“A journalist once wrote of Goldblum that trying to pin him down is ‘like trying to nail jelly to a greased piglet’. He doesn’t so much swerve a straight question – that would imply intent – as talk frustratingly around it. … Goldblum’s enthusiasm is, if not quite infectious, not something you want to stamp on either.”
Tag: 07.12.10
In A New Opera, A Day In The Life Of Young Bill Clinton
“If any recent president’s life is the stuff of operas, it’s Bill Clinton’s. There’s been comedy, drama, back-stabbing, shouting, crying, death, and many miraculous comebacks. But that’s real life. Now art will be imitating life in a project coming together in Little Rock….”
Was Big Dance A Preview Of London Cultural Olympiad?
“What might the spawn of sport and the arts – never the easiest bedfellows – actually resemble? Last week gave us a clue” in Big Dance 2010, which “ran for eight days … and climaxed on Saturday with a procession of thousands from the Southbank Centre, over the Golden Jubilee bridge, and into Trafalgar Square for one big wiggle.”
Unlike BBC, Sky Arts Embraces Drama — Chekhov Included
“I don’t want to lapse into BBC-bashing, but I find it astonishing that Sky Arts is currently occupying territory that once would have been claimed by public-service broadcasting. But, in recent years, the BBC has treated theatre-based drama with an indifference bordering on contempt.”
Britain’s Strapped Aristocrats Sell Off Their Artworks
“Many are heirlooms and are being sold at auction – often to foreign bidders – to pay for the renovation and upkeep of country homes. Cuts in government spending have raised concerns that treasure with heritage value will increasing[ly] be sold abroad as museums and galleries are unable to afford them.”
What’s Wrong With Turner’s Record-Breaking Sale
“Apparently, it is a triumph for Turner that an art market bloated beyond sanity has decided his painting is worth something, and a marvellous day for Britain that a painting on view for decades at one of our free public museums will now be spirited away to LA.”
If Norman Foster Had Better Used His House Of Lords Perch
“It was always unlikely he would have taken time out of his day job to participate actively in the Lords,” but even so: “What if Foster had spent time campaigning as an advocate of the very highest standards of architecture, design and planning? What if he had affected legislation to ensure such standards were set out and followed?”
The Duo Who Championed Black Theatre In San Francisco
Stanley E. Williams, artistic director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, died July 2, “just nine weeks after his longtime partner, Quentin Easter, executive director of the company they founded in 1981.” Their “untimely deaths … have left the Bay Area’s arts community uncertain about the future of the theater they founded.”
Why The Bay Bridge’s Eastern Span Dazzles
“More than any architectural form, a bridge lets us glimpse the society that caused it to be. We see the limits of what an era can build – the engineering chops – but also the values of the builders.”
Rebuttal: Bigger Theatre Seats Aren’t All About Fatness
“Chicago architect Gary Ainge, who was principal in charge for the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park…, called the study’s conclusions accurate, though he cautioned against an overemphasis on bulging waistlines. ‘I don’t think it’s all body size,’ he said. ‘People’s expectations have changed about going to the theater.'”