The controversial former New York Times war correspondent’s reporting during the run-up to the Iraq War drew heavy criticism, as did her notoriously uncollegial behavior. Miller has added a new gig to her current career as a conservative pundit: she is now drama critic for the Jewish web magazine Tablet.
Tag: 09.16.11
Saving The Pipe Organs Churches No Longer Want
“Almost every church once had a pipe organ. But as mainstream churches merge, close, struggle to raise money, and use guitars, drums and ‘praise bands’ to draw younger worshipers, the pipe organ is waning as a fixture in many parishes. Some are showing up in landfills.” Enter the Organ Clearing House.
Calls For Dutch Royals To Get Rid Of ‘Offensive’ Painting
“Critics urged the Dutch royal family Friday to get rid of a painting they say is an offensive reminder of wrongs from the Netherlands’ colonial past, but the Royal House defended the 19th-century work as an important part of the country’s history. Homage of the Colonies … depicts half-naked, brown-skinned women and men in servile poses bearing gifts to an enthroned white woman.”
Maurice Sendak Says Children’s Books Today Aren’t Wild Enough
“With books today, I’m not always sure if they’re truthful or faithful to what’s going on with children. … There’s a certain passivity, a going back to childhood innocence that I never quite believed in. We remembered childhood as a very passionate, upsetting, silly, comic business.”
Art Facebook Censors
“Facebook has repeatedly disabled users’ accounts for posting images of Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World, 1866. The erotic work of art, in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, falls foul of the site’s prohibition of offensive materials.”
Denver Loses A Longtime Theatre
“Denver loses another theater space when the Vintage Theatre is bounced from its home at 17th Avenue and Vine Street, ending a 28-year tradition of live theater in the neighborhood and sending Denver’s second-most prolific theater company soon scrambling for a new place to play.”
Curtains For The Colorado Symphony Unless Something Drastic Changes
“Unless the symphony works fast to slash salaries, find new sources of cash and ultimately change the way it does business, its very existence is in question. … We’re talking dead: a major city without a symphony orchestra.”
To Save Short Stories, Tweet! A Lot.
Neil Gaiman: “Short stories are the best place for young writers to learn their craft: to try out different voices and techniques, to experiment, to learn. And they’re a wonderful place for old writers, when you have an idea that wouldn’t make it to novel length, one simple, elegant thing that needs to be said. People like reading short stories. And they like Âlistening to short stories.”
For Filming Le Carré’s Stories, Beautiful Minds With A Broad Canvas
“Mr. le Carré is maybe the most eccentric constructor of fiction in English literature since Joseph Conrad. His stories are full of digressions and long flashbacks; he circles around his plots for the longest time, as if he were doing reconnaissance on them before deciding to go in for the kill. And the verbal textures of the books can be challenging too, because his spies tend to speak in their own special jargon, which seems like normal speech, but isn’t quite.”
No Matter What, Fund The Arts
“The arts give more than they take,” says columnist Christopher Hume. “That’s true whether you’re a bottom-liner and first nighter, the most ardent admirer and one of the cost-of-everything-and-value-of-nothing crowd.”