Becoming (A) Spider-Man
Shameik Moore was in the middle of filming 2015’s Dope when he wrote in his journal, “I am Miles Morales, I am Spider-Man.” That was aspirational – and it came true. Movie director Bob Persichetti says, “I can’t now imagine anyone else being that voice.” – Los Angeles Times
Instagram Makes Parenting Teenagers Way Easier
Can’t get through to your kid? Sure, you could stalk them around the house, but probably their social media presence – especially Instagram, where they might even be pretty great photographers – can reveal much more than any sparse conversation would. – The New York Times
Some Essential Reading, According To Actor John Leguizamo
The actor found out his son was getting bullied at school about their heritage – so he created a stand-up show, got it on Netflix, and is now promoting some top-quality books about Latinx history so other kids don’t have to experience the same thing. Here’s his holiday shortlist of books (that, yeah, Americans should already have read). – The Atlantic
As The Field Museum Revamps, It Starts To Ask Exactly Whom Its Native American Hall Is For
The remodel of the Native North American Hall is overdue (at any natural history museum), and it’s vital. The hall hasn’t changed since its inception in the 1950s, and it’s a mess. How will the Field Museum do it right? “The renovations are taking place under the guidance of a robust advisory committee made up of contemporary Native American tribal leaders, scholars, artists, historical society representatives, and cultural caretakers.” (And it won’t remain stuck in time for 65+ years, either.) – Chicago Reader
Is Russia Engaging In A ‘Covert War’ Against Its Own Youth, And Their Favorite Musicians?
Well, possibly. For instance, rapper Husky has had recent concerts cancelled by the government – and when he performed outside for his audience, he was arrested and convicted. An electronica group whose concerts were also cancelled says, “The order to exert pressure on us is coming from Moscow.” – BBC
Senegal Opens Museum Of Black Civilizations, Funded By China
The museum, in Dakar, is pan-African and also includes works from the Caribbean. A UNESCO official said, “This museum is a response to the aspirations of African children to better understand their memory and other cultures. It is also an important step towards the realization of an Africa with a strong cultural identity.” – AfricaNews
If ‘Widows’ Really Wanted To Be Feminist, Well, It Threw Away Its Shot
Director Steve McQueen and his co-writer Gillian Flynn might say the movie, starring Viola Davis at the head of a very fine cast of badass women, is feminist, or deals with racism and sexism at every level of society, but … well. “Their dialogue starts to read like promotional materials for the newest brand of Feminism Lite.” – Vice
How Should The Government Collect On A Fugitive’s Wild Shopping Spree?
A Malaysian financier siphoned millions of dollars and then bought everything from a $250 million yacht to a see-through grand piano. “It is one of the largest international kleptocracy cases the United States has ever pursued.It is so expansive that just tracking down, retrieving and maintaining the loot has become a complex multinational operation in itself.” – The New York Times
The Poet Who Wants Americans To Have A Personal Reckoning
Natasha Trethewey has been the U.S. poet laureate, is a Pulitzer Prize-winner, and has a new collection out, and it requests from, and gives back, much to its readers. “Trethewey writes into the sprawling and untold stories in America’s history, giving voice to the forgotten, or the memories at risk of being forgotten.” – BuzzFeed
The Future Of Television
Binge watching? That’s passé. But what’s next isn’t entirely clear. – The Wall Street Journal
Women Are Funny, But The Grammys Don’t Seem To Know That
This is a year when Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette” earned rave reviews and made the comedian (as she notes in a joint interview with Roxane Gay this week) unbelievably busy. A year when Michelle Wolf’s epic set at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner made waves – and infuriated the president. “So it’s a shame that the 2019 nominees for best comedy album — a category that now includes spoken comedy and musical comedy — only lauds men.” – Los Angeles Times
Can Belgium’s Africa Museum Overcome Its History Of Racism?
