Return of the Airbender With Netflix backing a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the original creators Michael DiMartino 96 FAV and Bryan Konietzko 98 IL have signed on as executive producers and showrunners — welcome news for hardcore fans of the mid-aughts Nickelodeon hit. The Emmy-nominated duo looks forward to bringing a “culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed” interpretation of 12-year-old elemental monk Aang’s adventures to the streaming service — especially in the wake of M. Night Shyamalan’s disappointing 2011 film adaptation. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the animated series,” they say, “and go even deeper into the characters, story, action and world-building.” Production on Avatar begins this year. netflix.com/title/80237957
Ordered Chaos In October, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza called a pair of wonderfully refurbished basketball courts at the city’s Fargnoli Park (just north of campus) “a shining example” of civic achievement. In helping to reinvigorate the deteriorating surfaces and equipment, multidisciplinary artist Jim Drain 98 SC hoped to capture the hyperkinetic activity of the sport via an ordered chaos of color and pattern. It’s about “really activating the different spaces in which basketball gets played,” he said of the $80,000 project, which was directed by the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Project Backboard and completed over two weeks by 130 volunteers. “Below the hoop I wanted it to be confusing because that’s where all the activity happens,” adds Drain, who recently returned to Rhode Island as his home base. As for his studio work, in December Drain scored a huge hit in Miami with Zapf Dingbats, a solo show of wildly captivating work at Nina Johnson Gallery. ninajohnson.com/exhibitions/jim-drain-zapf-dingbats
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fall/winter 2018/19
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