Covfefe

"'Although the etymology of the word is a matter of debate, for at least 50 years 'kayfabe' has referred to the unspoken contract between wrestlers and spectators: We'll present you something clearly fake under the insistence that it's real, and you will experience genuine emotion. Neither party acknowledges the bargain, or else the magic is ruined.... The aesthetic of World Wrestling Entertainment seems to be spreading from the ring to the world stage. Ask an average Trump supporter whether he or she thinks the president actually plans to build a giant wall and have Mexico pay for it, and you might get an answer that boils down to, 'I don't think so, but I believe so.' That's kayfabe. Chants of 'Build the Wall' aren't about erecting a structure; they're about how cathartic it feels, in the moment, to yell with venom against a common enemy.'"

Simon Reynolds on his blog discovers Donald Trump's Rosebud.

"Is This the Future of Funny?"

"As if to clinch that point, just before Christmas, Russian-British comedian Konstantin Kisin pulled out of a gig for the Unicef on Campus society at London's School of Oriental and African Studies after refusing to sign a 'behavioural agreement form'. The form stated: 'By signing this contract, you are agreeing to our no-tolerance policy with regards to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia or anti-religion or anti-atheism.' Kisin told the Daily Mail: 'I grew up under the Soviet Union. When I saw this letter, basically telling me what I could and couldn't say, I thought this was precisely the kind of letter a comic would have been sent there.'"

At The Guardian, Stuart Jeffries asks, "Is standup comedy doomed?"

"New Evidence Reveals Ancient Greeks Immediately Regretted Inventing Theater"

"Brubaker added that several new findings suggest the ancient Greeks also lamented encouraging those prone to pondering life's unanswerable questions out loud to call themselves 'philosophers.'"

From The Onion.

"Policies Are Only as Good or Strong as the Governing Coalition That Holds Power"

"Worst of all, President Obama continued to underestimate the ferocity of the new generation of Republicans who were practicing a new style of confrontationist, smash-mouth politics that left little room for compromise with the other party. They were aided by a conservative media universe where reason-based arguments depending on facts and analysis were secondary or irrelevant, as spin, hyperbole, and partisan slander were the weapons of choice. While President Obama was playing chess, more and more congressional Republicans were playing tackle football."

Julian E. Zelizer at The Atlantic writes that the "threat to [Obama's] legacy is becoming clearer by the day."

"I Invite the Prime Minister to Leave the Theatre and Return to Reality"

"I referred to this being heresy–and I would argue that it is akin to religious dissent of the 17th Century, a radical break with conformity and the accepted way things are done. I think Corbynmania expresses along with economic frustration and anxiety about the future, a disgust with politics as usual–there is a revolt against the culture of the public image,  optics, spin, photo opportunities and staging–what Daniel Boorstin in his book The Image called pseudo-events[.]
"All substance and policy, Corbyn is the opposite of Blair and Cameron–but he is also the opposite of Trump–the politician as entertainer, as huckster.  Trump is all theatre."

Simon Reynolds at Shock and Awe discusses the appeal of Jeremy Corbyn.

"That's All Being Pulled from the Grasp of the Workers"

"'It’s what I call the de-industrial revolution,' Nottage, a Pulitzer winner and onetime MacArthur grant recipient, says of what’s been taking place in towns like Reading, 'shifting from a manufacturing base to a more service-oriented, white-collar workforce. All of those people invested in those manufacturing jobs found themselves completely upended.'"
"'When you rip that out from under the country, how do we redefine ourselves?'"

Daryl H. Miller in the Los Angeles Times talks with Lynn Nottage about her new play, Sweat.

"Buried in the Mythos of Manhattan"

"'Carnegie became well known because it was near Broadway, because it was near the great centers of screenwriting and comedy and production and late night,' Sax says. 'This was pre-Letterman. Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner and the golden age, that's when Carnegie really grew in prominence. And so, all the photos that line the walls, the connection with Woody Allen, that was the pin that set the genesis of modern American comedy. That restaurant and Stage [Deli] were tied to it. It associated the Jewish deli with that in the popular imagination.'"

Adam Chandler at The Atlantic says goodbye to the New York's original Carnegie Deli.

Hamilton's Barbarian Trials

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2016 Pulitzer Prizes, including Lin-Manuel Miranda for drama, William Finnegan for biography, and T. J. Stiles for history.

"An Idea of Who We Would Like Hamilton to Be"

"While the most recent critiques of 'Hamilton' have focused on race, some scholars have also noted that it's an odd moment for the public to embrace an unabashed elitist who liked big banks, mistrusted the masses and at one point called for a monarchal presidency and a Senate that served for life.
"Alexander Hamilton 'was more a man for the 1 percent than the 99 percent,' said Sean Wilentz, a professor at Princeton and the author of 'The Politicians and the Egalitarians,' to be published in May."

Jennifer Schuessler in The New York Times looks at historians' reactions to Hamilton.

Annette Gordon-Reed continues at the National Council on Public History's blog.

"Noam Chomsky Announces Las Vegas Residency"

"'I'm so excited—I've been into Chomsky since college,' said 49-year-old Boise, ID social worker Karen Wenning, who is planning a trip to Las Vegas next month to see the social critic's lavish new production. 'It'll be incredible to hear him denounce transnational corporate power live and in person. I just really hope he does some of his early stuff from American Power And The New Mandarins and Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths In Fact And Propaganda. That stuff is classic.'"

From The Onion.