Even its name is a bit of a challenge, but there was far worse in its history. Did a five-year, $73-million remodel change things? Part of the problem: “Most of the collection of over 120,000 items comes from Congo, collected in colonial-era military campaigns, or by missionaries and scientific explorers.” – The New York Times
Louisville Ballet Gets Its First Woman Resident Choreographer
Andrea Schermoly becomes the ballet’s third resident choreographer in a smaller ballet company that is newly committed to new work. The South African dancer had worked with choreography in college, and that “ended up being a great background when Schermoly faced a dance career ending injury and was able to turn full time to choreography.” – WFPL (Kentucky)
Yes, Anna Netrebko Is Extra, And That’s Why We Love Her
The soprano gives a new meaning to diva. Even when her Carnegie Hall debut gets pushed back, oh, 12 years, that’s fine – she “has an Instagram account much like the interior of a very rich, very well traveled, possibly colorblind teenager’s school locker. … She embodies an excess that lies at the molten core of opera, and which spills into the images she unloads online.” – The New York Times
The Librarypocalypse Continues With Almost 130 Closing Across The UK Last Year
Utter austerity madness continues, as “712 full-time employees lost or left their jobs and volunteer numbers increased by 3,000.” – The Guardian (UK)
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Becoming (A) Spider-Man
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Instagram Makes Parenting Teenagers Way Easier
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Some Essential Reading, According To Actor John Leguizamo
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As The Field Museum Revamps, It Starts To Ask Exactly Whom Its Native American Hall Is For
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Is Russia Engaging In A ‘Covert War’ Against Its Own Youth, And Their Favorite Musicians?
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Dawn Clements, Artist Whose Life Was The Subject Of Her Panoramas, Has Died At 60
An example of her work is “Three Tables in Rome,” which “has a diaristic quality to it, the artist seeming intent on documenting everything around her. For another, it’s an unusual shape: an elongated rectangle with an appendage (the third of the three tables) hanging off the bottom right. And it is huge, more than 20 feet in length.” – The New York Times
Why We Still Love (Some) Monsters Of Literature
“Last night I dreamt I went to Sweet Valley again.” That’s right: This is why we just can’t quit Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield (and their evil friends), the monsters of teen serial books. – BuzzFeed
Is Britain Finally Going To Make Some Progress For Women In Theatre?
Maybe! Arts Council England chair Nicholas Serota met with a delegation, some of whom say that the meeting was quite useful. “We are on that track now and we are not getting off this time. We are not allowing it to be sidelined. I don’t want young people coming out of drama school being treated like that.” – The Stage (UK)
Getting Straight A’s In School Is Terrible For Life
That’s right, strivers: Stop it. Well, don’t stop striving. Just stop striving for perfection. “Academic excellence is not a strong predictor of career excellence. Across industries, research shows that the correlation between grades and job performance is modest in the first year after college and trivial within a handful of years.” – The New York Times
How Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ Became A Depressing Christmas Music Classic
Discounting the utterly depressing yet joyous – and always voted the number 1 Christmas song in the UK – “Fairytale of New York,” even Joni Mitchell admitted, “We needed a sad Christmas song, didn’t we? … In the ‘bah humbug’ of it all.” – The Washington Post
This Year’s Classical Grammy Nominations
The Seattle Symphony leads all orchestras with three nominations — two for its present music director, Ludovic Morlot, in Aaron Jay Kernis’ traditionally shaped Violin Concerto with soloist James Ehnes (in the classical instrumental solo and contemporary composition categories), and one for its future music director, Thomas Dausgaard, in Nielsen’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 (orchestral performance), a strong opening entry for a complete Nielsen cycle. There were no nominations for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has recorded little lately. – Los Angeles Times
Barrie Kosky: “Opera Is A Dream”
“Opera is an incredibly sophisticated art form that’s developed over 500 years. So there’s no one audience. If you want to just sit there without knowing anything about it and watch the pretty pictures with music at the centre, you are allowed to, great. If you want to do two years of research and study the programme and the libretto, great. And if you want to compare it to the 20 other productions that you’ve seen in the last five years, that’s great too.” – Bachtrack
Debt Bubble: Borrowing Against Art
Borrowing against art poses specific problems because of its portability, its heterogeneous nature and difficulty in establishing a reliable price. And yet, according to a report published last year by Deloitte and ArtTactic, in 2017 the global total of loans outstanding against art was eye-popping: between $17bn and $20bn. – The Art Newspaper
I’m Tired Of New Plays! I Want Something More
“In a word: I’m against the New Play. New Plays take many forms and have been around for years, but they seem especially prized lately. They’re plays with budget-friendly cast sizes, simpler stories with watery stakes, forward-slashes to indicate overlapping, a pretty strict adherence to the fourth wall, “ordinary” unaffected language, and an authorial injunction to either “play it fast” or “respect the beats”—or both. Further, all of the matter onstage is matter of the theatre (i.e. no video, film, poetry, live musical interlude, non-diagetic dance, opera, or lip-sync).” – Howlround
Victoria, BC Performing Arts Groups Scramble After Theatre’s Huge Rent Increases
The symphony has been told its rent, currently $1,850 per day, will go to $2,500 Sunday to Wednesday, $3,500 on Thursdays and $4,000 on Friday or Saturday. Those rates now apply to rehearsal days — currently $800 — too. – The Times-Colonist (Victoria, Canada)