“British theatre producer David Cecil, facing conviction in Uganda for ignoring an order not to stage a play with gay themes, has said he and his team have been wrongly represented as political activists.”
Tag: 10.01.12
Shanghai Opens Two Enormous New Museums
“On 1 October, the city is marking China’s National Holiday by unveiling the China Art Palace in the mammoth red building that was formerly the China Pavilion in the Expo. On the opposite bank of the Huangpu River, the Power Station of Art was due to open in a converted factory, which during the Expo was the Urban Best Practices Area.”
Cecil Beaton As War Photographer
“[The story of Beaton is always hinged on the war as being a transformative moment for him – a move from the frivolities of celebrity glamour to the realities of conflict and destruction. … [Yet] Beaton rarely got too close to combat and his images lack the gruesome realities of battle that you find in Frank Capa’s jarring work. Instead we get icons of war, men and women captured in moments of staged realities.”
Beasts of the Southern Wild Cast Ruled Ineligible for SAG Awards
“[The] critically acclaimed indie drama that Fox Searchlight is positioning as a major awards contender, has been ruled ineligible for the Screen Actors Guild Awards because it was not made under the terms of SAG-AFTRA’s Low Budget Feature Agreement, which mandates the use of professional actors.”
Sikhs Take Offense At JK Rowling’s New Novel
“The Casual Vacancy is facing protests in India over its portrayal of a Sikh girl as ‘mustachioed yet large-mammaried’. Sikh leaders said they were investigating complaints about the ‘provocative’ language and would demand a nationwide ban on the book if Rowling was deemed to have insulted the faith.”
‘A Good Play Puts The Audience Through A Certain Ordeal’: Playwright Howard Barker
“I don’t like sympathetic characters. Theatre should be a taxing experience: the greatest achievement of a writer is to produce a character who creates anxiety.”
Why Do We Let Economics Dominate In Political Debate? (It Doesn’t Make Us Happy)
“The case against making increased GDP per capita the overriding policy objective is that it doesn’t deliver the increased happiness or welfare if promises.”
Kennedy Center’s Michael Kaiser Apologizes
“Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., has apologized for cussing out the head of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts over the phone in mid-September, in response to a demand to stop overlooking Latinos in the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards.”
Why The !@#$%^& Do Web Publishers Break Articles Into Pages?
“Pagination is one of the worst design and usability sins on the Web, the kind of obvious no-no that should have gone out with blinky text, dancing cat animations, and autoplaying music.”
How They Censor Live TV
“Censorship is a relatively simple process in modern control rooms. A censor views two separate video streams: the live action and the feed that is going out to viewers on a delay, typically of between 5 and 10 seconds. If the producer sees or hears something objectionable in the live feed, he or she calls out “dump” or a similar command.”