As the entertainment industry grew into a national business, states and municipalities competed to lure productions out of Hollywood, and the balance of power among city governments, police departments and the entertainment industry seriously shifted over the past century.
Tag: 10.24.16
For 50 Years, They’ve Loved Edward Albee In Bulgaria
An avant-garde production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at a tiny Sofia theater in 1996 led to a long period of popularity for the American playwright. Even the Communist censors liked his work.
Why Do Witches Ride Broomsticks?
“Before the Wicked Witch of the West or Harry Potter took flight on the spindly cleaning tool, the image first appeared in the 15th century.” You may not be surprised to read that the depiction was an attack on both sexuality and heresy.
Financier David Rubenstein Named Chair Of Smithsonian Board
“David M. Rubenstein has resuscitated some of this city’s icons with multimillion-dollar gifts to the Washington Monument and the National Archives. … With his newest duties, Rubenstein – whose day job as co-founder of the Carlyle Group has him steering one of the country’s largest private-equity firms – will oversee both of the city’s major cultural institutions.”
Turin’s Top Museum Official Forced Out By Maverick Reformist Mayor
Chiara Appendino, a member of the populiist Five Star Movement who took office this summer, demaded the resignation of Fondazione Torino Musei president Patrizia Asproni “after it was revealed that a major sponsor of a proposed Edouard Manet exhibition was backing out of a plan to host the show in Turin” – a show that Appendino herself had reportedly opposed.
Fort Worth Symphony, Amidst Strike, Cancels All Remaining Concerts In 2016
“Symphony management announced Monday it has canceled concerts through Dec. 31 as a result of the ongoing musicians’ strike. Management and the musicians union met Saturday for the first time in almost two months to try to reach a new contract agreement for the musicians. They were unsuccessful.”
Cities Fight Over Proposed Iconic Gehry Building Plans For Hollywood
“Since renderings were unveiled last year, the discussion has turned away from Gehry’s daring architecture to whether the 334,000-square-foot development is simply too large for the famed boulevard. The main tower, at 15 stories, would be the tallest building to be erected on the Sunset Strip in more than 30 years.”
Carlos Acosta’s Experimental New Hybrid Dance Company
“I think sometimes dance is very segregated,” Acosta said at the UK launch of his new company. “This is an experiment; not many people have done it before. When you create half the company from ballet and half from contemporary it creates an energy, it could be a bomb … it is like two different animals.”
Buckminster Fuller Believed Technology Is Mankind’s Salvation (Ah, It Was A Gentler Time, Then)
“Fuller put his faith in technology as a means to tame the messiness of humankind. ‘I would never try to reform man – that’s much too difficult,’ Fuller told The New Yorker in 1966. Appealing to people to remedy their behaviour was a folly, because they’d simply never do it. Far wiser, Fuller thought, to build technology that circumvents the flaws in human behaviour – that is, ‘to modify the environment in such a way as to get man moving in preferred directions’. Instead of human-led design, he sought design-led humans.”
How Police Pressure Shaped The Ways Hollywood Depicts Law Enforcement In America
“This is not a straightforward story about how police departments are bad and Hollywood is good, or vice versa. Nor is it a simple morality tale about how creative freedom made it possible for a liberal industry to critique a conservative profession. … But driven by the need for drama and excitement, Hollywood used genres such as action movies and reality shows to glamorize the very ideas about policing that have generated such division in the United States today.”