Remembering Royal Ballet’s Kenneth MacMillan

It was Kenneth MacMillan’s desire to drag the real world, kicking and screaming, into the prettified arena of ballet that unsettled people, then and now. “An idea grabbed him and he did it. I don’t think he had any agenda and was quite surprised when people were shocked. His ideas were triggered by everything that was going on around him. He brought real life to ballet.”

Pierre Rissient, Great Mover And Shaker Of French And World Cinema, Dead At 81

“Type multi-hatted Rissient’s name into online cinema database IMDb, and barely a dozen credits appear. Behind the scenes, however, Rissient was a legendary figure in the film world at home and internationally, respected for his deep knowledge of cinema, his nose for talented directors, and his ability to promote them and forge connections on their behalf. The Cannes Film Festival once described him as ‘a figure who cannot be categorised’, while Clint Eastwood, who is one of the many stars and directors whom Rissient nurtured and supported over the years, nicknamed him ‘Mister Everywhere.'”

The New Higher Ed: Less Time Teaching And Learning, More Time Measuring And Admining

In most universities nowadays — and this seems to be true almost everywhere — academic staff find themselves spending less and less time studying, teaching, and writing about things, and more and more time measuring, assessing, discussing, and quantifying the way in which they study, teach, and write about things (or the way in which they propose to do so in the future. European universities, reportedly, now spend at least 1.4 billion euros [about 1.7 billion dollars] a year on failed grant applications.). It’s gotten to the point where “admin” now takes up so much of most professors’ time that complaining about it is the default mode of socializing among academic colleagues; indeed, insisting on talking instead about one’s latest research project or course idea is considered somewhat rude.

What Scientists Learned About A Crocodile’s Brain When They Played Classical Music

Our brains are the product of millions of years of evolution. Scientists would very much like to know how some of the most ancient brains functioned and evolved over time, but that’s obviously not possible, owing to the complete lack of primordial brains to work with. As a good consolation prize, however, scientists can work with crocodiles—an animal that originated more than 200 million years ago, barely changing over the eons. Accordingly, scientists can study crocodiles to understand at which point certain brain structures and behaviors first emerged.

Why I’m A Fan Of Standing Ovations

“I think that watching theater is a lot like watching a national championship in that a production, win or lose, is filled with best efforts and spontaneous heroics, and jumping to your feet is a natural response to those valiant exploits. Standing puts actors and audiences on equal footing as partners in a shared experience, where we can finally face each other out of character and out of the darkness, respectively, for a moment of mutual admiration.”

Can’t Get Enough *Hamilton*? The Hamiltent Is Coming To Entertain And Educate You

“Some of the features will be visceral (an opportunity to look down the barrel of a gun alongside a reconstruction of the Weehawken, N.J., dueling grounds), and others will be academic (an explanation of the debates over Hamilton’s financial policy ideas.) There will be artifacts — mostly replica letters, documents and objects as well as a scale model of New York in 1773, a walkway between military barracks, video, and, yes, music from the show.”

Barnes And Noble May Be Dying, But There’s Still Time To Save The Big Bookstore Chain

Basically, the only fix is antitrust legislation against Amazon. Meanwhile: “Barnes & Noble is in trouble. You hear that, in worried tones, when you talk to people in the book business. You feel it when you walk into one of the chain’s stores, a cluttered mix of gifts, games, DVDs (DVDs?) and books. And you really see the problems if you dig into the company’s financial statements.”