Still from Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal showing the Danse Macabre
Why did whole towns succumb to episodes of dance mania in the wake of the Black Death? Gillian Moore & Michael Wood explore a time of War, Pestilence & Sweet Sounds in Key Changes @bbcradio3’s Essential History of Classical Music. Now @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
In person attendance of festivals, conferences and classes now almost impossible. Currently at great conference but virtually because hotel + train is £250-£350. So I can’t meet anyone. When I go to local festivals in Wales there’s no social or economic diversity. That wasn’t true 10/15 years ago.
I’m at this conference - Border, Boundaries and Barriers: real and imagined in the Middle Ages - (virtually at least) and it’s so good…. It’s got everything: massive river journeys, quarrelling Rabbis, the medieval Welsh are about to start revolting… 👏 👏👏 Excellent work!
Here to tell you that Pride, the musical, is an absolute delight (just seen preview in Cardiff) and you - who like musicals/ upbeat but still political queer theatre - should book tickets to see it when it lands @nationaltheatre.org.uk in June. Also, I love Samuel Barnett: always have, always will.
Oh man, I first watched these in Sociology class in about 1990. I think that, as with a lot of people, they got under my skin. The idea of the programmes, their ambition, the vulnerability of the young people, the constant annoyance they hadn’t included more girls! Flawed but important all the same.
We in Europe understand their excellence…
I wonder if diplodocuses (diplodoci?) are more of a British fixation because when I was growing up everyone had a plastic one and they were in all the best dinosaur posters. Ie. I feel like in British terms they would be a top tier dino not an other…
Fair…
No, you are being helpful! I like a detailed take on anything theatrical!!
Ooh. That makes me think I might go. The production was terrific last time round (I think I just remember being a bit judgmental about the play). I feel like Russian revivals (outside of Cherry Orchard etc) have become rarer and it makes me think I should appreciate them when they appear!
I’m trying to work out whether to go. Do you (on balance) recommend? Was it enjoyable? I went to it the last time the NT did it and remember enjoying it then but maybe finding it slight? That might be unfair. It was years ago…
Anecdotally, in my own family I feel like a lot of narratives bled into each other in late 20C. Beginning: we’re diaspora Jews and diaspora Jews have to fight for multiculturalism - oh but also (70s/80s) the founding of Israel was a mess - oh but also (80s/90s) look at what’s happening over there.
My first ever review in a national newspaper was done by someone who started out by saying that they hated the medium and hated drama on the medium, so I was f*cked…
I made a whole BBC TV series (2020) about the remarkable resilience of the people of Iran and their culture over centuries of threat and callous rule. You can watch it right here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
I'm aware this is deeply childish but I really think every American who voted for the deranged, orange abuser *for a second term* needs to handwrite a letter of apology to the rest of the world and post it up somewhere.
Most of us survived one term of him, why would you do this to us again????
Our kids’ nursery had a (very jolly) mural of the legend of Gelert outside the main door and one day the nursery teacher explained the story to me… 😶
In 98/99 I was paying my way through an MA by working in shops. Xmas I worked a solid month (~10 hours a day) in Birmingham Wallis which played Last Christmas (Wham), Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade), All I want for Christmas (Mariah) on an *endless* loop. Closest I’ve felt to madness.
A great stone plinth in a porch bearing a feint inscription
A wide view of the stone in the porch
#FindsFriday The incredibly important Paulinus Stone of Caerwent Roman town, south Wales, is accessible again in the church porch 🥳
Discovered in 1903, this former statue base bears the civic inscription of AD220 showing the noble Silures tribal name (highlight) still in use 😮
📷 My own, last week
Really glad you liked it. So did I. Quite a few acquaintances in UK dismissed going because they assumed Rosenblatt had just ‘taken a side’. I think we’ve really lost touch with the idea that political theatre can explore issues rather than plant a flag for our favourite team.
Thank you!
Word. Word! Total Microsoft nonsense. Once I’ve stuck my few dozen footnotes and tables in, it starts glitching like it’s having an incremental breakdown.
The Word doc of my article on Onedrive is hopelessly broken. My backup offline has lost all my references and now won’t format paragraphs.
Dear God 🤦♀️
Post from Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com: In line with discussion about the job market, the latest majors being closed at Syracuse University: Nine majors "sunsetting": • Classical civilization • Classics (Greek and Latin) • Digital humanities • Fine arts • German • Latino-Latin American studies • Middle Eastern studies • Modern Jewish studies • Russian ALT
The First University in the Nation to Build a Center Dedicated to the Creator Economy Syracuse University is creating something that doesn't exist anywhere else in higher education. The Center for the Creator Economy is the first academic center of its kind on a U.S. college campus. Led jointly by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin). Whitman School of Management, the center reinforces Syracuse University's commitment to bold, forward-looking academic leadership. By aligning strengths in entrepreneurship, media, communications, athletics and digital infrastructure, the University is charting how higher education can prepare students for the 21st-century economy.
Another university getting rid of things you could only ever do at a university and replacing them with stuff a 13-year-old can do on a phone
Excellent early 90s comp energy. Bravissimo 👏
Yes, also often true of TV and books (and games). I think the audience themselves often find a balance though. They might read a review but also look at the scores when they google (IMDB, RT etc) or look at book ratings on Amazon etc. So they balance specialist against non/less specialist audience.
I sometimes think ‘nation’ is the god we all believe in. It’s a myth construct; doesn’t stand up to any sort of scientific enquiry; means something different to everyone & changes constantly; and yet we’re all stuck in this struggle to influence the definition as if it could be pinned down forever.
Britishness has multiple meanings. For instance, if you grew up as an ethnic minority in London in the 80s, when the far right were using the concept of English to attack everybody (Asian, Black,Jewish), British was the identity that was open to you because it suggested hybridity and English didn’t.
I’ve had quite a few friends sound off about ‘ridiculous’ spelling rules like f pronounced v and ff pronounced f. Then you point out that that’s how ‘of’ and ‘off’ work in English and they look incredibly cross! Because *of course* English makes sense!
Def part of publishing being opaque. Not explaining itself. Behaving almost like a religion and telling authors: what we do is magic and if you believe hard enough you will be granted a career. No we won’t publish payscales, create researchable pathways - why don’t you just believe harder?
For anyone who needs some furry-faced distraction from the terrifying real world, Hoppers is delightful.
(But scary for a U, delicate kiddles might find it a bit intense. There was quite a bit of crying in our screening 😬).