“In the players’ finest moments, elegance often exists alongside the brutality. And no wonder: Few sports have more in common with the formality and artistry of a dance performance. Consider the structure…”
Tag: 09.20.09
TV Producers: Lessons My Recession Taught Me
“The events of the last year have knocked some sparkle out of most Americans’ lives. This year when network executives turned to research to discern what recession-battered viewers wanted, they braced themselves for bitterness. But they discovered something surprising.”
Revering A Writer Who Was Most Critical Of Us
“So what explains the American love of Samuel Johnson? Is it rooted in a cultural inferiority complex, a compulsion to cozy up to the very authority figures who most revile us?”
The Short Brilliant Life Of NY’s “Downtown Baudelaire”
“It was clear that Dash Snow, through his wild life as much as the makeshift art he made from it, was viewed by both the coterie of cool young New Yorkers that knew him and the young wannabees who only knew of him, as a contemporary urban outlaw, a renegade, a self-styled outsider. At a cultural moment when those terms have all but lost their currency, Snow insisted on their continued importance, drawing on an “outsider” lineage that harked back to punk, the Beats, and beyond.”
The Best Conductor Of His Generation?
“Valery Gergiev is the greatest conductor of his generation. Even those who disagree concede that he is the most electrifying. His high profile internationally is based on his spellbinding effect on audiences and musicians alike – not to mention his famous performance of Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony to an audience of Russian soldiers and tank commanders amid the ruins of the capital of his homeland.”
Grand Rapids’ ArtPrize Of The People
“In its inaugural year, ArtPrize, which runs through Oct. 10, features 1,262 professional and amateur artists from 16 countries. They’ve been streaming into Grand Rapids for weeks, transforming 3 square miles of the center city into a playground of imagination. Winners of the $449,000 purse — including a $250,000 grand prize — will be selected by public vote rather than a jury of experts. Some artists are salivating over the cash. Others serve a more quixotic muse.”