“It used to be that a peach was a peach and a plum was a plum, and that was it. Now, however, breeders are coming up with complex hybrids between species, such as fruits that are a combination of peaches, apricots and plums, and cherries or nectarines and plums.”
Tag: 07.22.10
Hotel in Death in Venice Closes Its Doors
“It was one of the most elegant hotels in the world, the setting for Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice and the residence of choice for Hollywood stars from Clark Gable to Keira Knightley. But Venice Lido’s Grand Hôtel des Bains is no more after quietly closing its doors several months ago – to be reopened as a luxury apartment complex next year.”
Aussie Censors Ban Gay Zombie Film From Melbourne Festival
“The Australian Film Classification Board has banned the ‘soft-core’ version of Toronto filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s gay zombie film, L.A. Zombie, which was slated to screen twice next week at the Melbourne International Film Festival.”
Rival Distributors Settle Lawsuit Over Precious
“A lawsuit over the rights to the award-winning film Precious has been dismissed after Lionsgate Films and The Weinstein Co. reached an agreement, lawyers for Lionsgate said on Thursday.”
Palm Springs Art Museum Makes Plans To Open Second Branch
“The Palm Springs Art Museum has formed a committee to oversee fundraising and other activities related to a new satellite site that is expected to open in late 2011 or early 2012 in Palm Desert.”
Mao Zedong’s John the Baptist, The Prophet of China’s Revolution
“In 1903, Zhou Shuren, a 22-year-old Chinese student studying in Japan on a government scholarship, committed an act of treason: He shaved off his queue, the ponytail that Chinese men wore as a symbol of submission to the emperor. … That he did. Under the pen name of Lu Xun, the writer spent the rest of his life devoted to bringing a revolution to China – both in letters and politics.”
‘The ‘Big Bang’ That Created Roberto Bolaño’s Literary Universe’
The late Chilean author’s first book, written in the late 1970s but only just published, “is called Antwerp and it is but 78 pages, even with the generous margins. … Antwerp is the creation of themes and characters that will reappear throughout Bolaño’s writings. It is also the creation of Bolaño the writer, a statement about the kind of writer he wants to be.”
Why Matisyahu the Hasidic Reggaeman Makes Sense
“Like gospel before it, reggae draws much of its symbolism from Torah. There is something bizarre yet poignant and undeniably American about a Jewish kid from the suburbs who found a path to his own ancient faith by hearing Jamaicans sing about it.”
The Sublimely Mannered Weirdness Of Nicolas Cage
“Unlike his contemporaries Johnny Depp and Daniel Day-Lewis, he seems blithely unconcerned with the project of building a respectable actorly reputation. … [There’s] something about the baroque, hyper-mannered performances of late Cage that touches on the sublime, but ‘self-parody’ isn’t precisely the right phrase for it.”
Why Gary Shteyngart Is ‘Feeling Pretty Dumb These Days’
“I’m writing novels! I’m one of those last Japanese soldiers on one of those islands, hiding in a cave and shooting, because nobody told him that Hirohito has surrendered. Banzai!“