Katie Colombus, after having interviewed Matthew Bourne: “I’m going to be at Sadler’s Wells on press night, covering Sleeping Beauty as a review, and it suddenly struck me – what if it’s shit? Would it sway my judgment of the piece, having talked to Bourne all about the show, having a little choreo-crush on him and a better understanding of the intricacies of the performance?”
Tag: 11.27.12
Who Invented ‘OMG’? A WWI Admiral, Writing To Churchill
“It’s 1917 and Winston Churchill receives a letter from Lord Fisher. It contains the earliest example of OMG |(Oh My God). Did the toffs invent text speak? WTF! (Winston Talks French!)”
Business Leaders Must Read Poetry, Says Harvard Business Review
“For one, poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity. Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told The New York Times, ‘I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.'”
Moving To Philadelphia Didn’t Ruin The Barnes Foundation, It Saved It
Former Harvard president (and current Barnes trustee) Neil Rudenstine “argues that by moving to Philadelphia, the Barnes Foundation simply rescued itself from inevitable financial ruin” – and that Albert Barnes himself bears no small responsibility for that predicament.
Does The Rest Of The World Find Blackface Offensive?
Yes, mostly – though the practice does persist in a very few places, and folks in some countries don’t understand the taboo. A Slate explainer.
What’s So American About Edward Hopper?
“Hopper’s Americaness has so often been his story, despite the fact that he himself was quite dubious of such a label. ‘The French painters didn’t talk about the ‘French Scene,’ or the English painters the ‘English Scene’,” was Hopper’s usual response to claims of his art’s geographical specificities.”
Rifling Through Frida Kahlo’s (Fabulous) Closet
A new exhibit at the Kahlo Museum in Mexico City features “300 accessories, corsets, clothes and health contraptions worn by Kahlo that have been locked away for over 50 years since her death in 1954, aged 47.” The items are fantastical, sometimes witty, and – in the case of her many orthopedic devices – a bit frightening.
Julian Assange Warns About The Internet
“The universality of the internet will merge global humanity into one giant grid of mass surveillance and mass control”.
The New Most-Watched-Ever YouTube Video
“YouTube announced on its Trends blog Saturday that “Gangnam Style” has been viewed over 805 million times and still gets up to 10 million hits each day. As of Monday the video has now received over 826 million views.”
Southbank To Stage Alex Ross’s Book On 20th Century Music
“The ambitious plan is to survey 20th-century music and arts chronologically. Twelve intensive weekend programs throughout 2013 will aim to contextualize the music through talks, workshops and films.”