Have You Got Questions for Gillian Flynn or Cheryl Strayed?

By
Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck in "Gone Girl." Merrick Morton/20th Century Fox

On Friday, Cara Buckley, a k a the Carpetbagger, will be sitting down with the best-selling writers Gillian Flynn, who penned the novel and screen version of “Gone Girl,” and Cheryl Strayed, author of the memoir “Wild.”

Both tales centered on fierce, steely – and in one case arguably sociopathic – women, and both were made into big buzz films.

Reese Witherspoon in "Wild." Anne Marie Fox/Fox Searchlight Pictures

“Gone Girl,” a story of marital dystopia directed by David Fincher and starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, boomed at the box office, earning $244 million globally so far. Expectations are also high for “Wild,” (set for a Dec. 5 release), which stars Reese Witherspoon as Ms. Strayed, embarking on a soul-saving 1,100-mile trek. Ms. Witherspoon produced both films as part of her recent effort to create better roles for women in film.

So Times readers, and fans of the book or books: What would you ask Ms. Flynn and/or Ms. Strayed? Post a comment or tweet @caraNYT

Excerpts from Ms. Buckley’s roundtable with both writers will be published later next month.

Flea Theater’s Artistic Director to Step Down

By
From left, Carol Ostrow, Jim Simpson and Sigourney Weaver at the Flea Theater's current home. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Jim Simpson is stepping down as artistic director of the Flea Theater, a leading Off Off Broadway theater company in Lower Manhattan, the theater announced on Wednesday.

Mr. Simpson, a director and one of the founders of the 18-year-old Flea, said in a statement that “it feels like the right time to add another, newer vision to our future” at a time when the Flea is preparing to move into a new, bigger home. Mr. Simpson said he would continue with the Flea in an advisory role, as founding artistic director and president.

According to a press statement, Mr. Simpson and Carol Ostrow, the Flea’s producing director, will be involved with the search for a new artistic director who will arrive as the Flea transitions from its longtime space at 41 White Street in Tribeca to a new three-stage arts complex nearby at 20 Thomas Street in 2016. Mr. Simpson has been deeply involved in developing the new home for the Flea, and he and his wife, Sigourney Weaver, made a six-figure donation to the project.

“We remain committed to the goals that Jim laid out when he started The Flea,” Ms. Ostrow said. “Our new space will be the beginning of the next chapter for The Flea, and will enable us to fulfill our mission to represent the wide range of what is possible Off Off Broadway.”

The Flea has featured works by playwrights like Anne Nelson, whose 9/11 drama “The Guys” ran for months at the theater, as well as Will Eno, Adam Rapp, and A.R. Gurney. The theater also provides acting opportunities and training for performers through its resident company, the Bats. Mr. Simpson is now in rehearsal for the world premiere production of “I See You” by Kate Robin at the Flea in November.

Seattle Sorts Library Books Faster than New York? Fuhgeddaboudit

By
Workers sorting books during the competition. Jonathan Blanc/NYPL

New York has been taking some hard knocks from Seattle of late, books-wise. First came the epic and still-unresolved battle between Amazon and New York publishers. Then came reports — in a respectable New York newspaper, no less — that Seattle’s indie booksellers were thriving while Manhattan was turning into a “bookstore desert.”

But on Wednesday, New York reasserted its dominance in at least one corner of the literary universe: book sorting.

In the fourth annual “battle of the book sorters,” the giant mechanical sorter shared by the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library sorted 12,570 items in an hour, while a similar behemoth belonging to the King County Library System in Washington state sorted a mere 11,868.

“The laid-back atmosphere of Seattle got a real taste of fast-paced New York today,” said Salvatore Magaddino, the deputy director of the Book Ops facility in Queens, which houses New York’s $2.4 million, 238-foot-long sorter. “We proved to our friends and to the world that we are the fastest sorters, which means our patrons get their books faster than anyone!”

The outcome also means that Mr. Magaddino and his colleagues will soon be feasting on smoked salmon and Seattle’s Best Coffee, which had been wagered against Junior’s cheesecake and pastries from Ferrara’s. (Seattle won last year’s smackdown.)

The New York and Seattle sorters, the only two in the United States according to a spokesman from the New York Public Library, scan bar codes on returned books as they whiz around a circular conveyor belt. The books are then dropped into bins destined for the appropriate branch library, like riders ejected from a particularly nerdy roller-coaster. (Yes, someone has filmed the process using a drone.)

