Tom Hanks Improvises As Falstaff While Medics Deal With Emergency In Audience

Last week, during a Los Angeles performance of Shakespeare’s Henry IV starring Hamish Linklater as Prince Hal and Hanks as Falstaff, an audience member passed out from dehydration. As paramedics were stabilizing the patient under the seating risers, “never breaking from his tragicomic role of Falstaff, Hanks addressed the crowd and even started pulling people on stage.” (includes video)

Meet The World’s Top Art Forgery Detective

The field of scientific art conservation is not a crowded one; James Martin, who set up the first for-profit art lab in the US, has been consulted in nearly every major fraud case in the past 25 years, often working alongside the FBI or other investigators. When he is described as the premier forensic detective working in art today, the accolade comes not only from people such as John Cahill, a New York lawyer who has managed dozens of art transactions, and who called Martin “hands-down the best in the business,” but also from those on the other side of the fence, so to speak.

A New New Wave Of Queer Cinema

“This year’s strong queer showing [at Cannes] was indicative of a larger watershed moment for LGBT cinema across the industry, as stories and artists once confined to rarefied corners of the arthouse are being gradually welcomed into the mainstream. … The last couple of years, however, have kicked that evolution into fast-forward, helped along by real-world advances in LGBT rights, and the Twitter-assisted revolution in identity politics awareness. The world, in other words, is a very different place for gay and trans people than it was even a decade ago, and cinema is feeling the change.”

A Devoted Reader Breaks Up With James Joyce

In many ways, Joyce has been my longest long-term relationship. We met when I was sixteen and have been sweethearts ever since. I would have liked to say that about a living man, the way famous writers do in their acknowledgements of their latest novel, thanking their ‘loving husband, without whose unceasing patience and support etc,etc’. For years I thought it was their  fault – the blokes. Until I realised how annoying it must be to live in the shadow of another man, and a dead one at that.

Conductor Enoch Zu Guttenberg Dead At 71

“A respected conductor of sacred music, his regular performances of Bach’s passions and Christmas Oratorio were eagerly followed by his fans. … [He] was the director of the KlangVerwaltung (Sound Administration) Orchestra and the Neubeuern Choral Association and frequently took the two ensembles on tour to places as far afield as the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam or the Hong Kong Music Festival.”

How Music Videos have Been Revived In The Post-MTV Era

Political edge isn’t a new addition to the art form by any means, but it’s difficult to imagine the recent deluge of videos exploring racial and sexual identity occurring in the MTV era. The phenomenon is in part the result of political trends like polarization and identity politics rising to the forefront of online conversation, and movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too asserting the equality of marginalized groups. But it also owes a lot to the YouTube revolution and the freedom that video platforms grant artists.