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The New York Times 05/23/13

Here is a quick interview with Andrew Miller winner of City Arts’ People’s choice awards.  I promise we’ll have a larger interview in the coming weeks!   Xavier:  Interviewing you has been a long time coming, as I’ve meant to interview you for ages and now with the news that you are the winner of City [...]

NPR 05/22/13

Although bright colors have become just as easy to achieve at cone six as they are at cone 06, Gail Kendall still prefers the low fire approach, inspired by the casual decretive style of peasantware from Europe and Great Britain. In today's post, Gail explains her techniques for creating simple and beautiful slip-decorated surfaces. She also shares her slip and glaze recipe. - Jennifer Harnetty, editor.

Hyperallergic 05/21/13

Seattle Pisses Off Joss Whedon and Misses Out on Joan Didion by T. J. Eckleburg

• As usual, SIFF's opening-night gala was way too heavy on preshow speechifying, leaving hundreds of excited Joss Whedon fans bored and dejected for a full hour before their movie god took the stage. Multiple attendees say Whedon was visibly grumpy about the snoozy preshow. To first-time SIFF-goers who were turned off: Don't judge the whole festival by the one epic display you saw of SIFF patting itself on the back—most screenings do not include stultification.

• On May 14, Seattle Arts & Lectures hosted nonfiction writer Susan Orlean, who spoke to a happy full house of admirers at Benaroya. SAL seemed to be the only confused party in the room. On its website, SAL described Orlean repeatedly—in a description still persisting a week later—as a novelist.

• Speaking of Seattle Arts & Lectures, Joan Didion has canceled her scheduled appearance on June 5, citing an "unforeseen personal conflict." Incidentally, Unforeseen Personal Conflict would be a great title for a biography of Joan Didion.

• Long after the 2005 shuttering of his gallery in Pioneer Square, the curtain rises on Bryan Ohno's new gallery in the International District (521 S Main St). The 4Culture advisory board member and former Chihuly business manager plans to show art "that blurs the lines between science and art," and he also gets a new chance to spell his artists' names correctly (we see you, Lynda Benglis). The first show is research-based paintings inspired by study in Phnom Penh by Adrianne Smits, opening June 6, 6 to 8 p.m.

• Congratulations to Stranger Genius Award–winner Megan Griffiths, whose razor-sharp human-trafficking drama Eden just swept the Milan International Film Festival, winning best film and best director awards.

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The New York Times 05/22/13

The Guardian (UK) 05/21/13

Bloomberg 05/21/13

The New Yorker 05/20/13

Foreign Policy 05/13/13 (slide show)

ArtPlace America, which distributes grants that "accelerate creative placemaking across the country," has announced the 54 recipients for grants in 2013-14. Washington recipients are:

--Capitol Hill Housing Foundation's 12th Avenue Arts project, $150,000, aiding the foundation's transformation of a 29,000-square-foot parking lot on Capitol Hill into a mixed-use development combining arts, housing, retail and public safety.

--Makah Tribe's Neah Bay Village Longhouse Commons, $500,000, for the tribe's year-round indoor/outdoor community gathering and performance space, along the planned Waterfront Trail in Neah Bay.

--Uniontown Community Development Association's Creativity Center, $362,000; the money will aid the Whitman County group's expansion of the Creativity Center and public art installations.

Local audiences were passionate about "First Date," a 2012 co-production of the 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT. Producer Junkyard Dog was smitten, too; it was announced in March that the show would be heading to Broadway. Now, it's time for casting news: Zachary Levi, of TV's "Chuck," will make his Broadway debut as Aaron, the male lead; Krysta Rodriguez (TV's "Smash," Broadway's "The Addams Family") will play his date, Casey. Also in the cast: Sara Chase, Kristoffer Cusick, Blake Hammond and Kate Loprest.

Written by Austin Winsberg, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, the show is directed by the 5th Ave's own Bill Berry. Performances start July 9 and the show opens Aug. 8 at Broadway's Longacre Theatre. More info here.

