A group of officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism attended the production in Ankara last Tuesday and reportedly stalked out without applauding; the play was promptly replaced on the schedule. Last month the now-former director of Turkey’s State Theaters resigned, complaining of censorship by the Culture Ministry.

Modern Farmer‘s founding editor describes it as “the farming magazine for media professionals”. Sound silly? It won a National Magazine Award after only three issues.

“In a Cronenbergian melding of inanimate matter and grisly viscera, chairs, mattresses, and even a toilet have appeared on the city’s sidewalks bearing heinous wounds and oozing crimson fluid into the gutters.”

The mayor of Vendargues, near Montpellier, announced a one-month absolute ban on clown and clown costumes following a series of incidents elsewhere in the country in which people in clown costumes beat up passersby with fists or weapons – and anti-clown vigilante groups began forming.

Arts, policy, and the election
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2014-11-03

Hirshhorn: Ageism At It Worst
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-11-02

What’s the Answer to Abstract Dance?
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2014-11-03

“Dido” and “Bluebeard” at LA Opera
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-11-03

“6. If you don’t know a word, look it up or die.”

“From Vaslav Nijinsky to Benjamin Millepied, Anna Pavlov to Sylvie Guillem, the collection of vintage portraits gives a mostly black-and-white glimpse into over a century’s worth of ballet greats.”

“The computer had plenty of important jobs to do, like, as Kirsch told the Oregonian later, ‘thermonuclear weapons calculations and things of this sort.’ But he was allowed to use it to solve other problems, too. And he wondered what it would mean to have a computer look at a picture.”

“It’s an interesting balancing act, for sure, because on the one side you have all resources available to you, but you want to be doing journalistic work.”

“The Smithsonian Institution has appointed Albert G. Horvath, its current senior finance official, as its acting leader for the first half of next year, until the incoming secretary, David J. Skorton, can take up his position in July.”

“This is the opportunity we all have in front of us: to redefine storytelling for an always-on world. It is a new Golden Age with an ever-changing set of disruptive technologies that offer creative talent the opportunity to try new things and figure out what works.”

“For a fiction writer, editing an anthology offers multiple lessons. You learn directly from the stories, but also from the lives of the writers and from the process of acquiring the stories. The information you gather seems more like intelligence, because you’re often a detective trying to solve an inexplicable case.”

“Archaeologists with the Saratov Regional Museum of Local Lore have discovered the Christian quarter of Ukek, shedding light on the Christian people who lived under the Khan’s rule. Ukek was a multicultural city, where a variety of religious beliefs were practiced including Islam, Christianity and Shamanism.”

“The company was recently heavily criticised for proposing a two year embargo on staging Bizet’s Carmen due to its depictions of smoking in an ill-judged attempt to curry favour with their new corporate sponsor, Healthway. Now it has been announced that the company’s Artistic Director Joseph Colaneri and Chorus Master Joseph Nolan will both no longer be working with the company.”

It started with a pair of spiritualists in post-Civil-War New York; became a ubiquitous family pastime that was considered good, clean fun (and great for a date); and had its reputation ruined by The Exorcist. (It also told its first manufacturers what it wanted to be called.) (includes podcast)

A decade ago Sunday, the filmmaker, media figure and right-wing provocateur was shot and had his throat slit by a young Moroccan Dutchman who claimed he was defending the name of Allah. “In this tidy country of 17 million, which prides itself on tolerance, the murder opened a raw and polarizing debate … which is still raging.”

Haider, an adaptation of the Shakespeare play set amid the bloody 1990s conflict in Kashmir, has won rapturous praise from Indian cinephiles and film critics – and has enraged Hindu nationalists, who accuse the movie of glorifying terrorists and justifying ethnic cleansing. (Hmm, where have we heard that sort of thing before?)

Most people assume that classical statuary was mostly of pure white marble, a sort of pure source of Western civilization. But scholars have known for at least a century that most Greek and Roman statues were brightly painted – and now an exhibition in Copenhagen is trying to reconstruct their original appearance.

“[He] has directed operas and theater, collaborated with Toni Morrison and staged St. Matthew’s [sic] Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic. Now, he will turn his attention to Flex, a Brooklyn-born form of street dance, in a commission from the Park Avenue Armory [in New York].”

An interview with Michael Denneny, who co-founded the pathbreaking literary magazine Christopher Street and was the first man to make a career out of editing and publishing serious gay novels.

Starring in The Elephant Man on Broadway “is serious business for the actor: a scoop of earth following his gradual but precipitous soar into the showbiz stratosphere, with its thinner, giddy-making air.” It’s also a role he’s been fixated on since age 12.

“Back in May, construction work for a new supermarket began in the center of Brest, a city in Belarus on the border with Poland. In a turn of events that wouldn’t seem out of place in a horror film, more than 450 Jewish gravestones have since been discovered in the foundations of the houses that have been demolished to make way for the store.”

“Starting next week, Carnegie Hall will go global, partnering with the six-year-old classical-music portal medici.tv to stream [four] concerts … All will be streamed live and remain available for 90 days. And all of them will be free.”

With a second woman coming forward by name to accuse him of assault and a former Q producer giving details of sexual harassment, both Ghomeshi’s longtime PR reps and top crisis-management firm Navigator have dropped him as a client, as have two firms who booked him for speaking engagements.

“I do want people to know how thorough our consent talks were.” So (naturally) she contacted Dan Savage. Dan offers a transcript of his interview with her and offers his attempt to square her account with those of his accusers.