of the site’s troubled management.”
Marcel Vercoutere, 87, Who Made Linda Blair’s Head Spin
“A self-taught welder, carpenter, set designer and explosives expert, Vercoutere was a creative, unruffled presence on the set of ‘The Exorcist.'”
The Cult of Authenticity (And Its Attendant B.S.)
“More often than not, peasant food is labelled authentic food. Even the most passing familiarity with what most poor people eat will demonstrate that people’s diets improve as their disposable income increases.”