Well, let’s be real: Susanna Sirefman wanted a better design for the “sidewalk shed” portion of scaffolding – that is, the part that people (say, New Yorkers) generally walk through. “The winning design had to be safe or safer, provide better storefront access, create a 180-degree different experience for pedestrians, use state-of-the-art building technologies, be easily installed, and complement a mix of streetscapes. And be beautiful.” – The New York Times
Tag: 08.23.19
Issa Lopez Bursts Onto The Horror Scene
López, a Mexican director and writer, defied convention and expectations to create a new horror film that addresses the real-life horrors of drug cartels (with a side dose of fantasy along with the horror). Why unexpected? Well: “Penning rom-coms for sale, or ‘wrong-coms’ as López humorously dubs them, gained her access to the big screen just as major U.S. studios started producing movies in Mexico.” – Los Angeles Times
Charles Santore, Illustrator Of Classic Children’s Books, Has Died At 84
Santore reached millions of people through his illustrations for the covers of TV Guide before he turned to classic literature for children. His TV Guide covers were legendary, and as a matter of fact, “his 1976 cover depicting Redd Foxx as the title character in Sanford and Son is in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington.” – The New York Times
The Toxic Campaign That Foreshadowed Our Cultural Moment (And Never Went Away)
The basics: “Five years ago, the ex-boyfriend of a game developer posted a bitter rant about their relationship online—and video gaming and journalism and American political life are still dealing with the fallout.” The details – about memes, swarming, doxxing, swatting, and so much more – infiltrated daily life in the U.S. for everyone from artists to politicians to the entire state of politics. – Slate
The TV Show That Incorporates Not Just Voguing But A Ton Of Modern Dance
On Pose, the actors – whose characters are fully part of New York’s ballroom scene – do a lot more than vogue and runway, though that’s essential too. “The show has an undeniable commitment to dance that is present even when the characters aren’t performing or rehearsing, just talking and laughing and crying. Pose is something of a peek into the private lives of dancers, in which the rigor is the same for all — it doesn’t matter if their work is done in a studio, on a stage or on the piers.” – The New York Times
What It’s Like For An Actress To Play A Character Who Shows Little Emotion
Anna Torv, who plays a serial-hunting psychologist on Mindhunter, explains: “When you’re an actress, you don’t even realize that the majority of the time you end up carrying the emotional weight of whatever scene you happen to be in. If someone’s going to cry, it’s going to be the girl. If someone is emotional and having a meltdown, it’s going to be the girl. … It’s just the expectation, so that’s what your instincts end up honing. All of a sudden to be in the skin of this woman who is just so dry … Anytime I showed a flicker of something, especially in the beginning, David would be like, ‘Please, pull it back.'” – The New York Times
David Koch Stamped His Name On Arts Organizations To ‘Send A Message’ To Liberals
New York’s major arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center, are now intertwined with the Koch name for decades. Not that there wasn’t dissent – from the outside. On the inside: “He also sat on several cultural boards, hobnobbing there and at galas, with people of varying political persuasions. The longstanding decorum of such gatherings suggested that, like sedate family Thanksgiving dinners, politics was not generally a polite topic for conversation.” – The New York Times
How The Rossini Renaissance Sparked From A Beachfront Festival To The World
The Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy, may never be a Salzburg, but it sure changed Rossini’s reputation. Most of the composer’s “operas were long dormant. For much of the 20th century, Rossini had become a one-opera composer, known solely for his comedy The Barber of Seville.” Then the Pesaro festival ramped up, pursuing “the scholarly rediscovery of even Rossini’s most obscure compositions, together with a dedication to teaching the magnificent fireworks of Rossinian style.” – The New York Times
Kicking The Sophomore Curse To The Curb, By Taking Eight Years To Publish A Second Novel
Téa Obreht took her time after The Tiger’s Wife struck the bestseller list and stayed for many, many months. She says, “It was appropriate to let the wrong books go and wait for the right one to come along.” – The New York Times
Dear Good Morning America: Ballet Is For Boys
When host Lara Spencer of Good Morning America decided to go after six-year-old Prince George for his studies, she made especial fun of his ballet classes. Her apology Instagram post (after the predictable outcry) didn’t go well either. “The dancer Barton Cowperthwaite said in a comment: ‘No one wants to see a hiking picture from deep in your photo library. We want to see you make an apology, on air, for publicly dragging a child and an entire art form through the mud.'” (This rather ugly episode has spawned a hashtag: #ballet4boys) – The New York Times