In today's post, an excerpt from the January/February 2010 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated, Michelle Erickson and Robert Hunter explain the important considerations potters need to make when making agateware and demonstrate throwing agateware on the pottery wheel.

The Wall Street Journal 05/16/13

The New York Review of Books 06/20/13

Seattle International Film Festival this morning hosted a well-attended public screening of the 11 winners of the 2013 3-Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest.  At the end of the show, four top prize-winners were announced.

Grand prize winner: "The Last Slice," by Philip Baca, Caleb Melvin, Jason Thompson and Ryan Trudeau

Michael J. Rima youth-filmmaker winner: "Laser Rabbit," by Matt Wells, with Chase Helgeson (and one evil bunny)

Seattle Times readers' choice: "Freddie Hits the Pipe," by Parker Briggs

Special mention for Seattle-centric film: "History Is Walking in Someone Else's Shoes," by Eric Pokorny

Thanks to all Seattle Times readers who entered this year's edition of the contest, and to SIFF, which partners with the Times on this project each year. Watch and share all the winning movies here.

Hello readers. We have a winner in today's favorite-foreign-film contest. Out of a number of reader submissions, we pulled "Run, Lola, Run" out of a hat, which means that a reader calling him/herself "mathteam" will win two free tickets to Seattle International Film Festival. (Check back next Thursday/Friday for another giveaway.)

"Run Lola Run" first showed in Seattle in the late '90s at SIFF, coincidentally. Here's what longtime Seattle Times reviewer John Hartl had to say about it then: "Possibly the showiest, most energy-charged movie in this year's Seattle International Film Festival, this German production offers multiple versions of the same story: a woman trying to save her boyfriend from a vicious gangster."

We thought you might also like to see a list of the other foreign films recommended by readers. Descriptions here are cribbed from Seattle Times reviewers Moira Macdonald, John Hartl, Jeff Shannon and others.

"Amelie," a beguiling romantic comedy from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("Delicatessen," "City of Lost Children"), starring Audrey Tautou.

"The Band's Visit," by Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin, a film about music, unlikely friendship and finding a little bit of home in a faraway place.

"Brotherhood of the Wolf," a 2002 French creature feature full of chills, action, romance and adventure. Note: This one's heavy on violence and gore.

"Das Boot," a classic war film set on a German submarine in WWII.

"Cinema Paradiso," a beautiful Italian art-house film about beautiful Italian art-house filmgoing.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," a ground-breaking, dreamlike martial-arts fantasy directed by Ang Lee.

"Departures," from Japan, an elegant, beautifully mounted meditation on death, funeral customs and parent-child relations.

"Diva," a gorgeous, 1981 French thriller that touches on opera and obsession.

"Hanna," a British-German thriller starring Saoirse Ronan as a feral child who is part angsty adolescent, part homicidal secret agent.

"House," a Japanese horror film made in 1977, which marked the bold debut of director Nobuhiko Obayashi.

"Life Is Beautiful," an Oscar winner from Italy that audaciously mixed humor and the Holocaust.

"Salo," a notoriously brutal and sexual film by director Pier Paolo Pasolini, subtitled "120 Days of Sodom."

"Sitcom," a satire directed by Francois Ozon, in which a suburban French family goes to ruin.

"Still Walking," a portrait of a Japanese family mourning a lost son.

"Waste Land," a surprisingly inspiring documentary about Brazilian trash pickers.

Have more recommendations? Feel free to add them to the comments thread.

May 18 is Association of Art Museum Directors' Art Museum Day, which means some special opportunities for museum visitors in Seattle. Seattle Art Museum and Seattle Asian Art Museum will offer free general admission that day (Note: the SAM exhibit "Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London" is exempt). And at the Henry Art Gallery, new members will get $10 off a membership, current members will get a free coffee/hot drink card to be redeemed at Molly’s Café , and there will be pencils and lapel pins for all.