Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Amélie, who says he sold the rights to aid a cardiac charity: “I hate Broadway. I think it is the very incarnation of tackiness … I can tell you that I will not go to see it, I don’t even want to hear about it, I won’t listen to what they do, but if it brings in some money, well maybe I can save a few lives, and that’s the only reason I accepted.”
Tag: 08.24.13
How To Kill A Working Writer’s Work
Want to lose a friend who’s a writer? Ask her, a month in, how it’s going. Better still, ask her to describe what she’s working on. She’ll try, because she has to (“Well, it’s about this friendship between these two, um, friends . . . “) all the while listening to the magic leaking out of the balloon, and she’ll hate you for it.
Charles Pollock, 83, Who Designed The Ever-Popular Office Chair
“Pollock’s crowning achievement was an office chair characterized by a single aluminum band around its perimeter that held it together, structurally and visually. Massive numbers of the chairs have been sold since its introduction in 1963, and it remains a major piece of the prestigious Knoll Collection.”
Beloved In Houston, Booed In Europe
“Heroes fall — all the time — in the eyes of those who fail to remember that heroes are people, imperfect in all their glory. Or maybe European critics are a bunch of douches.”
‘Boring’ Baroque Art Gets A Street Makeover
“What’s odd, of course, is that 400 years ago, people were not shocked by a shitting dog, but years later, there are people out there that don’t like it.”
Thinking: We Can’t Do It (Or Can We?) With Noise
“There is no physiological habituation to noise. The stress of audible assault affects us psychologically even when we don’t consciously register noise.” This does not bode well for 21st-century philosophers.
When You Write Apocalyptic Fiction And Some Of It Seems To Come True: Uh-Oh
Margaret Atwood: “In order to achieve this wonderful future in which everything’s going to be terrific, who are you going to shove into a hole in the ground?”
Entering The Architectural Space Of A Book (And Then Building It)
“Any architectural question is answered from a literary point of view and any literary issue is addressed by a spatial idea. There is no room for arbitrary moves.”
What Happens When A Shakespeare Festival Goes Bust?
In short, it’s not good for the theatre that usually hosts the plays.
Sexing Up At Least One Woman’s Gaze In A New Movie
“Social and sexual boundary breaking ensue. So do many moments of cringy humor. ‘I call my brand “funcomfortable,”‘ Ms. Soloway said.”