The Colorization Wars Are Back, Now Over Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”

Payne and his colleagues did create a color version of the famously black-and-white 2013 release – but only because his contract with the studio required one, mainly for overseas television; Payne publicly said he hoped no one would ever see it. Now a premium cable/satellite service is presenting it – as a “world premiere”, no less – in the U.S.

The Japanese Literature Trend That’s Half Cupcake, Half Decapitation

“A load of laundry, a batch of cupcakes – followed by a child murder, a matricide, and an attempted school bombing, all with a cherry on top. … Why has this particular brand of violence, half cupcake and half decapitation, so thoroughly captured the Japanese imagination? In part it is because there are so many delectable Japanese cupcakes to corrupt.”

Ballet San Antonio’s Founder Starts City’s Second Professional Company

“With performances during its inaugural season under its belt, organizers of … Ballet Latino de San Antonio, are working on the fall 2014 schedule as well as plans for performing abroad next year.” The company was established by the city’s ballet madrina, Mayra Worthen, who stepped down as Ballet San Antonio’s artistic director in 2011.

UK Jewish Film Festival In Fight With Host Venue

“A north London theatre has refused to host the UK Jewish Film Festival while it is sponsored by the Israeli Embassy amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza. The Tricycle Theatre … said it would not accept any funding from ‘any party to the current conflict’. It has offered to use its own resources instead.” Festival management calls the condition “unacceptable” and says it will move.

Could A Three-Day Work Week Really Work?

Maria Konnikova: “When we own more of our time, we feel like we’re in charge of our lives and our schedules, which makes us happier and, ultimately, better at what we do. Our health and happiness also increases in the course of our lifetimes and, with it, our value to the workplace and to society as a whole. Additionally, we may finally recover from chronic sleep deprivation.”

The Problem With Ivy League Colleges Isn’t A College Problem At All

Joshua Rothman, responding to William Deresiewicz’s broadside against the Ivy League and its students: “I tend to draw the opposite conclusion from Deresiewicz’s data: the fact that you can feel soulless in such an intellectual paradise suggests that the problem is bigger than college. … Deresiewicz makes a mistake in ascribing to his students, as personal failings, the problems of the age in which they live.”