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Carol Brightman, The Chronicler Of The Dead, Has Died At 80
Brightman first published an acclaimed biography of Mary McCarthy, and edited the letters between Hannah Arendt and McCarthy, before she started to become fascinated by the world of the Grateful Dead and the band’s fans. “‘Deadheads are everywhere and nowhere,’ she wrote, ‘so much a part of American life as to appear almost invisible.’” – […]
Nan Goldin Leads A Die-In At London’s V&A Over The Sackler Courtyard’s Name
Goldin joined another group at the protest: “About 30 protesters arrived at the recently redesigned £2m entrance in Kensington, London, and placed bottles of pills and ‘Oxy dollar’ bills stained red on the handmade porcelain tile flooring. … To a steady drum beat, the campaigners called out the slogans ‘Sackler money, blood money’ and ‘Abandon […]
Disney Spent A Lot Of Money And A Quarter-Century Getting The Internet Wrong
Kara Swisher has been writing about companies and the internet for even longer than Disney has been trying to figure out how to deal with the contemporary world. Swisher: “Forget the dashing Mandalorian. Do you remember Starwave? Infoseek? Go? Daily Blast? Spoonful.com? Club Penguin? Tapulous? Maker Studios? I’d like to say I don’t either, but […]
The Neurological Connections Between Gorgeous Landscapes And Our Relentless Desire To Photograph Them
There’s a bit of a problem: At least one study has shown that we remember less about the places and things we photograph. Going outside can combat our phone addictions and calm our brains … but there’s an issue. “Your cortisol levels may decrease when traveling in Banff National Park, but they’ll still increase every […]
George Takei Says He Spent Way Too Much Money On The Broadway Musical ‘Allegiance’
But, he says, it was worth getting the info about the U.S’s WWII Japanese American camps into wider view. And he explains he’d invite all of his colleagues from Star Trek to dinner with him … “with one exception.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Trash Pirates Of Art (And Music Festivals)
There are festivals just about all of the time now, and that means there’s waste. “Garbage has long been the uncomfortable fallout of the festival world, and as these gatherings multiply like glow sticks at a Phish concert, stretching the season into a year-round party (hola, Costa Rica), its impact has roused young artists and activists.” – The New […]
The Dismal Art: Economics Seems To Have Detached From Reality. So Why Does Anyone Listen?
Mainstream economists nowadays might not be particularly good at predicting financial crashes, facilitating general prosperity, or coming up with models for preventing climate change, but when it comes to establishing themselves in positions of intellectual authority, unaffected by such failings, their success is unparalleled. – New York Review of Books
Michael Kaiser’s Prescription For Saving The Baltimore Symphony
“I do not believe in board retreats,” Kaiser said. “I believe we make a mistake by trying to engage everyone equally in developing a quality plan. Good plans are not written by committees. Good plans are vetted by committees. – Baltimore Sun
Will The New Streaming Landscape Help Or Hurt The Movies?
