Sure, it’s because of Jessica Fletcher, both an independent woman and a nice old lady who fights crime with a sharp eye instead of a gun. And the TV scripts were solid. Yet, observes Jon Land (who wrote that 50th novel), what made the franchise different from earlier crime series was the setting of Cabot Cove, Maine, “the kind of cozy place where nothing bad ever should happen, but always seems to.” – CrimeReads
Tag: 12.03.19
What’s The Point Of The Turner Prize If Everyone Wins?
“While this gesture is charged by the passion of a particular moment, it has huge implications for the future. It places the Tate and subsequent Turner Prize artists and juries in an invidious position. How can they now continue as normal? If the Tate wants the prize to go on, does it install new rules stating that there can be only one victor? That rather undermines this year’s winners.” – London Evening Standard
You Get A Turner Prize And You Get A Turner Prize And You Get A Turner Prize And You Get A Turner Prize
The four nominees had appealed to the jury to consider awarding the prize to them as a collective due to their shared commitment to urgent social and political causes. “At this time of political crisis in Britain and much of the world, when there is already so much that divides and isolates people and communities, we feel strongly motivated to use the occasion of the prize to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity, and solidarity—in art as in society.” – Artforum
At The Theater Olympics (Where Russia Is Not Banned)
Like its more famous athletic counterpart, this international gathering, founded in Greece in 1994, happens (roughly) every four years in a different city. This year, for the first time, it’s in two locations, St. Petersburg, Russia and Toga, Japan, and it’s the longest and largest Theater Olympics yet, with 104 productions from 22 countries. – The New York Times
D.C. Fontana, ‘Star Trek’ Writer Who Shaped Character Of Spock, Dead At 80
“Fontana, the first female writer on the show, … was perhaps second only to Gene Roddenberry, the series’ creator, in molding the sprawling Star Trek story-telling empire. … [She] wrote or co-wrote some of the most notable episodes of the original series, which ran from 1966 to 1969, and, with Roddenberry, co-wrote the pilot for its revival as Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.”. – NBC News
Turkey’s Top Court Rules That 1,000-Year-Old Church-Turned-Mosque-Turned-Museum Must Be Turned Back Into Mosque (Could This Happen To Hagia Sophia?)
“The Church of St Savior in Chora, which was converted into the Kariye Mosque in the early 16th century by an Ottoman vizier, was designated a museum by the Turkish government in 1945. Its 14th-century frescos and mosaics are regarded among the world’s finest examples of Byzantine art. Turkey’s Council of State … ruled last month that the historic cabinet decision that made Kariye a museum was unlawful because a mosque ‘cannot be used except for its essential function’. … [President] Erdoğan vowed [during Istanbul’s municipal elections] in March to re-consecrate Hagia Sophia as a mosque.” – The Art Newspaper
Founders Of Chicago’s Halcyon Theatre Abruptly Quit And Leave City
“On Tuesday, the co-founders of Halcyon Theatre, Tony and Jenn Adams, said that they have stepped down [after 14 years] and have moved to Maine. Effective immediately, Arlicia McClain will become the company’s new artistic director. … Halcyon Theatre was founded in 2006 in [the] Albany Park [neighborhood] and describes itself as committed to connecting people, transforming borders and ascending toward a more just union.” – Chicago Tribune
And The 2019 Turner Prize Goes To — All Four Finalists Together
From the Booker Prize to the Bad Sex in Fiction Award, this seems to be the year of shared accolades in the UK. The judges of the Turner, Britain’s leading visual art prize, split the honors between Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani at their explicit request, made “in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity – in art as in society.” – The Guardian
The Baltimore Sun Has Been Critical Of The Baltimore Symphony’s Business. But Maybe The Sun Should Look To Itself First?
“Instead of filling The Sun’s pages almost exclusively with reports about crime and corruption in our city, thereby cementing its negative image locally and abroad, does The Sun not have a duty to also highlight and honor its amazing cultural life and support it every way possible, rather than just chide institutions for failing? – Baltimore Sun
Letter From The Future: Stories In A Post-Print World
It strikes me as strange to mourn a format, particularly when the new format has made storytelling more accessible and widespread than ever before. Virtual reality transcends literacy, language, ability and geography; it’s collaborative and adaptive and inherently empathetic, permitting us to walk any number of digital miles in someone else’s shoes; it’s even affordable, thanks to the team of rogue librarians behind @AlexandriaRising, who created the sliding-scale pricing system. – The New York Times