Tag: 06.25.18

Masha Gessen Remembers A Great Russian Poet Who Lived Unrecognized In The U.S.

“His name was Naum Korzhavin. He wrote three poems that all Russian readers of poetry can quote, and many can recite by heart. Of his ninety-two years, he spent forty-five living in the United States (forty-three of them in Boston, until the death of his wife, Lubov, two years ago; he then moved to Chapel Hill to be near his daughter). Still, he was one of the most significant Russian poets in a century that tragically called forth a lot of poetry.”

The Motion Picture Academy Greatly Expanded Its Membership. Is It Affecting Oscar Choices?

So how would we know if we were in the middle of a real Oscars revolution? For starters, how about a foreign language film earning a best picture nomination for the first time since 2012’s “Amour”? In this dramatic membership expansion, the academy has, to its credit, cast a wide net, inviting hundreds of international filmmakers, actors and crafts people. (“What it is is we realize now how much talent there is out there,” academy president John Bailey told me last year.)

Tracking Down A Father’s Actions Through His Favorite Novels

What does it say about a dad that he adores the original Swedish noir? “Sjöwall and Wahlöö didn’t just inspire other Scandinavian writers to embrace the murder mystery: they shaped the genre so completely that all of their descendants bear their eccentricities. The Martin Beck series is bizarre, a fitting starting point for what has become a multimillion-dollar industry selling other bizarre, exasperating books.”

Is The Latest Crop Of Gay Movies Erasing Gay Culture?

Tom Joudrey thinks so: “Gone unnoticed amidst this flurry of jubilation [for the likes of Call Me By Your Name and Love, Simon] has been, against my post-Brokeback hopes a dozen years ago, … a sort of amnesia that makes queerness blithely complicit in its own extinction. I realize this argument might be hard to follow, particularly amidst our post-Obergefell triumphalism, so it’s worth looking more closely into how queer films fell into a bad romance with straight validation.”

How Social Media Platforms Have Turned Into Battlebots Of The Culture Wars

Though the brigading of review sites and doxxing behavior isn’t exactly new, the speed and coordination is; one consequence of a never-ending information war is that everyone is already well versed in their specific roles. And across the internet, it appears that technology platforms, both big and small, must grapple with the reality that they are now powerful instruments in an increasingly toxic political and cultural battle.

40-Foot Keith Haring Mural Uncovered In Amsterdam After Three Decades

“A mural by Keith Haring was revealed in Amsterdam last week, some 30 years after the US artist completed the commission, which was his gift to the Dutch city. The 40-foot-tall mural was painted by Haring in 1986 while he was in town for his exhibition at [the Stedelijk Museum]. It was covered a few years later when the entire facade of the brick building, which was then the Stedelijk’s art storage depot, had weatherboarding added to improve its climate controls.”

Building A New Cultural Center In The West Bank (Now There’s A Challenge For You)

“Despite the [constant] political tumult, a major Palestinian cultural foundation” – A.M. Qattan Foundation, currently based in London – “is preparing to open its new headquarters to the public on 28 June in Ramallah … Construction on the AMQF building began in 2012 and was scheduled for completion in 2016, but the constraints of working in the region have caused a series of setbacks. The local construction industry is not used to this level of complexity and detail, … [and] it was difficult to transport materials across the Israeli border and to find skilled workers, as many are tempted by the higher salaries in Israel.”