Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back weekdays at 1 p.m. for another one.
I once met Francoise Mouly — the art editor of The New Yorker, the person who chooses the famous covers each week — at a book convention where she was on a panel about graphic novels. She and her husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman, had started what was turning into a series of Little Lit books, graphic novels for children. And my daughter, a budding cartoonist, had loved the first one and had been fascinated by Spiegelman’s Maus, of course.
I told her all this. Mouly had the galleys or mock-ups of the next Little Lit in her hands, and un-prompted by me, promptly handed them over. She gave them to an out-of-town book critic whom she’d met 10 minutes before. We exchanged business cards and I promised to ship them back to her. That gesture — its directness, generosity and eagerness to share — has stuck with me ever since.
Of course, a week later at the Morning News, I was getting slightly frantic calls from her, but still …. as far as I’m concerned, she can do no wrong. CBS News did a nice feature on the making of a provocative, sophisticated weekly icon – how Francoise Mouly chooses The New Yorker covers — on the occasion of Blown Covers,her new book about the ones that didn’t make the cut.
You may have to sit through an ad for the wretched Goldman Sachs. My apologies. It’s worth it.
For KERA’s Think, Krys Boyd talked with architectural historian Alexandra Lange and Kate Holliday, assistant professor in the School of Architecture at UT about the inaugural David Dillon Symposium on Architecture:
The inaugural David Dillon Symposium was held over the weekend at the DMA and the Nasher — it was named in honor of the late architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News and was presented by the new David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture at UT-Arlington. The keynote address Thursday was by Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic of The New Yorker who’s now on his way to Vanity Fair.
Perhaps the highlight of Goldberger’s speech came when he read passages from Dillon’s droll takedown of Philip Johnson’s Crescent design. It wasn’t a happy response, but Goldberger and the audience enjoyed David’s writing so much, Goldberger happily continued to read from it. The passages perfectly demonstrated one aspect of Dillon’s writing that Goldberger had cited: Even in a witheringly negative review, David gave the impression of disappointment more than scorn, of honestly wishing the building were better, wishing the designer hadn’t embarrassed himself. He didn’t heap abuse; he simply noted the facts of the work, conveying how its sheer scale dispelled any French delicacy or charm, how it may display an appreciation of the mansard roof not often seen in, say, fast food outlets, but it simultaneously neglected any of other design advances of the French chateau, notably the way it dealt with its base. The Crescent just plummets into the ground.
Congratulations to Sam Wilson of Richardson, the winner of this week’s Flickr Photo of the Week contest! This is Sam’s first win. He follows last week’s winner, Misti Boe.
If you would like to participate in the Flickr Photo of the Week contest, all you need to do is upload your photo to our Flickr group page. It’s fine to submit a photo you took earlier than the current week, but we are hoping that the contest will inspire you to go out and shoot something fantastic this week to share with Art&Seek users. If the picture you take involves a facet of the arts, even better. The contest week will run from Monday to Sunday, and the Art&Seek staff will pick a winner on Monday afternoon. We’ll notify the winner through FlickrMail (so be sure to check those inboxes) and ask you to fill out a short survey to tell us a little more about yourself and the photo you took. We’ll post the winners’ photo on Wednesday.
And now, here’s Sam:
Name: Sam Wilson Town: Richardson, Texas Title of photo: “Hot Rod” Equipment used: Pentax K-7 camera body with an 18-55 mm lens, on a tripod
Anything else you want to tell us: The car was an entry in the 5th Annual Car Show at The Heights: heightscarshow.com/, on April 21, 2012. I shot five exposures at a separation of 8 stops from top to bottom, and then blended them and did tone-mapping with Photomatrix. The car is a 1938 Chevy Cabriolet convertible and belongs to Joan Nener.
Folks at the opera say we’ll be lured into a spellbinding tale of love against all odds—and jump into a white-knuckle thrill ride of corruption, deceit, and passion. Soprano Carter Scott stars as Puccini’s tragic heroine—the unwilling object of Baron Scarpia’s lecherous desires. With her lover Cavaradossi’s life hanging in the balance, Tosca strikes a terrible deal to save him, but will Scarpia keep his end of the bargain?
Art&Seek is giving away 4 pairs of tickets to see Tosca at the 2p.m. performance on Sunday, May 20. In order to win tickets, you must first sign up for the Art&Seek e-newsletter. You can take care of that right here.
Don’t forget to look at our other amazing Big Deals for the week: click herefor a chance to see AT&T PAC’s American Idiot, and click here for a chance to see Nick Lowe at the Granada Theater.
UPDATE: Game is over. Check back for this week’s Big Deal.
Originally premiering at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre as a collaboration in 2009 between director Michael Mayer and punk rock band, Green Day, American Idiot now makes it way to Dallas after several successful years on Broadway. AT&T Performing Arts Center presents American Idiot as part of the Lexus Broadway Series at the Winspear Opera House.
The musical tells the story of three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia as they search for true meaning in a post 9/11 world. PLEASE NOTE: We’re told this performance contains adult content and strong language.
As part of Art&Seek’s Big Deal, we’ll be giving away five pairs of tickets to the opening night performance of American Idiot on Tuesday, May 8. Not an Art&Seek e-newsletter subscriber? Sign up here to become eligible for this amazing deal.
