Author/editor/publisher Victoria Brownworth was there when the Philadelphia institution was literally a room down at South and Third, and she was with it through all of its moves, she marked major parts in her own life in the handsome old brick house where the store helped anchor the city’s community, and she watched the last-ditch efforts to save it fall apart.
Tag: 04.30.14
The Steep Learning Curve Of Trying To Bring Cultural Options To A Devastated Downtown
“The broader stakes of what we hoped for our town became manifest: not just to open up a bookstore, but to open up the very conditions in which a bookstore might thrive. We could help revitalize the whole town.”
Grieving Gabriel García Márquez
“García Márquez coddled us, promising that not only would traffic lights turn green for us, but swallowtails would swarm the house if someone in it had their heart broken. He didn’t offer a solution for sorrow, but he promised cosmic sympathy. Believing him might be foolish, but it is a legitimate way to grieve.”
The Unbearable Whiteness Of MFA Programs
Junot Díaz: “I can’t tell you how often students of color seek me out during my visits or approach me after readings in order to share with me the racist nonsense they’re facing in their programs, from both their peers and their professors. In the last 17 years I must have had at least three hundred of these conversations, minimum.”
Audiences Are Fainting At Shakespeare’s Globe ‘Titus Andronicus’
“One theatre-goer, who watched the show’s opening night, said there had been ‘quite a few droppers’ in the audience, who fainted upon seeing so much blood. Another reported he had ‘almost puked’ by the interval.”
Twitter Is Now Entering Its Twilight
“The publishing platform that carried us into the mobile Internet age is receding. Its influence on publishing will remain, but the platform’s place in Internet culture is changing in a way that feels irreversible and echoes the tradition of AIM and pre-2005 blogging. … People are still using Twitter, but they’re not hanging out there.”
Abu Dhabi Louvre Opening Amidst Debate On Where Its Art Comes From
“The generous spending pot has produced a collection as impressive as it is diverse, unafraid to grapple with themes such as sexuality and different religions. The project has been raising eyebrows among Europeans, who say that culture requires more than just a chequebook.”
Study: High Rate Of Musicians Suffer Hearing Loss
“An analysis of medical-insurance records of Germans found that, compared to non-musicians, professional musicians were nearly four times more likely to experience some degree of noise-related hearing loss.”
Actor Bob Hoskins Dead At 71
“In his moments of on-screen rage, he resembled a pink grenade. But he was defined from the outset by a mix of the tough and the tender that served him well throughout his career. … No other actor has a more legitimate claim on the title of the British Cagney.”
Forget ‘The Long Good Friday’ And ‘Mona Lisa’ – This Was Bob Hoskins’s Greatest Performance
“[His] appeal lay in a chirpiness forever on the edge of explosion. Yet his most powerful hour came playing a man with genuinely unsettling intent beneath that cuddly exterior.”