The New York sorter’s normal average speed, according to a news release, is 3.5 miles an hour, with roughly 8,000 items sorted an hour, with a 1 percent error rate, and most books returned to circulation within 24 hours. Before the purchase of the sorter in 2010, the New York Public Library sorted books by hand.

How to Protect Yourself From Ebola, in Song

By

Public service announcements can be useful, particularly if their messages are presented by celebrities. But a catchy song, performed by a starry cast, can be even better. That, at any rate, is the reasoning behind “Africa Stop Ebola,” a new song packed with information about what people can do to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus, for which some of Africa’s top musicians – among them the reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, the duo Amadou & Mariam and the rapper Didier Awadi – have banded together.

The song, which was written by Kandia Kora and Sekou Kouyaté, both of whom are among the performers, is based on ideas and lyrics sketched out by Carlos Chirinos, a professor at New York University who specializes in music, radio and social change. It runs about five and a half minutes, and is packed with warnings (not to touch the bodies of the sick or the dead, to avoid shaking hands) and encouragements (trust doctors, wash your hands).

“We are trying to build the public’s confidence in the public health sector,” Mr. Chirinos said in a telephone interview from London. “This is where the stature of the artists is so important. They are all recognized and respected in their countries, and we felt that people would listen to them. We are combating myths about Ebola not being real, or that it is something that can be cured by a church, or a traditional healer. There have been cases where health teams have turned up at a village and were turned away, or were stoned – some people have been killed. So we’re trying to send a message, that the only way to stop Ebola is to trust in the health services. And also, that there is hope – that the crisis can be overcome.”

The first performer to sign up for the project was Mr. Fakoly, who helped round up the other performers, and made sure that they remained on message. (Some of the rappers, in particular, Mr. Chirinos, said, wanted to riff on the subject and move farther afield). It was partly in deference to Mr. Fakoly that Mr. Kora and Mr. Kouyaté wrote the song in a reggae style, although another reason, Mr. Chirinos said, was that “reggae is truly pan-African,” and they wanted music that would have an appeal throughout the continent.

Language was another consideration. Mr. Kora, Mr. Fakoly, Amadou & Mariam, Mr. Awadi and the Malian rapper Mokobé all sing their verses in French. But African languages are heard as well. Salif Keita and Mory Kanté sing in Malinké, and Mr. Kanté also sings in Susu, as does Konko Malela. Sia Tolno sings in Kissi; Barbara Kanam sings in Lingala; and Oumou Sangaré sings in Bambara.

The song, which was recorded in studios in Paris and Mali, with final production in London, has been distributed to radio stations throughout Africa.

Historical Society Exhibition to Commemorate Selma-to-Montgomery March

By
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressing the crowd in Montgomery in March, 1965. Stephen Somerstein

Dozens of photographs capturing a pivotal event in the civil rights movement — the 1965 march from Selma, Ala., to the state capital in Montgomery — will be exhibited at the New-York Historical Society early next year.

In time to mark the 50th anniversary of the march, “Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein,” will be on view from January 16 through April 19. Mr. Somerstein, then a 24-year-old City College student in New York, took roughly 400 photographs of the march during five days, March 21 to March 25, 1965. Fifty-five of his photographs are in the exhibition, including the famous and the unknown, capturing whites taunting the marchers and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to the crowd in Montgomery, among other images.

Hecklers taunted the marchers. Stephen Somerstein

“When Dr. King called on Americans to join him in a massive protest march to Montgomery, I knew that important, nation-changing history was unfolding and I wanted to capture its power and its meaning with my camera,” Mr. Somerstein said in a statement. Mr. Somerstein, who was the managing editor and the picture editor of his college newspaper, went on to a career in physics.

The march was a turning point in the civil rights movement. The 54-mile journey from Selma to the State Capitol in Montgomery drew international attention to black efforts to attain voting rights. The first effort at the march, on March 7, drew 600 people, some of whom were brutally beaten by law enforcement officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The highly publicized incident became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

King’s call for marchers to assemble in Alabama for the march later that month drew 25,000 people at its peak, including Joan Baez, James Baldwin and Rosa Parks.

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law on August 6, 1965.

In a program related to the exhibition on Feb. 11, Randall Kennedy, a Harvard Law School professor, will discuss the ramifications of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Judge Dismisses Noriega’s Lawsuit Over Video Game

By
Manuel Noriega in 1988. Carlos Guardia/Associated Press

A judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit in which the former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega claimed that the video game publisher Activision Blizzard used his image without permission in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

“This court concludes that Noriega’s right of publicity is outweighed by defendants’ First Amendment right to free expression,” Judge William H. Fahey of the Los Angeles Superior Court said in his ruling on Monday.