"There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be a Comedian"

"Prior to 2009, only three comedians had ever sold out Madison Square Garden (not the theater, the actual arena); three comedians have done it in the last three years, each multiple times. According to UCB, over 10,000 people will take improv classes in the U.S. this year. More people watched SNL 40 than the Golden Globes. Comedy Central's original programming has nearly doubled in the last three years, in competition with other networks that have beefed up their own comedy offerings. The hiring of a new Daily Show host—congratulations, Trevor Noah—was treated with as much anticipation and passionate critique as when LeBron James decided to go play for the Miami Heat. About as many people follow Sarah Silverman on Twitter than follow Hillary and Bill Clinton combined. Critics revere Louis C.K. and Amy Schumer as geniuses. Practically every comedian has a podcast or web series, or both. Right now, comedy is bigger than it's ever been. There are more people doing it, and more people enjoying it. Thanks to the internet, comedians now have infinite means by which to reach their fans; and those fans are more fanatical than ever."


Jesse David Fox in New York praises the "Second Comedy Boom."

"A New Era in the Cultural Life of Los Angeles"

The Los Angeles Times marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Music Center.

Omni Rum Punch Man

The Los Angeles Times runs obits for writer Albert Murray, concert promoter Sid Bernstein, writer Elmore Leonard, actress Julie Harris, poet Seamus Heaney, record-store owner and actor Murray Gershenz, Kerouac muse Bea Kozera, and broadcaster David Frost.

Second Glove Hamburger Beanery

The Los Angeles Times runs obits for composer Bob Thompson, restaurateur Harry Lewis, historian Robert Fogel, musician Sam Most, impresario Bernie Sahlins, surfwear designer Bob Meistrell, restaurateur Irwin Held, and actor James Gandolfini.

"The Songbook and Jazz Evolved Symbiotically"

"John Lewis, the music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, noted: 'Jazz developed while the great popular music was being turned out. It was a golden age for songs. They had a classic quality in length and shape and form and flexibility of harmony. The jazz musicians were drawn to this music as a source of material.' The Songbook, a product of a fleeting set of cultural circumstances when popular, sophisticated music was aimed at musically knowledgeable adults, was the crucial wellspring of jazz. Both jazz and its progenitor are worthy of radical—indeed, reactionary—efforts to preserve them. But despite Gioia’s ardency, there is no reason to believe that jazz can be a living, evolving art form decades after its major source—and the source that linked it to the main currents of popular culture and sentiment—has dried up. Jazz, like the Songbook, is a relic—and as such, in 2012 it cannot have, as Gioia wishes for it, an 'expansive and adaptive repertoire.'

In The Atlantic, Benjamin Schwarz reviews Ted Gioia's The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire.

And a Little Bit of Pixie Dust

"The joke was on the Post gossip columnist, because Peter Pan collars were around for good: They’ve popped up as a fad in nearly every decade since Adams introduced the style. In the 1920s the collars became standard fare on little girls’ dresses, creating an innocent association that persists to this day. By the 1930s, the style had become nearly de rigeur at weddings—and not for the flower girls: Wedding announcement after wedding announcement in the ’30s and ’40s (even into the ’50s) describe the bride decked out in white satin and a Peter Pan collar. In the next two decades the look managed to swing smoothly from frumpy (First Lady Mamie Eisenhower wore a 'silky purple Molly Parnis dress [with] a Peter Pan collar' to her sixtieth birthday party in 1956) to hip (the New York Times described a young Lynn Redgrave in a 'black velvet see-through Mod dress with the white Peter Pan collar' in 1966)."

Julia Felsenthal in Slate presents a history of the Peter Pan collar.

"A Rare Phenomenon"

"In other words, if you’re looking for an orderly assemblage of the facts, this isn’t it. But 'Fela!' offers something that only the theater can provide—an immersion in Fela’s music, an encounter with his charismatically frenetic concert presence and a confrontation with his political style. The trade-off, trust me, is worth it. But be prepared to get out of your seat and shake your derriere. Passive spectatorship would be an insult."

Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times reviews Fela! at the Ahmanson Theatre.

The Velvet Revolutionary

"A shy yet resilient, unfailingly polite but dogged man who articulated the power of the powerless, Mr. Havel spent five years in and out of Communist prisons, lived for two decades under close secret-police surveillance and endured the suppression of his plays and essays. He served 14 years as president, wrote 19 plays, inspired a film and a rap song and remained one of his generation’s most seductively nonconformist writers."

Dan Bilefsky and Jane Perlez in The New York Times write an obit for Vaclav Havel.

"Both Stowe and Tom Deserve Our Reconsideration"

"But this view is egregiously inaccurate: the original Uncle Tom was physically strong and morally courageous, an inspiration for blacks and other oppressed people worldwide. In other words, Uncle Tom was anything but an 'Uncle Tom.'"

David S. Reynolds in The New York Times revisits Uncle Tom's Cabin.

"The Dreams of Poets Taken Seriously"

"While it took a Frenchman, Petipa, to make ballet Russian, it took a Russian, Balanchine, to make it American—the most unlikely transposition the art form has ever experienced. 'Classical ballet was everything America was against,' Homans explains. 'It was a lavish, aristocratic court art, a high—and hierarchical—elite art with no pretense to egalitarianism' designed 'to promote and glorify kings and czars.' Whose divine right would it promote in the land of the equal, the free, the duly (and unduly) elected? But as Balan­chine was fond of saying in the face of the impossible, or highly inadvisable, 'Nevertheless. . . .' And he proceeded to give American dancers an aristocracy all their own."

Toni Bentley reviews Jennifer Homans's Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet in The New York Times.