Yes, it’s true: Since the 1700s, creches in Catalonia have included, amidst the Virgin Mother, the Holy Child in the manger, and the shepherds, the caganer, a figure discreetly answering nature’s call. It’s a good luck charm, and over the years the traditional peasant farmer caganer has been joined by figurines of everyone from Napoleon to Beethoven to Vladimir Putin to Captain America.
Tag: 12.15.14
Music (Or Any Art) Without An Audience Is… A Failure
“As much as we, in the solitary spaces of our practice rooms, can throw ourselves into a piece, we must remember that if the performance hall is as empty as that practice space then we have clearly not achieved connection with our audience. That is our responsibility.”
Police Investigate Corporate Philanthropy Chief’s Grant To His Partner’s Ballet Company
“The chair of supermarket chain Asda’s charitable foundation … resigned from his twin roles as vice president of corporate affairs and head of the £8.6 million foundation in September following the discovery that he had sanctioned [£180,000 in] payments … to the MurleyDance company, without the approval of the foundation’s board.”
25 Women Who Drove The Culture In 2014
“Whether they sent us into a collective tizzy with their scandalous album covers or had us pumping our fists in favor of their truthful testimony, these 25 women (plus a few honorable mentions at the end) were the ones who got us talking, thinking, re-thinking, and maybe, just maybe, planning a revolution of our own.”
Is “Gone With the Wind” America’s Strangest Film?
“Far from being simple, wholesome family entertainment, the film is an admiring portrait of a conniving, lying, mercenary seductress. It’s a valentine to the slave-owning South, and a poison-pen letter to the anti-slavery North. … It’s a romance that puts the hero and heroine at each other’s throats. And it’s an episodic coming-of-age story that keeps going for nearly four hours before reaching its abrupt, unresolved ending. In short, Gone with the Wind is a preposterous, almost unclassifiable mix of highly questionable elements. The wonder is not just that it’s America’s most beloved film, but that it isn’t America’s most hated.”
Remember That Old Lady’s Botched Fresco Restoration in Spain? Best Thing That Ever Happened To That Town
“Grief [at the damaged painting] has turned to gratitude for divine intervention – the blessing of free publicity – that has made Borja, a town of just 5,000, a magnet for thousands of curious tourists eager to see her[the hapless restorer’s] handiwork, resurrecting the local economy.”
If You Don’t Buy This Art Today, We’ll Burn It
“We’ll get a nice old-timey metal trash can . . . (the art) will be up until midnight, then we’ll take down all the works that are going to be destroyed.”
How Architecture Became Disconnected From The People Who Use It
“The question is, at what point does architecture’s potential to improve human life become lost because of its inability to connect with actual humans?”
Romancing The Audience (More Than Putting On A Good Show)
“In my experience as a reviewer, one of the biggest mistakes that performers and presenters can make is not respecting their audience. They make it a show all about themselves instead of seeing themselves as a vehicle of interpretation.”
Report: Big Drop In Spending On UK TV Programming (And A Corresponding Drop In Viewers)
“There was a 34% decrease in spend on first-run UK-originated drama programming, from £487 million in 2008 to £323 million in 2013. UK-originated shows are those commissioned by or for a public service broadcaster, with a view to their first showing being on UK TV.”