“When you stare down at it from the steps of the City Hall in Paris, [François] Abelanet’s carefully designed garden resembles a terrestrial globe. It’s a nearly perfect sphere, with neat lines marking latitude and longitude … But move a little and its appearance changes. From any other angle, it’s an irregular crazy-quilt of shapes – a weirdly configured, Alice-In-Wonderland world.”
Tag: 11.29.11
Cosima Wagner’s Only Defender Is Bookslut (They Look Alike)
Jessa Crispin: “It’s difficult for me to write out Cosima’s crimes without immediately coming to her defense. … I loved Cosima. I was appalled by her. I had arguments with her in my head. And yes, I horribly identified with her, with some of those thoughts you are ashamed even to think, let alone ever express on paper.”
A Composer’s Last Music (What It Says About You)
As the mad mathematician says in A Beautiful Mind: “What’s the use of being nuts if you can’t have a little fun with it?” For a composer, what’s the use of dying if you can’t get a couple of good pieces out of it?
Happy 50th, Catch-22! You’re The Best
“Catch-22 is about everything. It’s about selfishness and sanctimony, the perverse logic of capitalism, nurses and chaplains, parades and murder, heroism and cowardice, love and lust–all the stuff that matters. It’s a 450-page masterpiece of episodic curlicues that vacillate through time.”
At What Age Are You At The Peak Of Your Abilities?
“It now appears watching eager young performers in action may have skewed our view of the competitive urge. Newly published research suggests the instinct to bet on the superiority of one’s skills peaks around age 50.”
Why Creative Types May Be More Likely To Cheat
“The same enterprising mind that allows creative people to consider new possibilities, generate original ideas, and resolve conflicts innovatively may be what also helps them justify their own dishonest behavior, said the authors of [a] new study.”
Why Are The Titles Of Hollywood Products So Thumpingly Obvious?
We can blame the Internet, it seems – and, for that matter, mass communications and the entire Information Age.
In Praise Of Ken Russell, Cinema’s Great Imaginer Of Music
“Yes, he could be puerile. He portrayed Liszt as a sex-crazed rock star pursued by a giant penis. … The neurotic, erotic carryings on of his Mahler and Tchaikovsky don’t qualify as proper musicology. But Russell always started with the music — how it made him feel, how it took over his life. Music was, for him, the key to our inner lives.”
Should Canada’s Arts Funding Be The Model For Australia?
For a government report on arts philanthropy, Australian Ballet executive director Valerie Wilder – who has worked in both the US and Canada – specifically recommended following the Canadian system of mixing direct state funding with matching grants and tax incentives for philanthropy.
New York Film Critics Give Top Award To Black-And-White Silent
“The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius’s black-and-white ode to silent cinema, won best feature, and Mr. Hazanavicius also won best director … Brad Pitt earned a nod for best actor for both Moneyball and The Tree of Life, while Meryl Streep won for The Iron Lady.”