Today’s Stories
More Eyes On South Korea’s Class Divisions After ‘Parasite’ Hits Big On The World Stage
The semi-basement that the Kim family lives in is a reality for about 2 percent of South Koreans living in Seoul – one of the most expensive cities in Asia. One of them, who shares a name with the daughter in the film, says it’s very similar. “Kim, who moved into her $211-a-month banjiha apartment after leaving her job to take care of her mother, is no fan of her current accommodations, which flood during the rainy season.” – The Washington Post (AP)
Overheard At LA’s Art Fairs
“I walk into the wrong entrance at the large industrial building hosting the Spring/Break Art Show. ‘Sorry!’ a young cheery Englishwoman at a desk tells me. ‘This is a dumpling-associates popup!’ I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more beautiful sentence.” – Hyperallergic
The Oscar Bump Was Real This Week For ‘Parasite’
Well, debate over, at least for films with subtitles: “The twisted South Korean thriller collected $5.5 million over the weekend, an exceptional 234% increase in ticket sales and the biggest post-Oscar boost for a best picture winner in the past decade.” (And that’s not including the massive overseas bump as well.) – Variety
The Royal Shakespeare Company Hires Its First Spanish Actor
David Luque, a 47-year-old actor from Madrid, has been working steadily in theatre for decades, starting when he was a student using the EU’s programs to study in Germany. But really, right as Brexit hits? He says, “The RSC is in an opening moment, breaking old schemes to try to reflect on the stage the diversity. … It may seem paradoxical at this time when Brexit has just taken place, although perhaps it is precisely the reaction of the art world.” – El País (Spain)
The NYT’s Classical Music Critic Hosts A House Concert
Zachary Woolfe: “For someone who’s never grown quite used to my late-night subway journey home after an opera, it was hard to turn down a performance that would take place a few steps from bed.” – The New York Times
The Photographer And The Photos Of A Ballerina Who’s 33 Weeks Pregnant
Photographer Sayuri Ichida and NY Theatre Ballet dancer Maya Oguri formed a fruitful artistic friendship – one that set the ballerina dancing in photos from across the city. That didn’t stop when the dancer got pregnant. – The Paris Review
Adding Back In The Workers That Art About Los Angeles So Often Forgets
For instance, David Hockney’s “splash” paintings created an idea of Los Angeles that was cool and secluded. Artist Ramiro Gomez imagines what was going on behind the scenes in No Splash – and other scenes of “cool” LA. “He creates these paintings more as questions than as heavy, social statements, using the words ‘subtle anger’ to explain his motivation. ‘I try to stay away from didactic work,’ he says. ‘I leave that to the activists. I’m trying to find the middle ground.'” – The Guardian (UK)
The Wedding Dress That Cost The Cooper Hewitt Director Her Job
In a reversal of fortune story that seems nigh-on impossible given certain trends in federal government, Caroline Baumann “was forced to resign as director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan last week following an investigation by the Smithsonian’s inspector general into potential problems regarding the procurement of the dress and the wedding space.” – The New York Times
Is E.L. James The Best Writer Of The Past 30 Years?
Or is it Barack Obama? How about Hilary Mantel? That’s right, all of them are squaring off in a new book prize in Britain. (But seriously: Who put the author of Fifty Shades of Grey on the same list as the author of Wolf Hall?) The British Book Awards “celebrate the best of writing and publishing: the books that defined their genre or launched a trend” (in which case, we’re pretty sure E.L. James is the actual winner here). – The Guardian (UK)
Taking Aim Against (Part Of) Amazon With A New Website
Can a new website help indie bookstores compete with the retail behemoth? The American Booksellers Association thinks so. “‘We believe that there are consumers who shop online and would choose to support indie bookstores if there were a visible and convenient alternative to Amazon and others,’ the ABA said when it announced its partnership with Bookshop last month.” – Forbes
What Philly Must Do To Preserve Its Jazz Legacy
A ton of Philadelphia jazz history – including John Coltrane’s house – is in dancer of disappearing. Property neglect, loss of institutional memory, gentrification by Temple University and unprotected development threaten several foundational spots in the city – but steps could be taken, were there someone to take them. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Inside The Sad, Sudden, Dramatic Demise Of The Marciano Art Foundation
Was it a dispute between art workers and ultra rich owners, a lack of attendance – or so much more? The shut-down “raises questions about the public benefit of private museums run by wealthy art collectors as foundations. Such establishments, often viewed by skeptics as vanity projects or tax shelters, have mushroomed in recent years.” – Los Angeles Times
The Young Star Of ‘Queen Of Katwe,’ Nikita Pearl Waligwa, Has Died At 15
Waligwa was diagnosed with a brain tumor the same year she starred in the movie with David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o. Oyelowo wrote on Instagram, “We mourn the loss of our beautiful Nikita Pearl Waligwa. … She was a ball of light in @queenofkatwemovie and in life. Her battle with a brain tumor was humbling to witness. Her light will live on.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Making Art So Big It Can’t Be Ignored
