LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION. WHY WOULD A GROWN MAN WHOSE SHIRT SAYS "GENIUS AT WORK" SPEND ALL OF HIS TIME WATCHING A CHILDREN'S CARTOON SHOW? Congratulations to H:LotS/Corner/Wire/Treme creator David Simon and the twenty-two other recipients announced today of the annual John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grants. $500,000, no strings attached, over the next five years.
Marilyn vos Savant, denied again. As always, I rely on you to tell me who these people are.
Annette Gordon-Reed has written two books about the relationship between President Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemmings (and won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for The Hemingses of Monticello). Brilliant historian who cut through a lot of the historical fog surrounding the subject. (Interestingly, I see she has a book on Andrew Johnson coming out in January, though it looks like it's part of a series so it's not a standalone work of hers.)
ReplyDeleteOther than David Simon, I don't know of any of them, but David Berry as a Bio-Medical Animator appears to be only one step away from being a choreo-animator.
ReplyDeleteCromer helmed the was to be in rep productions of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound that closed early last fall on Broadway. He also helmed the off-Broadway Adding Machine that got rave reviews as well as a production of Our Town that started in a basement theatre in Chicago and is now running off Broadway. I saw the Our Town in its second incarnation here in Chicago--Cromer himself played the stage manager--and it was pretty brilliant. The final scene had power and punch and real bacon and was some of the best theatre I had seen in a long time. In a black box space, in the basement of the Chopin.
ReplyDeleteHeather K. said everything I was going to say about Cromer, but better. :) I saw Our Town here in NYC, although with a different actor as the Stage Manager, and it was a beautiful, revealing production.
ReplyDeleteI don't know any of them but I quite like Jorge Pardo's picture.
ReplyDeleteI think Drew Berry is a new flavor at a local organic frozen yogurt/gelato shop.
ReplyDeleteFiction writer Yiyun Li is one of the "20 Under 40" featured in The New Yorker this summer. Recent story here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/08/30/100830fi_fiction_li
Who are twenty-three people who have never been in my kitchen?
ReplyDeleteInteresting that both physicists are women.
Cromer is directing (and completely revamping) the Broadway production of "Yank!" to open later this season. And he's also agreed to direct Nicole Kidman next fall on Broadway in "Sweet Bird of Youth."
ReplyDeleteI also saw him as the stage manager in the Barrow Street production of "Our Town" and he was very good.
Go Cliffy.
ReplyDeleteFor more on Gordon-Reed, see here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.historiann.com/2010/09/28/thats-professor-genius-to-you-annette-gordon-reed-wins-macarthur-grant/
Her research and findings are themselves a really great story, of both history and politics.
Elizabeth Turk is a Cougar
ReplyDeleteI met Jorge Pardo several years ago when I worked at a gallery that represented him. His a well established artist who makes works that are a cross between design and sculpture. His lamps are probably what he is most well-known for.
ReplyDeleteAmong many other typefaces you see every day, Matthew Carter designed Verdana (the font you are probably looking at right now) and Georgia; both Apple and Microsoft have hired him to design typefaces specifically for use on a computer screen. He has also designed faces for many prominant newspapers/magazines.
ReplyDeleteShannon Lee Dawdy is on faculty at UChicago - she does archeological and anthropological work in New Orleans, and is currently doing the largest excavation ever done in the French Quarter on an old hotel. She's pretty damned cool, but that's kind of the point of these awards anyway...
ReplyDelete"Yank!" (a cause celebre on the theatre message board I frequent) has been pushed to the 2011-2012 season, largely because there's no shortage of arty projects looking for an audience this season ("Scottsboro Boys" and "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" are already coming in this fall).
ReplyDeleteThat was me.
ReplyDeleteYay for Mr. Carter! Georgia is my favorite font.
ReplyDeleteemmanuel saez is an economist at berkeley, specializing in labor and income inequality. i read a paper of his several years ago and had some questions; so i emailed him. he wrote back almost immediately, and we carried on an email conversation over the next week or so, and he was incredibly generous with his time and insights to a random email writer. congrats emmanuel!
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