Thomas Mallon: Abraham Lincoln and the politics of memory. Thomas Mallon Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000 At the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 1922, remarks by Robert Moton, the principal of the Tuskegee Institute, received special attention from the “colored” section of the audience. The federal commission responsible for the memorial’s construction were loath to have Moton participate at all . . . Sasha Frere-Jones: The Brazilian Girls at Terminal 5. Sasha Frere-Jones Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000 Sabina Sciubba has lived in Italy, Germany, France, and New York, and is currently the lead singer of a band called Brazilian Girls, which contains no Brazilians and only one girl. The group’s third album, “New York City,” is sung in five languages, though not all simultaneously. Perhaps the most . . . Richard Brody: Max Ophüls at Film Forum. Richard Brody Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000 The exacting and sumptuous Cinémathèque Française restoration of “Lola Montès,” Max Ophüls’s last film, from 1955 (opening at Film Forum on Oct. 10), recovers not just the movie’s look but also its meaning. The romantic costume drama presents a great nineteenth-century femme fatale, a faux-Spanish danseuse and gold . . . John Lahr: Ian Rickson revives "The Seagull." John Lahr Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000 When Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” first opened in St. Petersburg, in October, 1896, the hubbub of catcalls was so loud that the actors had trouble hearing themselves. Recounting the play’s sensational failure--the humiliated author stopped writing plays for a few years--Chekhov wrote to a friend, “The theatre breathed . . . Hilton Als: My Barbarian at the New Museum. Hilton Als Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000 The New Museum curator Eungie Joo has a nose for talent--particularly for performers who are more likely to comment on the “legitimate” theatre than to attend it. Just recently, she reintroduced New York audiences to My Barbarian, a performance collective based in Los Angeles. Founded in 2000 by Malik . . . Goings on About Town: Tony Award Steve Futterman Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000 From 1974 to 1980, the immensely assured multi-instrumentalist and composer Anthony Braxton was given virtual carte blanche at Clive Davis’s Arista Records--an unlikely union of artist and corporation. Braxton was nothing if not rigorously intellectual and formally obsessed--a sonic omnivore influenced by artists as seemingly irreconcilable as . . .