Mr. Noriega, who is serving a sentence in a Panamanian prison after being convicted on money laundering charges, claimed in his suit that the game portrayed him as a “kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state.” He sought lost profits as well as damages. But Judge Fahey thought otherwise. “Noriega fails to provide any evidence of harm to his reputation,” he said in his ruling. “Indeed, given the worldwide reporting of his actions in the 1980s and early 1990s, it is hard to imagine that any such evidence exists.”

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, was one of the lawyers who represented Activision in the case. He called the ruling a victory for freedom of speech. “This was an absurd lawsuit from the very beginning, and we’re gratified that in the end, a notorious criminal didn’t win,” he said in a statement.

Others have sued video game developers over the use of their likenesses, including Lindsay Lohan, the band No Doubt and a group of college athletes.

On the Menu: Manuscripts

By

During his more than 30 years in publishing, Peter Gethers, a senior vice president and editor at large at Penguin Random House, has gotten used to having strangers foist manuscripts on him at inopportune moments. The unsolicited novels are rarely good, and almost never good enough to acquire.

So his expectations were modest when a young waitress who works at Buvette, a cozy French restaurant in the West Village where Mr. Gethers is a regular, told him she’d just completed her novel — about a young, adrift waitress working at an upscale New York restaurant. As it happens, she was the second waitress at Buvette who let it slip to Mr. Gethers that she was working on a novel.

Mr. Gethers delivered his usual polite, deflecting line: have your agent send it to me.

“The book came in and within 10 pages, I was going, oh my God, this woman is an extraordinary talent, “ Mr. Gethers said. “One doesn’t see a lot of first novels like this, or any novels like this.”

The restaurant connection proved fitting. The novel, “Sweetbitter,” by Stephanie Danler, centers on a recent transplant to New York who gets a job at a fancy restaurant near Union Square. (Ms. Danler worked at the Union Square Cafe, a popular lunch spot for publishing industry executives, for a year after she moved to the city.) The young woman falls into a sort of love triangle with two co-workers.

Mr. Gethers mentioned the book to another editor, Claudia Herr, and urged her to buy it. Ms. Herr had already heard about the novel from Melissa Flashman, Ms. Danler’s literary agent, who compared it to Jay McInerney’s “Bright Lights, Big City.” News of an exciting submission bounced around the office. Days later, in early October, Ms. Herr acquired the book for Alfred A. Knopf, in a pre-emptive high six-figure, two-book deal.

“Sweetbitter” is both a coming-of-age and coming-to-New York story, and a novel about the seductive pleasures of food and wine. The story unfolds inside the glamorous, cutthroat and sometimes seedy world of elite Manhattan restaurants. Ms. Danler, 30, who’s from California and went to Kenyon College in Ohio, moved to New York in 2006. Since then, she’s cycled through several restaurant jobs and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the New School, where she studied with Helen Schulman and Jonathan Dee and worked on “Sweetbitter.” Knopf plans to release the novel in 2016.

“The way she writes about food, you can actually taste it,” Mr. Gethers said.

Mr. Gethers said he’s now looking forward to reading the other novel by the other Buvette waitress. “She hasn’t finished it yet,” he said. “I’ve been promised it by the end of November.”

Taylor Swift’s ’1989’ Likely to Sell a Million Copies This Week

By
Taylor Swift Josh Haner/The New York Times

When Taylor Swift released her album “1989” on Monday, the music industry at large doubted it could sell one million copies in a week, as Ms. Swift’s last two records have done.

But the last few days have taught the business a lesson: never bet against Taylor Swift.

While early estimates for “1989” had been as low as 750,000 copies, the album now appears very likely to cross the million mark, according to industry estimates reported by Billboard, and could reach as high as 1.1 million. The success is a testament to Ms. Swift’s lasting star power as well as her tenacity and canniness as a marketer. Even in a deeply depressed music market, Ms. Swift has remained a master of inspiring deep loyalty among her fans, in part through social media.

“Fans really feel they have a connection with Swift, and want to have the full experience, so to speak, by buying the ‘1989’ album,” said Keith Caulfield, an associate director of charts at Billboard. “Fans feel like Swift is their BFF.”

Taylor Swift’s “1989” is set to become the first platinum album of the year, according to Billboard.

If “1989” does sell one million copies this week, it would instantly become the first platinum album released this year, as well as the first to open with a million since Ms. Swift’s own “Red” two years ago. Ms. Swift would also take her place as the only act to have three albums hit a million in a single week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991. (The Backstreet Boys, N’ Sync and Eminem have each done it twice.)

