“The Cape Henlopen [Delaware] School Board nuked its entire summer reading list to keep kids from reading The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M Danforth’s acclaimed YA novel about a gay teenager coming of age in Montana.”
Tag: 08.11.14
Why Are So Many Old Art Exhibitions Being Revived?
The Armory Show of 1913, Hitler’s 1937 “Degenerate Art” exhibition, MoMA’s The Photographic Object 1970, the 1966 show that introduced America to Minimalism, the infamous human zoo from 1914, and numerous others – why recreate entire assemblages by other curators, and why now? (Yes, of course there are good reasons.)
What Do We Do With Our Old, Disused Airports?
There are more out-of-use terminals around than you’d think, some of them architectural landmarks (Saarinen’s TWA terminal at JFK) and all of them expensive. Jonathan Glancey looks at what’s been tried, from the triumphant repurposing of Berlin Tempelhof to Saarinen’s building to poor old Montreal Mirabel.
Is Weird Al So Popular Because He’s Reassuring?
Sasha Frere-Jones: “With his parodic versions of hit songs, this somehow ageless fifty-four-year-old has become popular not because he is immensely clever – though he can be – but because he embodies how many people feel when confronted with pop music: slightly too old and slightly too square. That feeling never goes away, and neither has Al, who has sold more than twelve million albums since 1979.”
For Museums, “Deaccession” Ia A Dirty Word. Should It Be?
“The principle,” says the president of the AAMD, “is that works of art shouldn’t be considered liquid assets to be converted into cash. They’re records of human creativity that are held in the public trust.” On ther other hand (says the other side), “Once you’ve decided to sell a work of art, what you end up with is money. And money is fungible. And saying that that money has to be cordoned off and only used for art doesn’t address the realities of running any sort of museum.”
Shark Week Jumps It: Discovery Channel Lied To Scientists To Get Them To Appear
“[Jonathan] Davis was shocked to find that his interview aired during a 2013 Shark Week special called Voodoo Shark, which was about a mythical monster shark called ‘Rooken’ that lived in the Bayous of Louisiana. … His answers from unrelated questions were edited together to make it seem like he believed in its existence and was searching for it.” And his is not the only instance.
The Review That Moved Hemingway To Bitch-Slap The Critic’s Face And Challenge Him To A Fistfight
The New Republic offers from its archives Max Eastman’s assessment of Death in the Afternoon – in which he suggested that Hemingway’s prose style was the equivalent “of wearing false hair on his chest.” (The new preface to the review recounts Papa H’s response.)
A Depression Theme At This Year’s Edinburgh Fringe
Lyn Gardner: “It’s always good to talk, and maybe these shows and others are a sign that we are getting better about being honest with each other about our own frailties. When I’ve discussed these shows with other people, several have opened up their own mental-health issues. That can only be good. It’s as if these shows give us permission to talk about the taboo, let down our guard.”
The Best-Selling Identical-Twin Novelists
Maria Konnikova interviews Austin (Soon I Will Be Invincible) and Lev (The Magicians) Grossman – really, they interview each other – about separating (and not) from each other and from the family business: both parents were writers, the black-sheep sister is a sculptor, and they say they’re “failed non-writers”.
Indianapolis Opera Looks To “New Artistic Vision”, Hires Local Theater Pro
The troubled company, which canceled its last production and lost its artistic director, has engaged the former managing director of the Indiana Repertory Theatre to help program the coming fall season and realize a “new artistic vision and business model that reflect the interests of Indianapolis audiences.”