Damian Kulash, OK Go’s frontman: “[After ‘A Million Ways’ went viral], we were like, ‘if we can do this by accident, we should do it on purpose.’ And that’s when we did the treadmill dance at my sister’s house in Florida. But even that video, we thought that was a gift to those same nerdy fans, the three or four hundred thousand people who wanted to see us dancing in the back yard.”
Tag: 12.13.16
Misty Copeland Goes To Cuba
“The thing Copeland is most vocal about is the lack of diversity in ballet. But being in Cuba was a moment to not stand out. Copeland was surrounded in brown diversity.”
How The ‘Last Tango’ Butter Scene Went From Somewhat Disturbing Story To Outrage-Clickbait And Almost-Fake News
Neither Maria Schneider not anyone else involved ever claimed that actual rape (or penetration of any sort) happened on the Last Tango set. Yet when the story resurfaced earlier this month, celebrities were tweeting things like “All copies of this film should be destroyed immediately. It contains an actual rape and sexual assault.” Lindsay Zoladz investigates the source of the distortion and how it spread.
The Mummers Of Newfoundland (They’re Nothing Like Philly’s) Nearly Died Out, But Now They’re Back
The old English Christmastime tradition never got as fancypants elaborate on The Rock as it did in Philadelphia. But it still included rowdy carousing by partyers in disguise – and, inevitably, some drunken mayhem and violence; as a result, for decades mummering was outlawed entirely there. But, beginning in 2009, the tradition was revived.
‘I Hate The Written Word,’ Says Choreographer Who Gives His Audiences Reading Lists
Marina Harss talks with Reggie Wilson, “who has been described as a kind of cultural anthropologist working in dance. [His] creations develop out of personal obsessions that lead to years of reading and research trips before he even sets foot in the studio.”
United Nations Drops Idea To Appoint “Wonder Woman” As Ambassador
A petition opposed the idea. “A large-breasted white woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit with an American flag motif and knee-high boots” is not an appropriate spokeswoman for gender equity at the United Nations, the petition said.
Shinola’s Improbable, Quixotic Attempt To Build The Best Turntable You’ve Ever Heard
“We’re trying to make it flexible so we can talk to audiophiles, but my goal is to make something that’s simple, innovative, and has a way to expand on it.” He wants to sell you a turntable that you’ll use for decades, upgrading it as you like.
E.R. Braithwaite, Author Of ‘To Sir, With Love,’ Dead At 104
“[He] was a World War II veteran and trained as a physicist at the University of Cambridge. But, as a black man from what was then the colony of British Guiana, he had difficulty finding work in his field in the early 1950s. ‘I was too black to be a scientist,’ he once said, ‘and too educated to be a lot of other things.'” But he became a teacher at a progressive school, where his experiences became the basis for his most famous book.
How ‘Mozart In The Jungle’ Brought Messiaen – Messiaen! – To Rikers Island
A plot point in the Amazon comedy series led the producers to take an entire orchestra and complex sound system out to the New York City prison complex and play a program that ranged from Quartet for the End of Time (a piece written in, and for, a prison camp) to (this was brave) the Turangalîla Symphony.
Novelist Shirley Hazzard, 85
“Rare was the happy marriage or simple romance in a Hazzard book. From early stories such as ‘A Place in the Country’ to the novel Bay of Noon” – as well as her most famous nooks, The Transit of Venus and The Great Fire – “she wrote of strained and cold relationships and the inevitable search for outside comfort. True passion was often forbidden.”