dirac

Well, views on certain matters have changed and developed since the time of the Medici, or one hopes so at any rate. My point was not that arts administrators can or should apply litmus tests, but where the line is drawn. I should think that there is such a line somewhere?? I didn't say anything about political allegiances per se, right or left, or suggested that I had the "right" views, as it were. I was actually thinking more along the lines of how a corporation or business leader conducts business, treats employees and uses its funds, or the type of products it or s/he flogs to the public. I think most people would agree that the fact that Koch holds right wing views is not in itself enough to say no to his gazillions.

Another thought-provoking quote from the article: Nice point.

If only it were that simple. That's a nice little get-out-of-jail-free card for the arts administrator who'd rather not too look too hard at where the money is coming from, but I can think of scenarios where that policy comes back to bite. But it isn't so much a question of ambiguous intentions - Koch may well be looking to climb the social ladder or "enhance" his reputation, but those aren't necessarily bad motivations even if they are less than high minded and they can lead to good outcomes, as they say nowadays. (I also think that Koch does have strong feelings about supporting the arts, as well.) Nothing inherently wrong with that. It might become a question eventually of to what extent a given institution is willing to be used for such purposes, and where is the line when you can imagine arts groups saying, "Your money's no good here."

Thanks, duffster. I too am only familiar with the movie, so when it airs in my neck of the woods I'll be coming to it from that perspective as well. One step at a time, I guess.

I saw the movie a second time a year or so ago and it does get better, but there was a question or two the book could probably answer for me. Must move it up in the queue.

Hello, Bonnette, and welcome to the board and the forum. I saw the movie and liked it and have always meant to read the book. Did you find that seeing the movie first affected your reading experience?

The Maude translation I don't know. I was raised on the Constance Garnett translations, which seem quaint in some respects know. I have the new one, the Penguin Classics translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, but haven't gotten around to it yet. 'Rebecca' is just that, hard to resist. I agree with you about 'My Cousin Rachel.' The only other du Maurier I read apart from those two was 'The Scapegoat,' which wasn't bad but was still resistible.

Thanks for posting about this, Pamela. I've seen the Tony Palmer documentary but not this one. I'll have to check it out. Yes, in the end it's a sad story. On the other hand, there are many people whose lives end badly. Callas changed the face of her art and left a great legacy behind her. Many can't say nearly as much. I hope she thought it was worth it.

This was really enjoyable, leonid, thank you. I think my favorite was the exterminator. Bell made an interesting point about the difficulty of getting shots of New York that weren't postcard or cliche. I think he managed.

Thanks so much for posting this, leonid. I was unable to get through 'The Corrections' myself but would be interested to hear from others who have read more of Franzen.

I'm sorry to hear of this. May she rest in peace. I add my thanks, Simon. Good to hear from you.

A profile of the violinist David Garrett in The Los Angeles Times. Comments?

Thanks, duffster. Did anything in particular stand out for you?

Thanks, Quiggin. Yes, I remember those reviews. He had such a clear style and I will miss seeing his byline in the LRB, which he helped found.

A review of the PBS broadcast by Everett Evans in The Houston Chronicle. Anyone see it?

I remember a television documentary that broadcast an excerpt from one of the Queen’s speeches from back when. Could barely get a word of it – my memory brings up Edith Evans on Quaaludes. Had a similar experience years ago when what was then the MacNeil Lehrer News Hour interviewed a few backwoodsmen from the House of Lords who had shown up to protest a change in the rules and they mostly sounded like participants in the Monty Python Upper Class Twit of the Year Competition. Most diverting.

Thank you for posting this, Ray. I did not know. Very sad news about a great critic. I can't remember a time when he wasn't writing and he was producing good articles almost up to the very end. RIP.

Increasingly this is beginning to look like "Showgirls" with greater pretensions and on pointe (and "Showgirls" in turn was a topless variation on "All About Eve"). "Showgirls" provided some good campy fun but I'm not sure that "fun" is in Darren Aronofsky's working vocabulary. Still, wait and see.

Thank you for starting the topic, sandik. It's evergreen here at BT, in one form or another. Jowitt's discussion embraces modern dance as well as ballet - the question of how much virtuosity is too much has a broad application, it seems. I agree with this quote, but I also think that calling the audience's attention to the degree of difficulty has its place and can be used to make an aesthetic point. I don't mean the "Look at me! Look at how hard I'm working!" effect but the kind of effortfulness that Martha Graham sometimes injected into her choreography - yes, she was saying, this is work. Jowitt makes a good point about the more subtle aspects of dance virtuosity not coming across very well on YouTube. Thoughts, everyone?

Nice book. Caron has interesting things to sayabout her upbringing and the displacements caused by World War II in France, as well as the conditions of deprivation in Europe after the war. Her ballet studies began with Preobrajenska during the war. She joins Petit’s company, dances with Babilee, and rooms with one Nelly Guillerm and her mother on tour. (Apparently Mama Guillerm was not your dream roomie.) In its later stages the book suffers from a certain sameness that tends to affect most showbiz bios/autobios and can make many of them heavy going unless you have a rooting interest in the star or some other particular reason for reading. The rise to fame, time on the top, decline and fall, inappropriate liaisons, substance abuse, recovery, it’s all here, but Caron is cleverer and writes better than many and she’s come up with a pretty good book. I enjoyed the account of her time married to Peter Hall, then but a beardless boy, and her famous-people-I-have-known stories (Jean Renoir, Isherwood, Truffaut, et al.). The book has some typos, especially where names are concerned – it’s Nelly Guillerm, not Nellie, etc.

Looks like great stuff. Thanks for the link, leonid. You used to have to travel to a library for such things, and thanks to the Internet....

I agree and I think the lack of such an attitude is a major hurdle for American arts. In other countries it is taken almost for granted that thriving arts organizations are a credit to the nation and a source of pride. Nope. Of course, this esteem for artists and writers can have its drawbacks – poets may be largely ignored by our leaders, military and otherwise, but at least a US dictator, assuming he read much poetry in the first place, would be unlikely to ship any of them off to a gulag or one of our trusty black sites, even if such actions can be read as a backhanded compliment to the power of art.

Thank you for posting the heads-up, atm711. Looking forward to catching this on the teevee.

The music is really beautiful. I think this should be a worthwhile production even if it isn't wholly successful. Thank you for posting the interview and summary, (which I haven't yet clicked on but will when I get the chance).

Tell us about it when you do get it, Mme. Hermine. Sounds interesting. Which translation of 'Anna Karenina' have you got, Rosa? I bought the recent one promoted by Oprah but haven't got round to it yet. It's been highly praised, though. Daphne du Maurier is nobody's Tolstoy but it's hard to dislike 'Rebecca.'