Bright Lights, Big City. Is New York Still A Magnet For The Young And Talented?

Every day young people from all over America stream into New York hoping to make it big. But “is New York still worth the trip? Recessions tend to be hard on youthful dreams, but this downturn has proved especially dispiriting.” And then there’s the internet, which gives access to the bigger world in ways New York always has…

Lars Von Trier’s ‘Misogyny Consultant’ Speaks

“Could you write a sustained argument on the evil nature of woman, based on all available Western sources? This was Lars von Trier’s proposition to me, a journalist and former university researcher in cultural history. It was July 2007, he was about to finish the manuscript for his [now-notorious] film Antichrist, and he needed me to go through as much material as I could and come up with all the facets of misogyny.”

What Was So Powerful About Ancient Shamans? (Less Than You Might Think)

“Wouldn’t it be great to be back … when there were shamans – spiritual leaders – who could plug us into ‘the realm of the magical,’ show us ‘the reality behind apparent reality,’ and thus lead us to understand ‘how the universe really works’? … What I do doubt is that these earnest, selfless spiritual leaders were any more common in the heyday of shamanism than today, or that the spiritual quest was any less corrupted by manipulation and outright charlatanism than today, or that there was a coherent philosophy of shamanism that makes more sense than the average religion of today.”

Let The Betting Begin: Coetzee Is Odds-On Booker Favorite

“[J.M.] Coetzee has been given odds of 3/1 to take the award for a third time by Ladbrokes, well ahead of the only other author to have previously won the prize, AS Byatt, who trails in at 10/1 for her much-praised The Children’s Book. ‘Coetzee is the field’s big name and we anticipate that literary punters will be quick to back the author’s bid to create history,’ said Ladbrokes spokesman Nick Weinberg.”

Bring Back Portrait-Painting Of Theatre Legends!

“If only we had a David Hockney image of Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth or Tom Phillips’s take on Simon Russell Beale or Antony Sher as Richard III. The list of performances one would love to have seen painted is endless: Vanessa Redgrave as Rosalind, Peggy Ashcroft as mad Queen Margaret, Ian McKellen as Richard II, Mark Rylance as Hamlet. Why don’t theatres take the initiative and start commissioning painters to preserve individual performances for posterity?”

Michelangelo And Mapplethorpe, Side By Side In Florence

“It’s just been announced that ‘Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form’, the first ever exhibition of a modern artist in the gallery where – in addition to David – Michelangelo’s unfinished Prisoners and Saint Matthew hold the stage, is to be extended by popular demand until January 2010. Apparently it has been a huge success since opening this May.”