To promote “1989,” Ms. Swift and her record company, Big Machine — in partnership with Universal Music’s Republic label — went on a marketing blitz across virtually every platform of media. This week Ms. Swift made a string of television appearances, including “Good Morning America,” “Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Voice,” where she is a talent mentor. She is also in commercials for Diet Coke and Target, and has received extensive promotion from big radio networks like iHeartMedia and CBS Radio.

And, of course, Ms. Swift was all over Twitter and Instagram, counting down the hours until the album release and retweeting dozens of pictures of her fans holding up the album after they bought it. In the weeks leading up to the release, Ms. Swift held “secret sessions” with fans, playing them the album and serving Rice Krispies treats.

Ms. Swift is one of a handful of major acts that have withheld their newest releases from streaming services like Spotify, a strategy intended to drive greater sales of the album.

The music industry’s standard accounting week for sales ends on Sunday, and Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks retailers, will report the final numbers for the week on Wednesday. On this week’s Billboard chart, which counts sales made last week, the heavy metal band Slipknot opened with 132,000 sales of its new album, “.5: The Gray Chapter” (Roadrunner).

Director of Atlanta’s High Museum to Step Down

By
Michael E. Shapiro Chip Simone

Michael E. Shapiro, who has served for 14 years as director of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and has overseen a fundamental transformation of the institution, greatly enlarging its collection and its international standing, announced on Wednesday that he planned to step down in the summer of 2015.

Mr. Shapiro, who previously served as the museum’s chief curator and deputy director, said that two milestones – he is turning 65 next month and will mark his 20th year at the museum next January – led him to the decision. “It’s been on my mind for five years or so that it seemed like a natural time to finish that chapter,” he said. “Because otherwise there is no natural end point, and I feel like we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount. And the idea of a fresh voice to take the museum to the next level makes a lot of sense to me.”

During his tenure, the museum nearly doubled the number of works in its permanent collection, acquiring important paintings by 19th and 20th century and contemporary artists like artists Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly and Julie Mehretu. The High raised nearly $230 million during that time, increasing its endowment by nearly 30 percent and building an acquisition fund of nearly $20 million. It greatly enlarged its educational programs and accessibility for school children. And it completed an expansion by Renzo Piano that more than doubled the museum’s size.

The museum became known for actively pursuing international loan partnerships, showing works from the Louvre, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Museum of the Terracotta Army and the Cultural Relics Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi’an, China, which made possible “The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army” in 2008, the most highly attended show in the High’s history.

“It’s not a perfect model,” Mr. Shapiro said of such art exchanges. “But we’re all hungry for content, as they call it now, and to be able to mine that kind of content from around the world is a great thing for a museum.”

Of his future plans, he added: “I’m kind of an open book now. And as people around here like to say, I feel blessed.”

Tyne Daly and Harriet Harris to Star in ‘It Shoulda Been You’ on Broadway

By

The Tony Award winners Tyne Daly (“Gypsy”) and Harriet Harris (“Thoroughly Modern Millie”) will square off as warring mothers at a wedding from hell in the Broadway musical comedy “It Shoulda Been You,” which will start preview performances on March 17 at the Brooks Atkinson Theater, the producers announced on Wednesday. The show will mark the Broadway directing debut of David Hyde Pierce, whose acting has earned a Tony (“Curtains”) and four Emmy Awards for “Frasier.”

Ms. Daly will be the Jewish mother of the bride, played by Sierra Boggess, who starred in “The Little Mermaid” and performed opposite Ms. Daly in the 2011 Broadway revival of “Master Class.” Ms. Harris will be the Protestant mother of the groom, played by David Burtka, who played Tulsa in the 2003 Broadway revival of “Gypsy” and may be best known as the husband of Neil Patrick Harris.

The cast will also include Lisa Howard in the key role of the bride’s sister, as well as Edward Hibbert and Steve Rosen. In addition to Mr. Pierce, the production includes two other “Frasier” alums: Ms. Harris, who played the scheming agent Bebe Glazer, and Mr. Hibbert, who was the pompous food critic Gil Chesterton. Additional casting will be announced later.

“It Shoulda Been You,” which drew mixed reviews during its 2011 premiere at the George Street Playhouse, has music by Barbara Anselmi and a book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove, a television writer who is married to Mr. Pierce. Opening night is scheduled for April 14. The lead producers include Daryl Roth (“Kinky Boots”) and Scott Landis (“Nice Work If You Can Get It”).