Andrew Hadfield: “Until the end of the 17th century, Jonson was generally regarded as the greatest dramatist in English, but since then he has not received his due. A heavy man, he did not wear his learning lightly, and suffered as a result, being seen as a pedantic, over-stuffed author. But he is a delight to see on stage or to read. He is clever, lucid, rude and very funny – much funnier than Shakespeare, in fact.”
Tag: 07.24.12
Screenwriter Frank Pierson, 87
“[He] received an Academy Award nomination for his first screenplay, the western lampoon Cat Ballou, another Oscar nod for his script of the chain-gang drama Cool Hand Luke and then won the Oscar for his bank heist story Dog Day Afternoon.”
Decoding The Ancient Rock Paintings Of Texas
Several caves and rock shelters in the Lower Pecos have 4000-year-old murals. Most scholars had assumed that the meaning of the paintings was unrecoverable, but archaeologist Carolyn Boyd says she’s “discovered a symbolic code that reveals narratives in the paintings, which she believes can be read, almost like an ancient language.”
LA Gets A New Central Park
“The $56-million Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, the first phase of which will open this weekend, is an attempt to rewrite that civic story line, to create — perhaps for the first time since the heyday of Pershing Square in the years before World War II — a central gathering spot, in the heart of downtown, for all of dizzyingly diverse L.A. County.”
Color-Blind Casting – What’s The Statement?
“Ideally, art should reflect a demographic inclusiveness. But artists must be allowed to pursue their own visions free of political pressures. If the chief goal of creativity is to correct societal disparities, the work will be parochial at best, propagandist at worst.”
Is It Really Possible To Build Better Teachers?
“The findings of several recent studies by psychologists, economists, and educators show that–despite many reformers’ claims to the contrary–it may be possible to make low-performing teachers better, instead of firing them.”
Two Approaches To Killing Public Free Speech
“Remember back when large public events were also the locus of large public protest? As we stare down the barrel of the Olympic Games and the two national political conventions this summer, it’s fair to say that free speech has been reduced to a mere wheeze, both in the United Kingdom and here in the USA. What are truly interesting are the differences between the two: The British are buying up free speech and the Americans are zoning it out.”
MoCA’s Museum Crack-Up – It’s Just A Symptom
“In the end, however, [Jeffrey] Deitch is no more than a symptom, one of the malign forces that emerged from the Pandora’s Box that Rauschenberg opened when he announced that he wanted to work in the gap between art and life.”
Ursula Le Guin: Now Is No Time To Be A Writer
“I don’t teach writing classes anymore, and I’m really glad I don’t, because I would feel very strange about telling people, ‘Go out there and be a writer, and make a living from it.’ I mean, ha.”
The Reality Show That Could Save Dance
Can “Breaking Pointe” do for ballet what ballet companies have been struggling to accomplish for decades now? That is, lure newer, younger audiences to theaters for live classical ballet?