Basically: “These aren’t just Christmas movies: They’re like Kay Jewelers commercials on steroids; movie-length advertisements for small-town America, capitalism and twinkle lights.”
Tag: 12.21.17
The Guardian Claims That It’s Time For ‘Woke Cinema’
This year (2017) was just of taste of what’s to come, the paper says. There’s political entertainment on its way, including A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther, but that’s not all (not by a long shot). “If Trump is agreed to have killed off political satire, political history could well be taking its place.”
The Artist Who Discovered A Massive E. Coli Outbreak In Michigan Waters
Artist Bridget Quinn and a friend were getting ready to do some improvisational singing in abandoned tunnels when they noticed something seriously wrong. “The smell was really bad. And I’m familiar with non-point-source pollution, which is, like, oil coming off of the street after the rain, but this seemed like a constant flow.” Then a fire department tested the water …
Charles Dickens Made Boatloads Of Money In The United States, But He Couldn’t Stand The Country’s Manners
Basically, fame did him in. “His love affair with an idealized America was short-lived and hard-felt. Apart from the country’s great writers, he found Americans malodorous, ill-mannered and invading his privacy.”
Two Pranksters Who Sneaked Into London’s National Theatre And Spent The Night Have Theatre Security On Edge
Of course, they were two men, and of course, they made a YouTube video. “In the video, the two males are seen gaining entry into the building through an unlocked door that gives them access to the set of the National’s production of Follies. They are then seen leaving the London complex the following morning after spending the night sleeping backstage.”
Marcelo Gomes, One Of The World’s Best-Known Ballet Dancers, Has Resigned Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Gomes resigned as a law firm investigation the allegation of behavior from eight years ago. Neither American Ballet Theatre “nor the law firm that was handling the investigation would give further details about the accusation against Mr. Gomes. ‘A.B.T. does not tolerate the alleged behavior,’ [the chairman of the board of trustees] said in his statement. ‘I am profoundly disheartened by this matter,’ he added.”
In Toronto Plays Are Getting Much Shorter
Plays running at 70 or 80 minutes are, according to Company Theatre’s co-artistic director Philip Riccio, “a newer phenomenon,” perhaps connected to the fact that “most of our playwrights come up through the Fringe festivals”; the majority of Fringe shows need to come in at under an hour.
Kindle’s Next Act: Reinventing The Book?
“In a world filled with distractions and notifications and devices that do everything, the Kindle’s lack of features becomes its greatest asset. But readers also want to read everywhere, in places and ways a paperback can’t manage. They want more tools, more features, more options, more stuff to do. Amazon’s still working out how to satisfy both sides. Whatever route it takes, the next decade of Kindle is likely to be even more disruptive than the last. First it changed the book business. Next it might help change books themselves.”
How A Fight Over Attending The Theatre Fueled Civil Rights Battle In the 1800s
“Across America, on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, the races were kept separate at the theater. Black people sat apart in the upper galleries or were excluded entirely, by custom and, in some southern cities, by law. As hybrid places—private associations open to the public—theaters were subject to municipal authority, but property owners possessed the liberty to exclude or restrict at will. The common law recognized no right of amusement seeking. After emancipation, statehouses controlled by Radical Republicans banned distinctions of race and color in public conveyances and resorts. But the legislation was evaded simply by tickets stating that proprietors had discretion to exclude anyone. Nor did it carry a positive grant of rights; it regulated places rather than entitling persons.”
Montreal Music Critic: How Charles Dutoit Got A Pass On Abuse?
“Rumours about Dutoit’s behaviour were rampant for years. I confess straightaway to having done precisely nothing with them. Possibly the first reference in the Gazette to the Dutoit dark side, thickly veiled, was in the column I wrote last week on the case of disgraced former Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine.”