Jordan Casteel paints portraits – huge portraits. And that means something to her subjects. “‘I knew I wanted to use this opportunity to place my mom and I in the art historical canon,’ said Emmanuel Amoakohene, one of Ms. Casteel’s students, who posed with his mother in 2019. The scale of the radiant, seven-foot canvas, he said, ‘makes me feel like I matter.'” – The New York Times
Let’s Talk About This ‘Classical’ Architecture Thing, Strongmen, And Fascism
Dear United States, this isn’t new – but it is alarming. “For centuries, autocrats, authoritarians, and dictators have held a fascination with using architecture as a political tool to glorify their regimes, often while also dismissing modern architectural styles as lowbrow, cold, or weak. The current crop of far-right world leaders with authoritarian impulses is no different—and that now appears to include President Donald Trump.” – Slate
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Living At The Intersection Of Dance, Social Media, And Teenage Life
Who profits when a 14-year-old Black teenager creates a dance and shares it – and it goes viral? Not she.”TikTok, one of the biggest video apps in the world, has become synonymous with dance culture. Yet many of its most popular dances, including the Renegade, Holy Moly Donut Shop, the Mmmxneil and Cookie Shop have come from young black creators on myriad smaller apps.” – The New York Times
Elizabeth Cullinan, Who Helped Redefine Irish American Literature, Has Died At 86
Cullinan was hired as a typist at The New Yorker when she was 22, but soon the magazine started publishing her stories as well. “Ms. Cullinan helped redefine Irish-American literature, veering away from the male tradition of ‘ward bosses and henchmen, larger-than-life political fixers, tavern social life and father-son relationships,’ Patricia Coughlan, who taught Irish literature at University College Cork, wrote in a 2017 essay in The Irish Times.” – The New York Times
When Plays Explore Trauma, Performers Bear The Brunt Of The Pain
Especially during fringe festivals, playwrights are often performers, and because of the pressure of budget and time, they’re exploring their own experiences and pain. “Rawness can make for heady theatre – it can be exhilarating – but it can also leave you worrying about the psychological implications, the emotional toll.” – The Stage (UK)
Making Sense Of Through Tiny Nuggets Of Narrative
Tropes actually help us all make sense of the world (so writers, calm down; even trying to go against tropes is a trope of its own). Take a famous narrative of the late 1990s and early 2000s: “How do you make sense of something sprawling like Harry Potter? You divide it into digestible pieces. The Chosen One goes to a Wizarding School and forms a Power Trio. He’s opposed by the Evil Overlord who is Only Mostly Dead. The books get Darker and Edgier leading up to a Final Battle and a widely mocked Distant Finale.” – Slate
Two Men Broke Into A London Bookshop Intending To Rob It, But Then They Found The Prosecco
They found no cash, but there was alcohol. “Front and back windows at Gay’s the Word, which became the UK’s first gay bookshop when it was opened in 1979 and which featured in the film Pride, were smashed last Sunday. But after ransacking the shop and drinking a bottle of tequila left on the premises after a member of staff’s birthday, the burglars were caught by police in the store’s kitchen drinking prosecco.” – The Guardian (UK)
Nedda Casei, Mezzo-Soprano Who Became A Labor Leader, Has Died At 87
Casei “in the 1960s and ’70s could be reliably heard as Suzuki, Maddalena, Lola and other bread-and-butter mezzo-soprano characters at the Metropolitan Opera before transforming herself into a pathbreaking labor leader.” She performed at the Met for 20 years, starting with Maddalena in Rigoletto and ending as Larina in Eugene Onegin. Then she became president of the American Guild of Musical Artists – and she was a transformational labor leader for the performers’ union. – The New York Times
Can The Worldwide Vinyl Boom Recover From The Apollo Factory Fire?
A billion dollar industry dependent on one factory in California? That’s physical manufacturing, so perhaps not. The factory, where 75 percent of the world’s blank lacquers were made, burned in early February. “Pressing plants and mastering engineers are assessing the future. Some have expressed fear that the fire will disrupt the global production of new album releases and slow the seemingly endless supply of reissues that major labels churn out.” – Los Angeles Times
Checking In On (What’s Left Of) This Professional Writers Organization
After massive fallout from accusations of racism and pandering to a small (possibly racist) publisher, Nora Roberts weighing in on the homophobia of the organization, Twitter-led discoveries of years of lies and ignoring actual ethics violations, and numerous chapters resigning their memberships, you’d think things might be changing, but the Romance Writers of America continues to face consequences: The entire board (some of whom had been appointed by a president-elect at the center of the controversy, who resigned in January) just resigned. – Publishers Weekly
A.E. Hotchner, Writer And Co-Founder Of Newman’s Own, Has Died At 102
Hotchner was “a novelist, playwright, biographer, literary bon vivant and philanthropist whose life was shaped and colored by close friendships with two extraordinarily gifted and well-known men, Ernest Hemingway and Paul Newman.” – The New York Times
The New York Public Library Is Turning 125, And Here Are Its 125 Most Favorite Books
“The list is full of classics, of course, but it’s also got a few refreshing surprises in there.” – LitHub