The Secret Tantric Murals Of The Dalai Lama

“On an island in a pond behind the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet sits the Lukhang Temple, or ‘Temple to the Serpent Spirits,’ a secret meditation space created by the Dalai Lama in the 17th century. … Vibrant murals covered its walls, depicting yogis in impossible-looking poses, gurus and kings, crystals surrounded by rainbows, and the vagina that gave birth to the world.”

The Problem With African ‘Message Movies’

“Because most of these films are targeted at an international audience, which is already saddled with its own preconceptions of Africa, well-meaning message movies can ring false. Why tie the film so explicitly to a cause that ‘needs immediate attention,’ whether through the plotting or promotion, if not to profit on the outdated idea of that there is a foreign land that needs saving?”

ABT Makes A Big Move Into Southern California

“Balletomanes practically had to rub their eyes over the news this past year that ABT was permanently moving its annual Ratmansky Nutcracker from the Brooklyn Academy of Music to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and concurrently starting a West Coast branch of its education division, also to be housed at the Costa Mesa arts center.”

The Man Who Makes ‘Hamilton’ Sound Good

“You would never expect to find a banjo in a hip-hop band, but ‘The Room Where it Happens’ just cried for it. That to me is probably my single greatest idea in the whole show, only because it’s so quirky and is so of the style of the music. It’s so Kander and Ebb-y, Dixieland, so I just sat down to orchestrate it, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘What can the guitar do?’ And literally in a flash of light, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it could be a banjo!'”