From TLS, an essay on Shakespeare's witchcraft, Ionesco's doubles. An award heard around the world? Ismail Kadare and the inaugural Man Booker International Prize: A review of The World Republic of Letters by Pascale Casanova; The Economy of Prestige by James English; Agamemnon’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories, Broken April, The File on H., and The Palace of Dreams, and The Successor by Ismael Kadare. Cars, Chairs, and Teapots, Oh My!: An impressive exhibition of Modernist objects, and a missed opportunity to say something about Modernism, at the Corcoran Gallery. From New York, The Approval Matrix: A deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on taste hierarchies. American Photo’s simple layout and easy-to-read charts will have even the most novice photographer drooling. A review of Nancy Cunard: Heiress, muse, political idealist by Lois Gordon.
The Nickname Has Gone to Hell: And it's all George Bush's fault—oh, all right, not all his fault, but the nicknamer in chief sets a mighty low standard. And the Angels Sing: The songwriters on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley and midcentury holiday made genius look easy and hard work look like fun. Here’s how. Blockbusters take aim at political pariahs: There is no better mirror through which to view the politics of our collective cultural hatred than the action flick. "Re-orchestrated, scripted, and rehearsed": How Werner Herzog handles the truth. A review of The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino by Alec Wilkinson. Watch Your Foodometer: Video artist Molly Schwartz traces how far food travels from the field to your fork; Donna Schaper considers the mysteries of slow food. Bad blood, Good Earth: With her stolen manuscript found, a feud is igniting anew over Pearl S. Buck’s legacy.
A review of Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit From Passion and Purpose by Raj Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jag Sheth. More on The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. A review of One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding by Rebecca Mead. For $250,000, you too can slip the surly bonds of Earth to say, "I do". "Puzzles will save the world": Martin Demaine is kidding, mostly, when he says this, but his puzzles have made cars safer, candies easier to unwrap, and maybe one day will help cure diseases. A review of The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (and When To Stick) by Seth Godin.
Dumb luck, divine intervention? Sunset Strip hooker turned Hollywood millionaire Divine Brown thanks God for the chance encounter with British actor Hugh Grant that has taken her from ghetto to glamour. A Frank Lloyd Wright Story of Buffalo: The architect pointed his cane: “Who did this? Who made these changes? This is not my work.” Beyond the Myth, Art Endures: As Mexico celebrates the centenary of Frida Kahlo’s birth, the largest retrospective ever of her work attempts to look beyond what Mexicans call Fridamania. Jesus my boyfriend: Comedian Christina Martin was all set for her big break - - an appearance on the syndicated Paramount Comedy hour. Then she committed an unpardonable offence. The notion that music played on handmade, acoustic instruments is somehow more authentic than music made electrically should be firmly rejected. In Defense of the Chick Flick: Gloria Steinem proposes, as the opposite of "chick flick," films called "prick flicks". Not only will it serve film critics well, but its variants will add to the literary lexicon.
