“In an inversion of the traditional editorial process, The Onion chooses its headlines and then invents stories to fit them. For a headline to have made the first cut, at least two of the six writers in attendance had to okay it, generally an occasion of little fanfare in which a couple of people threw up their hands and murmured with a defeated sigh, ‘Sure, why the hell not?'”
Tag: 11.16.08
In Sarasota, Arts Groups See Hope Amidst The Money Troubles
The resort town on Florida’s west coast is well-known for its arts offerings (at least during the winter high season). Though reductions in state funding, sponsorships and subscription sales are causing some organizations (such as Sarasota Opera, Florida Studio Theatre and the Sarasota Film Festival) to revise their current budgets downward, many are finding that ticket sales are improving and that people seem to need the arts to help them through the economic decline.
Porgy And Bess – It’s Not Just A Show, It’s Sociology
“Gershwin’s tune-laden slice of life in the Charleston slum known as Catfish Row (based on Heyward’s 1925 novel and the subsequent play) did not flinch from confronting issues of race and class. Those issues – grinding poverty, domestic abuse, racist bigotry, crime, drugs and prostitution – remain very much with us today.”
‘The Chelsea Hotel Of The Mad’
Mark Harris looks at the place of Bellevue Hospital in the popular imagination of New York and the country at large – and at how the reality of the hospital and its image relate to and affect each other.
When Tenors Go Bad
The Cape Town Opera has fired tenor Richard Mbovane after he was caught on camera – twice – stealing electronics from a store in Berlin, where the company was touring.
In Milwaukee, The Giving Climate Is Chilly
Following Milwaukee Shakespeare’s swift and unexpected closure last month, area nonprofits are understandably watchful. “There is one firm lesson, several people knowledgeable about the giving scene said: Organizations should do all they can to broaden the base of their support so they’re not as vulnerable to the distresses of one or a handful of donors. A second one that applies across the board: Now is a time to be wary.”
Ab-Ex Painter Grace Hartigan Dies At 86
“Her bold canvases made her a bright star in the 1950s New York art world, but she ‘sank from view faster than the Titanic’ when she moved to Baltimore, The New York Times said. Grace Hartigan, who ultimately found a second career offering her wisdom and advice to generations of young painters at the Maryland Institute College of Art, died of liver failure today at the a Lorien Mays Chapel in Timonium nursing home.”
No, No, The Author Insists: My Book Really Isn’t That Good
Joe Queenan broaches “the least-discussed subject in the world of belles-lettres: book reviews that any author worth his salt knows are unjustifiably enthusiastic.” Are such reviews unethical? No. Immoral? No. But they are common. They’re also “unfair to the reader, who may be hornswoggled….”
Gormley’s Maquette Isn’t Actually An Antique, But …
“Anthony Gormley’s design model for his Angel of the North sculpture has become the first £1m object to be valued on BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow. The model was one of a number Gormley made to win over sceptical councillors ahead of the statue’s commissioning.”
On Darwin £10 Note, A Bit Too Much Artistic License
“It is the ultimate, infallible tribute to a Briton: placing their portrait on a banknote alongside images of their life and work. But now a leading UK biologist has announced that pictures on the £10 note, which commemorates the achievements of Charles Darwin, are ‘little better than fiction’.” The problem is the hummingbird….