For information on our other Big Deals of the week: Click here for a chance to see Fort Worth Opera’s Tosca, and click here for a chance to see Nick Lowe at the Granada.
Enter below for American Idiot:
UPDATE: Game is over. Check back for this week’s Big Deal.
English singer-songwriter, Nick Lowe, perhaps most famous for his hit songs “Cruel to Be Kind,” and “Peace, Love and Understanding,” is currently on his first headlining US tour since the release of his latest album, The Old Magic.
Enter this week’s Big Deal, and you could find out why this musician calls himself the “Jesus of Cool.” We’re giving away two pairs of General Admission (standing) tickets to see Nick Lowe perform with his long-time band at the Granada Theater on May 9. Only Art&Seek e-newsletter subscribers are eligible. Sign up here.
And be sure to take a look at our other Big Deals this week: Click here for a chance to see Fort Worth Opera’s Tosca, and click herefor a chance to see Green Day’s American Idiot at the Winspear.
Enter here for Nick Lowe.
UPDATE: Game is over. Check back for this week’s Big Deal.
Glaring impasse: The dispute between the Nasher Sculpture Center and Museum Tower – the glare from the tower is invading the museum’s galleries and gardens – gets front page treatment in the New York Times this morning. The Times talked to Mayor Mike Rawlings, Museum Tower architect Scott Johnson and Nasher architect Renzo Piano, who is hopping mad. The Arts District’s Veletta Lill calls the situation “a cultural, civic and commercial tragedy,” noting that “typically neighborhood disputes are not this dramatic.” Still, for those following, there’s not much here that wasn’t said in Tim Rogers excellent D magazine piece. Except it seems that we’re now calling the AT&T Performing Arts Center the AT&T.
Tony time: The Tony nominations were announced yesterday. Of interest in North Texas: Douglas Carter Beane was nominated for Best book of a musical – Lysistrata Jones, which began life as Give It Up at the Dallas Theater Center. Here’s a little reminder, in the form of Jerome Weeks’ interview with Beane for Think TV. Lawson Taitte at the Dallas Morning News points out that Edna Walsh, nominated for the book for Once, is a Meadows Prize winner who will be in residence at SMU this fall. I would link to his story, which I’m looking at right now in the newspaper, but I can’t find it on the DMN web site.
Glossy architects: FdLuxe shows off eight Dallas architects in a photo essay by Nan Coulter. We don’t learn much about them, but the backdrops for the shoot are quite clever. You will have to look to see.
Afternoon Delight is a daily diversion for when you’re just back from lunch, but not quite ready to get back to work. Check back weekdays at 1 p.m. for another one.
It’s Mayday, which used to be something of a workers’ day, but for our Hollywood-addled purposes, the month marks the beginning of Summer Blockbuster Season. And when it comes to summer box-office action-flick blockbusters, The Matrix may have been the last one (thirteen years ago!) that managed to be visually stunning, hi-tech-spc-fx cool and intellectually provocative, all at the same time.
So how’d it manage that multi-tiered jolt to our pop-cultural synapses? By recombining a lot of not-so-new ideas into one, original punch. Sure, first time out, you caught the John Woo, kung-fu and Alice in Wonderland in-jokes and hommages. But Philip K. Dick? Ghost in the Shell? Doctor Who? Check out this scene-by-scene, sometimes frame-by-frame footnoting of influences.
It’s that time again… Help us choose the “Best of April” Flickr Photo!
Art&Seek started the Photo of the Month contest back in January as a new special way to recognize our Flickr users’ artwork. We need YOU to help us choose the Flickr Photo of the Month winner from our weekly winners. The person who submits the best photo of each month will get a free Art&Seek T-shirt and be announced on the air on KERA FM.
At the end of the year, Flickr Photo of the Month winners will be recognized with other 2012 winners at a special event where we will celebrate the artwork and announce the Flickr Photo of the Year!
Want to submit a photo for consideration? Join our Flickr group! Or just browse the more than 9,000 gorgeous pix that members have submitted from around North Texas.
Important show: Mexican art has a surprisingly low profile in Dallas, so the current exhibition of contemporary Mexican painting at the Meadows Museum is especially welcome, says Scott Cantrell in the Dallas Morning News. The collection of Andres Bleisten is “wildly uneven,” Cantrell writes. “But it reveals political, social and aesthetic movements that influenced modern Mexican painting.”
Nesting by the bridge: West Dallas has a new performance space, called The Nest, and in it, Upstart Productions has opened “The Better Doctor,” by former Dallasite Matt Lyle. The DMN’s Lawson Taitte has a few quibbles with the play and the performers, but says it’s worth a trip over the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge to see it, and the new space.
Generations: Ro2 is about to launch an ambitious collaboration in its downtown gallery called Solvent, an “interactive art happening which addresses community involvement.” Three “generations” of artists will build on each other’s work over the next month. The first set of 10 artists exhibit this Saturday. Those 10 have each invited 10 artists to continue the collaboration. The second 10 will have a show May 12. They invited 10 more artists, who will respond and whose show will be May 19. OK, I’m a little confused by this, but it sounds interesting. You can check out participating artists and follow the project at Ro2’s Web site.
Memories: Uncrated, the Dallas Museum of Art blog, looks back at 2010 installation of Form/Unformed: Design from 1960 to the Present
