“To Barthes, the neutral is ‘everything that baffles the paradigm,’ the paradigm being the conflict-based ideologies and associated choices that culture forces on us, uninvited and unannounced, on a daily basis. Here are some big ones: masculine/feminine, gay/straight, conservative/liberal.” Can camp really baffle the paradigm? Well, take Rob Lowe and Snow White at the 1989 Oscars …
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Caroline Shaw’s Partita For 8 Voices Takes Pulitzer Prize For Music
“The 26-minute four-movement work composed between 2009-2012 was recorded by the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth for New Amsterdam Records (released on October 30, 2012).”
Zao Wou-Ki, 92, Considered China’s First Master Of Abstract Art
Having gone to Paris to study in 1948 and settled there following the revolution of 1949, Zou went on to become an integral part of France’s modern art scene. By 2011, he had become the top-selling Chinese artist.
High Camp Is A Serious Matter
As Christopher Isherwood put it: “You can’t camp about something you don’t take seriously. You’re not making fun of it; you’re making fun out of it. You’re expressing what’s basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance.” J. Bryan Lowder’s case-in-point: Savannah’s own Lady Chablis.
The 18th-Century Moralist Who Tried To Raise His Own Stepford Wife
“There’s no shortage of historical figures whose private actions failed to live up to their public moralizing. (Thomas Jefferson, anyone?) But few embraced that hypocrisy as jaw-droppingly as Thomas Day.”
Yo-Yo Ma, Washington Arts Advocate
The star cellist and musical entrepreneur, describing himself as a “venture culturalist”, gave a Kennedy Center lecture this week on the arts and public policy. “And, though he titled his speech ‘Art for Life’s Sake,’ it was, in fact, a point he made early on about diversity that seemed most potent. He called it ‘the edge effect’ and introduced it with a biology metaphor.”
Bare-Breasted Pussy Riot Supporters Swarm Vladimir Putin In Germany
“Topless activists from the Femen protest group tried to disrupt the visit of Russian President Putin and Chancellor Merkel to the Hannover Messe tech show. They had anti-Putin slogans on their semi-naked bodies and were shouting obscenities.” Putin appeared not to mind. (We bet Silvio Berlusconi is totally jealous.)
Robert Ward, 95, Pulitzer-Winning Composer
“In addition to composing seven symphonies, eight operas” – most notably, The Crucible, which won the 1962 composition Pulitzer – “and a range of instrumental and choral works written in an open, accessible style,” Ward taught at Juilliard, NCSA and Duke.
What Goes On At Versailles On Mondays
A visit to Louis XIV’s chateau to see the cleaning and restoration work that happens on the one day each week when the place is closed to visitors.
Maya Angelou On Reuniting With Her Birth Mother
“Well, she didn’t look like a mother to me. She didn’t remind me of my grandmother, who we called Mama. She wore lipstick. And she had record players and she played music, loudly and danced, in the middle of the dining room floor. … I said, ‘I’d like to call you Lady, because you’re very beautiful and you sound like a lady.'”