“Thinking about [Kiarostami’s] films while watching an American film leads to a sobering realization: all the things that Kiarostami could not show in his films became the only things Hollywood filmmakers chose to show in theirs. What he showed in his films were the things abandoned by Hollywood: conversation, friendship, understanding, compassion, and empathy.”
Tag: 08.05.16
When The Cast Of ‘Fun Home’ Went To Orlando After The Pulse Shooting
“In murky, frightening times like these, that is the most essential thing theater offers an audience: a brief community, connecting us to one another in larger, lasting ways.”
The First (Rock) Gateway Song For Children Was ‘Yellow Submarine’
“I love that my son loves the Beatles, and I am optimistic that this will lead him down a path not unlike my own upbringing immersed in music.”
How’s Thomas Adès’ Opera Adaptation Of A Buñuel Movie Going?
“The acting, with certain exceptions, is quite restrained. With an opera, one’s doing in a way the opposite and bringing out the latent psychological and emotional meaning. The music underlines the power of the feeling. In some ways, I found that operatic subjects, whether it’s a source that you use or a real-life thing, are subjects that seem to invite a further dimension that in a way would bring them to some kind of new stature.
When Humans Can Control Each Others’ Brains Remotely, What Will Happen?
“These systems are potentially more precise and less invasive than existing techniques for altering brain activity such as deep brain stimulation. With so much progress on a variety of fronts, some form of human mind control – and the treatments and benefits it confers – should be here before long.”
Seeing A Bunch Of Tennessee Williams’ Flops Reveals A Lot About The USA’s Greatest Playwright
“Although skeptical about religion and its repressive demands, Williams maintained an open mind when it came to spirituality, believing that sex could lead one to God perhaps even more directly than sublimation and sacrifice.”
What Does London Sound Like? Ask The Sound Hunters
“I mean, could you imagine if you could hear the sounds of 18th-century London today? … Even if it was just the sound of people spitting in the street, coughing — and a lot of people were sick back then, so it probably would be — it’d be fascinating.”
The Evidence Is Mounting: Rembrandt Used Optics For His Self-Portraits
“A number of these smaller self-portraits are etched onto copper, a surface upon which projections can be seen extremely clearly. Two early painted self-portraits are also made on copper — an unusual choice of surface for a painting, but perhaps telling of an artist working from a projection.”
Why Does Canada Hate Canadians?
“If Canadian curators cannot aspire to eventually manage the museums where they work, or Canadian stage directors need never consider running Canada’s festivals, they will not give their institutions the best of themselves. They will either slump into the self-fulfilling prophecy of lower expectations or they will go abroad.”
This Greek Statue Of Zeus Was Lost In The Fifth Century, So – What The Heck – Let’s Just 3D-Print Another One
“It took two days to 3D print Zeus’s body and 20 hours to print his legs.”