Tag: 05.22.16

Working Actors Recall Their Days As Waiters

“People would order these decadent desserts all the time and not finish. We were a bunch of poor actors, and we’d bring them back to the kitchen and eat them. I especially remember a banana cake soufflé. I probably ate a dozen or so famous people’s desserts in the half-year I worked there – I’m not ashamed to say.”

The End Of Theory: Time To Rethink How We Study Literature?

“From the Seventies to the present, English departments have been fascinated by theory after theory, including varieties of structuralism (Lacanian, Althusserian, Foucauldian, post-) and identity-political criticism (beginning with feminist critiques, then critical race theories, queer theories, and culminating, for now, in disability studies). Each of these theories is worthwhile on its own terms, but cumulatively they raise questions about the task of the English department: Should it really just be the analysis of texts through theoretical frameworks borrowed from philosophy, linguistics, political theory, history and so on?”

There’s Another Kind Of Synesthesia, One Involving Touch

“Imagine being so disgusted by denim, for example, that running a hand over jeans makes you want to puke. Or feeling the urge to laugh whenever you touch silk. Or getting the creeps whenever you put on a fabric glove. That’s life for people with tactile-emotional synesthesia, a mysterious condition in which seemingly arbitrary textures can be enough to make someone laugh or cry.”

Congressional Critics Put Military Bands In Their Crosshairs

“According to Pentagon data from fiscal 2015, the last time the Defense Department did a full inventory, the military spends at least $437 million a year on musicians, their instruments, special uniforms, travel and related costs. That marks a steady rise from previous years, even as the Pentagon insists the services have cut a sizable number of musical troupes. By some official estimates, it’s now spending $100 million more a year than in 2011.”

Stryker: Major New Music Prize Missed Opportunity To Distinguish Itself

Mark Stryker on the new $100,000 M-Prize: “There were two major disappointments with the 15-member jury’s winner. The judges missed a golden opportunity to manifest the progressive DNA so earnestly built into M-Prize and best symbolized by the inclusiveness of the open division. More lamentable, the decision forfeited the chance to make a transformative investment in the future of the art form, a core value of the competition. Instead, the winner simply reinforces the status quo.”

Outgoing Fresno Philharmonic Music Director Says He Wanted To Stay On

Theodore Kuchar: “Fifteen [years] is a large number, but, hey, I wanted to stay in Fresno … [CEO Stephen Wilson] wants me out of town as quickly as possible so people forget.” Says Wilson, “It is fair to say that the relationship between music director and exec director in professional symphony orchestras is a complex one. … For an organization to be successful, it absolutely has to be a partnership.”

Even Before Tinder, Heck, Even Before The Internet, Dating Was Always Hard

“Weigel read dating-advice books from the 1800s and hundreds of articles on dating from teen and women’s magazines over the years, and she found two common themes: First, there is usually an older part of the population that perceives dating to be ‘dying,’ or, at least, as not being done ‘appropriately.’ Second, Weigel found that the way people date has almost always been tied to the market forces of their era.”