Eight critics and editors do the job that the Pulitzer Prize committee wouldn’t – deciding which book should win this year’s fiction award.
Tag: 05.07.12
Theatre Critic And Bianca Jagger Battle Over Snapping Photos During Einstein
At last week’s UK premiere of Einstein on the Beach at the Barbican, critic Mark Shenton went off (“in full Patti LuPone mode,” he says) on a fellow patron who took flash photos throughout the show. That patron turned out to be Bianca Jagger, who brushed him off. Shenton also accuses Barbican staff of refusing to control Jagger.
An All-Native American King Lear
Fulfilling a dream he’s carried for 45 years, Mohawk actor August Schellenberg heads an all-First Nations cast in a National Arts Centre production that sets Shakespeare’s tragedy in the Algonquin nation in the 17th century, not long after the first contact with Europeans.
The Gauguin Painting That Terrified Its Creator (It Depicts A Severed Head)
Arii Matamoe (known in English as The Chief Is Asleep or The Royal End) is “the sort of painting Gauguin had in mind when he wrote to a painter friend … from Papeete, ‘My canvases terrify me – the public will never accept them. They’re ugly in every respect …” Phyllis Tuchman thinks the work is still pretty scary.
Indonesian Muslim Group Says Lady Gaga Promotes Devil-Worship
The Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI) says that the singer is not welcome in their nation, where she is scheduled to give a stadium concert in Jakarta on June 3. Says an FPI spokesman, “Lady Gaga insults all religions. Even Christians in Korea opposed her. She is promoting the worship of Satan
Alabama Arts Executive Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement Charges
“Laura Harris Phillips embezzled $98,000 from the Carnegie [Visual Arts] Center. She also took $41,000 from the Alabama Museum Association, where she served as treasurer.”
Tribeca Film Festival Sets Up Outpost In Florence
“Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of Robert DeNiro’s Gotham-based festival, has partnered with IMG Artists to bring film premieres to the Tuscan Sun Festival, which runs June 11 to 18 in the historic Italian municipality.”
Plans For London Black History Archive Set Back As Construction Firm Fails
“Ambitious plans to create the first permanent home for a unique archive, covering centuries of black history in Britain, have been hit by the collapse of the building firm working on the Heritage Lottery Fund-backed £6.5m project.”
Stradivarius Cello Falls Off Table, Breaks Its Neck
A source at the Royal Palace in Madrid says that “experts had set the cello on its side padded with foam so they could photograph it but it tipped forward and knocked against a table, breaking its neck from the body.”
Could The Internet Save Book Reviews? (Of Course!)
“The digital age has transformed the physical act of reading and will alter journalistic literary criticism as well. … The full effect of these changes will have on book reviews isn’t clear, but they’re already shifting in ways that would both please and alarm Orwell.”