“An insubordinate general. A soccer mutiny. … The two events were not, of course, equal in global import. One was a drama on a sports team, the other may alter the course of a war. But both caught the attention of the world as they unfolded. And for all the distinctive political and cultural strands that each separately touched on, they both triggered an immediate and visceral sense that certain widely understood rules of appropriate behavior had been violated.”
Tag: 06.27.10
American Opera In Ferment – A Healthy Ferment?
Anne Midgette: “A lot is happening in American opera. The past 20 years have seen an increasing number of new works, but this spring hit a critical mass with three world premieres at major American companies within five weeks. … The question is: How many people are really listening?. … Will new works help revive the opera field or help sink it under the weight of $3 million productions?”
The Fount Of All Family Sitcoms
“Cheating on homework, being mortified by clothes or haircuts, running away from home, discovering the cruelties of the working world, feeling the stirrings of interest in the opposite sex: [Leave It to] Beaver covered those and dozens of other topics that later turned up in Family Affair, The Wonder Years, The Bernie Mac Show, Hannah Montana and everywhere else, and will turn up again in whatever family series comes next.”
Laurie Anderson And The Idea Of ‘Homeland’
“‘It’s a very cold, bureaucratic word,’ [she] said. ‘No one I know would say ‘my homeland’.” She notes its recent pairing with the word ‘security,’ which she contends ‘is not about security, really, but more about control. The phrase doesn’t make anyone feel particularly safe, does it?'”
Darci Kistler Talks As If Balanchine Were An Actual Deity
“The real reality is there is nothing in the world like being talked to and being graced by his presence, by his words, by his thoughts.”
The Importance Of Summer Action Movies
A.O. Scott: “How do you do something that hasn’t quite been done before, and how do you make it work, so that the audience is thrilled, surprised and entertained? … [P]erhaps more than anything else, it is the pursuit of more, bigger and better action effects that has driven Hollywood’s frenetic, headlong, exhausting history of innovation.”