The scandal, which kickstarted debate about the academy’s patriarchal nature and fights in the Swedish media between academicians, led to a wave of resignations and to the postponement of this year’s prize “in view of the currently diminished academy and the reduced public confidence”. In its place, more than 100 Swedish writers, actors, journalists and other cultural figures have formed the New Academy, which will hand out its own award this autumn, following the same timeline as the Nobel.
Tag: 07.01.18
Toronto Is Renovating Canada’s Best Music Hall. Why?
Massey Hall has been the best room in Canada for 124 years. Doesn’t that mean anything? Playing in that room, looking out across the floor, to the two balconies that are so close you can almost touch them, the over-lacquered red walls and black poles? This room stands in witness and testament to all the greats who have performed on its stage.
The Man Booker Prize Turns 50, Flawed But Still The Best Judge Of English-Language Literature
Or is it? “AL Kennedy, an otherwise seasoned critic, was moved to declare the prize ‘a pile of crooked nonsense’ in which the winner was decided by ‘who knows who, who’s sleeping with who, who’s selling drugs to who, who’s married to who, and whose turn it is.'”
Great Protest Music Outlasts Its Time (And Then Comes Around Again)
“Truly great works build a bridge not only between the concerns of their time and a longer historical struggle, but also between the performer’s feelings and the common well of human sentiment. The most consequential protest songs get referenced again and again for a reason: their power, both felt and understood, never dies.”
How *Lady Bird* Made A Star Out Of Its Main Character’s Best Friend
Beanie Feldstein played the titular character’s best friend Julie – and she stole most of the scenes she was in, with people tweeting “I want a movie about Julie!” Instead, Feldstein landed her first lead role. “As soon as we saw her in Lady Bird, we knew we’d both found Johanna and seen someone who was going to be a superstar. … From the moment you see her, you root for her.”
Liliane Montevecchi, Who Fled American TV And Movies For The Stage (And Won A Tony), Has Died At 85
She was 50 when she was cast in Nine, which was based on Fellini’s movie 8 1/2. “The role of the movie producer had been written for a man, but the character was reworked so Ms. Montevecchi, who didn’t fit anywhere else in the show, could be cast. In ‘Folies Bergère,’ her big number, she reveled in the joys of the good old days of show business, stopped to chat flirtatiously with audience members and ended up gloriously wrapped in a 30-foot-long black feather boa.”
Turning A Cow Barn Into An Avant Garde Art Gallery
It takes a bit of work, and it flies in the face of art critics’ expectations. “Retired farmer Stephen Dale is challenging the assumption that modern art is best appreciated by city dwellers. A run of exhibitions staged by the 74-year-old at the free public art gallery he set up two years ago in Checkley, near Hereford, have now drawn big names from the art world and proved the scale of an appetite for the unexpected in the countryside.”
In Europe, Military Theatre Follows Americans To Their Many Bases – But It’s An Endangered Species
Theatre on and for military bases has a long history in the U.S. “‘Entertainment for the soldier, by the soldier’ has been part of the US military since the American Revolution. Following the camp shows of the Civil War, military-based theatre was borne during WWI with the involvement of Irving Berlin, who, as a soldier, wrote and performed in Yip Yip Yaphank, an all-soldier musical tribute to the Army. Berlin continued his support of the military during WWII with This Is the Army.” But can it survive in an era of streaming?
Musicians Who Boycott Israel Find Themselves Out Of Work In Germany
Germany, of course, is walking a tightrope of history. “As Germany struggles with increasing attacks on Jews and Israel is under pressure for killings of protesters along its border with Gaza, a growing clash over B.D.S. is spilling over into the cultural scene. It has divided art and music festivals that aim to foster cultural dialogue, and even sparked a feud between the mayor of Munich and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.”
The Woman Who Has Been Playing Piano For More Than A Century [VIDEO]
Colette Maze says people should stay loose and keep moving – and that “on the piano, there’s a kind of gymnastics.”