I wouldn’t exactly say the French has been going well. A few decades after I left behind my high school language requirement (and the middling grades that accompanied it), I decided recently it was time to take another crack. So now, most days, I fumble through my Rocket lessons and feel like nothing has stuck.
Art
February 12 marks the 100th birthday of Rhapsody in Blue. Via NPR, the daily newsmagazine “1A” is re-airing my “Gershwin Moment” documentary from last February; it highlights my favorite Rhapsody in Blue recording, by Alexander Tsfasman and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (Moscow, 1960). And I’m taking part in additional Gershwin radio features on NPR and BBC-3. As the pianist Benjamin Pasternack once had occasion
Photo: Liz Parkinson/Netflix This article originally appeared in Gold Rush, a subscriber-only newsletter about the perpetual Hollywood awards race. It’s a quiet week on the Oscar front, as the circus took a break to let the Grammys have their moment. So let’s take stock of what’s habitually the most dramatic of the four acting races: Best Actress!
It’s a trap to review the movie a filmmaker didn’t make. A difficult temptation as it turns out with Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, the director/writer/actor’s passion project about Leonard Bernstein. Maestro isn’t really a movie about Leonard Bernstein or his career, or even about music per se. It’s not really a “biopic,” in the traditional Hollywood
For Tomas and Lilian A face long unloved will at some point grow ugly,As unkissed features untended will as with an unkemptGarden grow wild, as it is with my face and as it is With my garden, which under my mother’s careWas well tended back before when her life’s strong argued caseBecame filed. Sadly for
Tattle Life, an anonymous gossip forum, has been described as “the most toxic place on the internet”. “Fake boobs, fake teeth, fake nose, fake life”, “Career is down the drain; she’s still so vain!” and “Always the wedding guest but never the bride” are just a selection of the thread titles on the site. People
For decades, a little schoolhouse at the United States-Canada border has been fighting to preserve Mohawk language and culture. “This makes us who we are,” says Kawehnokwiiosthe, a teacher at the Akwesasne Freedom School. Why We Wrote This Preserving a treasured language can help sustain a way of life. One school has made that its
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei—whose gallery delayed his show after he tweeted about the Israel-Hamas war—said recently that censorship in the West poses a “greater threat” due to how it “operates in a more concealed, solid and enduring manner.” The comments were made to the Art Newspaper this week followed an interview with Sky
How Andrew Lloyd Webber’s roller skating train musical has run for 35 years—and counting—in a German town you’ve probably never heard of The cast of Starlight Express at the purpose-built Starlighthalle in Bochum, Germany. Photo: Detlef Overmann Hallo and welcome to Jaques, your weekly guide to the global theater industry. New to Jaques? Learn more
Screens are replacing paper when it comes to nearly every aspect of communication, but is it good for our mental health? Research proves the countless mental health benefits of reading, but still most people are choosing screen-time over picking up a book when it comes to entertainment. Even in schools, gone are the days of
Ten years ago, I stopped writing lyric poetry. I had a couple of slim, well-received collections to my name, and my poetry occasionally appeared in a magazine with pedigree, like Poetry. One time, an editor at The New Yorker even mailed a personalized, encouraging rejection on letterhead. (They rebuffed poems by paper in the good
Listen to this article 00:00 15:50 Produced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration. “I would not say that my art is dark,” Milo Rau tells me, and I burst out laughing. We are sitting in the office space of his theater in Ghent, Belgium, surrounded by posters of his work. In
Thieves toppled and stole the 200-foot tower of classic hits WJLX-AM (1240) in Jasper, AL. The theft was discovered late last week and also included the transmitter and other equipment. Station owner and GM Brett Elmore broke the news on the station’s Facebook page on Friday, Feb. 2. “This is going to get out eventually,
A dazzling array of classical music prevailed at the 66th Grammy Awards, reflecting a contemporary field that honors the canon even as it elevates new voices. Among the winners were Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who took Best Orchestral Performance for Thomas Adès: Dante; and Nils Schweckendiek with Uusinta Ensemble and the Helsinki
In Brief | Composer and conductor John Williams is one of the most respected and beloved figures in music. He reflects with League President and CEO Simon Woods on the beginnings of his career, a lifetime in music, and his love for orchestras. 25 Grammy Awards. Five Oscars. Four Golden Globes. A record-breaking 54 Oscar
[Above: Boston’s Symphony Hall, built by Henry Higginson and opened in 1900.] Last week I heard the Boston Symphony perform Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth at Carnegie Hall. The conductor was their music director since 2014: Andris Nelsons. I had planned to write a blog but instead emailed my impressions to a dozen friends in the music business. The
Directors Mark Gustafson (left) and Guillermo del Toro of “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” Photo courtesy Jason Schmidt/Netflix Mark Gustafson, the stop-motion animation master who won an Oscar last year as co-director with Guillermo del Toro of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, died of a heart attack Thursday at age 63. He is survived by his wife,
Amazon’s Audible is feeling the heat as Spotify, the music streaming giant, takes a giant leap into the ever-expanding world of audiobooks. The concerns were unveiled during an internal all-hands meeting this week, where Audible CEO Bob Carrigan addressed employee inquiries about the company’s focus on competition rather than customer needs, according to a recording
The dusky-toned books, neon lights, and heart-thumping drums of femme teen philosophy shroud 20-somethings in warmth, forming a spot of laughter in the gray landscape of frozen Chicago. Sitting through a rehearsal for Hanna Kime’s The Best Damn Thing, the first full production at the Understudy (running Jan. 27-Feb. 5), has got me thinking a
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. One by one, most of the major streaming services have introduced ads to their subscription offerings. Now consumers face