The six-year-old French tourist who was hurled from the London museum’s 10th-floor viewing platform in August has now been moved from intensive care (in a “full armour of splints”) to a rehabilitation center. His family says he can now go outdoors in a wheelchair for brief periods and is able to make slight movements with his legs, notable progress for a patient with a severe spinal cord injury. – The Guardian (PA)
Tag: 11.10.19
Arts Groups In Belgium’s Richest Region Brace For (More) Funding Cuts
“Flemish Culture Minister Jan Jambon … envisages cuts of up to 6% in the subsidies given to cultural institutions to cover their operating funds and 60% in the subsidies given to cover the costs of specific cultural projects.” This follows nearly a decade of consistent funding cuts for arts organizations in Flanders; as one administrator protested, “We have already had to made 25 million euro in savings in recent years.” – VRT (Belgium)
Woody Allen, Amazon Studios Settle $68 Million Lawsuit
The parties reached the settlement Friday, according to a one-page filing in the Federal District Court in Manhattan. Details of the deal remain under wraps, but individuals whom Deadline characterized as “close to the situation” told the trade publication that “there were no winners in this in the end.” – Washington Post
Laurel Griggs, Actor On Broadway And ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Has Died At Age 13
Griggs, who played Ivanka in ONCE: The Musical for 17 months after making her Broadway debut at age six in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, died from a massive asthma attack. – Variety
Some Schmuck In Idaho Keeps Hiding Library Books
The person doing it takes nonfiction books about Trump or guns – specifically the ones that aren’t favorable to the 45th president or gun enthusiasts – and hiding them. “‘I am going to continue hiding these books in the most obscure places I can find to keep this propaganda out of the hands of young minds,’ the mystery book relocator wrote in a note left for Ms. Ammon, the library director, in the facility’s comment box. ‘Your liberal angst gives me great pleasure.'” – The New York Times
The Hate It Or Love It Hitler Joke Of Taika Waititi’s ‘Jojo Rabbit’
Here’s the deal: It’s a movie that laughs at the Nazis and laughs at Hitler. “The controversy — or, at least, the orchestrated illusion of it — is built into the film’s faux outrageous aesthetic, its whole thumb-in-the-eye-of-the-monster, satire-is-resistance! brand. It’s a movie that actually counts on a divided reaction, because the key question Jojo Rabbit is asking its audience isn’t, ‘Are you willing to laugh at hate?’ The key question is, ‘Are you cool enough to get it?'” – Variety
Watching Americans Watch Parades
Imagine photographing the people lining the streets for 28 different parades in the U.S. – in 2016. “The very existence of each group portrait produces an illusion of unity, as if the people in each frame, at least for that instant, cohere. Maybe an act as basic as standing alongside other people still counts for something.” – The Atlantic
A New Sculpture For Brooklyn’s New ‘Golden Age’
But is it worthy? The sculpture started out with the name “We’re No. #1” and moved to, uh, “Unity,” a little less focused on the longstanding animosity between Brooklyn and Manhattan. “Perhaps Mr. Thomas is saluting the new Brooklyn — the one of rising property values and more anodyne art.” Ouch. – The New York Times
Broadway Is Becoming A Place For Chummy Nights With Actors And Their Fanbases
Seriously, it seems to be almost a new genre. “These performances were rendered with a disarming, self-interrupting casualness, suggesting a happy ham at home among friends. And they often directly involved the audience. ‘Do you want it? Do you want it?’ [Kristin] Chenoweth shouted to the audience, before she hit a high D in concluding a song. [Ian] McKellen, in his show’s second act, asked theatergoers to yell out names of plays by Shakespeare, to cue whatever he did next.” – The New York Times
The Design Of ‘English-Style’ Gardens Owes A Lot To China And Japan
Garden and art history books tell a specific story that leaves some important bits out. “In a few short decades, what became known as the ‘English style’ had spread across Britain and on to the rest of Europe. In fact, centuries later it remains the dominant garden style in the world. You’d be forgiven for assuming this style arose entirely spontaneously from the imagination of a handful of ingenious 18th-century Brits. However, the evidence paints a different picture.” – The Guardian (UK)