“Abundance can be its own kind of scarcity. Without a sense of occasion, without the idea that a given experience is special, even rare, all experiences become equivalent, and our attention follows the path of least resistance.” – The New York Times
City Of Seattle Is Reorganizing Support For A “Creative Cluster.” Movie And Music Unions Aren’t Happy
Seattle is losing music and movie production. The City is “reorganizing” its film and music office into a a larger office that broadens the definition of creative industries to software and gaming. Workers in the film and music industries say they fear support for their work will diminish. – Crosscut
Fans And The False Intimacy Of Podcasts
All across the podcast realm, from the heights of self-help to the depths of true crime, imagined relationships are blossoming. Listeners may press play for the content, but many of them eventually come to nurture something like a one-way friendship with the hosts. – New York Times Magazine
‘She Walks Like A Bird, But That Bird Is A Duck’ — Loie Fuller, The Unlikely Dance Superstar Of Fin-De-Siècle Paris
Offstage, she was a dumpy little frump of a Midwestern girl who lived openly with her mother and her female lover. Onstage, she was “la fée éléctricité,” who manipulated with sewn-in rods a gown made of massive lengths of white silk to create natural images and fantastical shapes under rotating colored spotlights — an act […]
Anish Kapoor: On The Artist’s Voice
“So there are two different things that happen. One is, this is what I am as an artist. I have nothing to say as an artist. I let the work do its thing. The other is, of course I have a voice, and I will use it as best I can, and fight for causes […]
After One Week Of Freedom, Turkish Author Ahmet Altan Is Re-Arrested
The court that had sentenced Altan, along with his brother and one colleague, to ten years in prison (on a charge of assisting the attempted 2016 coup that many believe was trumped-up) ordered them released under supervision last week. But the chief prosecutor appealed that decision, and police promptly went to detain Altan again. – […]
Idagio Launches Free Classical Music Service
The Berlin-based startup says the free tier will prominently feature its ‘Mood Player,’ which generates a playlist based on a person’s selected mood, as well as playlists curated by staff or well-known artists, including Lang Lang. There are also radio stations specific to composers and artists. – Billboard
‘Setting Us Up To Fail’: More Than One-Quarter Of Australia’s Arts Organizations To Lose Federal Funding
This week is the application deadline for the next four-year round (2021-24) of Australia Council for the Arts funding for small-to-medium organizations, a category which includes all groups but the largest (such as Opera Australia, the Australian Ballet, and the state capitals’ major symphony orchestras and theatre companies). Hundreds of those organizations have already been […]
Disney+ Is Attaching Warnings To Its Classic Movies About “Outdated Cultural Depictions”
Users of the service have seen the warnings attached to some of the company’s best-known animated films, such as Dumbo, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp, with text that reads: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.” – The Guardian
The Latest Jobs Program For Actors? Anti-Sexual Harassment Training Videos
“New or expanded laws mandating sexual harassment training in states like New York and California, as well as a nationwide awakening to a very real problem, have fostered a market for workplace training videos and for actors who can bring #MeToo to life, usually in roles lasting just a minute or two.” – The New […]
A Theory About Being A Jerk (Yes, We’re Talking About You)
“No one is as right about everything as the jerk thinks he is. He would learn by listening. And one of the things he might learn is the true scope of his jerkitude.” – Lithub
Using Aroma As A Stage Effect
“From at least the late 19th century, when David Belasco had actors cook and brew coffee on stage to heighten the realism of domestic scenes, to recent efforts to evoke a piney forest or the tang of gunpowder, directors have tried to involve an audience’s olfactory sense to intensify their experience. In his screen-to-stage adaptation […]
Urban Dictionary Has Become A Research Tool, A Legal Resource, And Sometimes Even A Style Arbiter
Writer Christine Ro gives an overview of the ways the crowdsourced slang dictionary, now 20 years old (ancient in internet terms), is being used by (among others) linguists and sociologists, state DMVs, and attorneys and judges. (Then there was the time IBM tried using Urban Dictionary as a data set to feed the famous AI […]
Mo’Nique Sues Netflix For Gender And Racial Discrimination Over Lowball Pay Offer
The Oscar-winning actress and comedienne alleges in her court filing that, in offering her $500,000 as a talent fee for a stand-up comedy special, the company “offered or paid [Chris] Rock, [Dave] Chappelle, [Ellen] DeGeneres, and [Ricky] Gervais forty (40) times more per show … and it offered [Amy] Schumer twenty-six (26) times more per […]
New Prize For Arts And Social Activism To Be Named For Lena Horne
The Lena Horne Prize for Artists Creating Social Impact, sponsored by the Town Hall in New York City, “will recognize those who ‘promote awareness and create social change.’ The inaugural winner will be honored in February. The recipient will receive a $100,000 donation to be directed to a charity of their choice.” – Yahoo! (AP)
Detroit Symphony To Give Free Instrument And Lessons To Any Detroit Child Who Wants Them
“Detroit Harmony, as the project is called, represents a bid to dramatically expand music education throughout the city, one that hopefully will generate demand for an entirely new workforce of music teachers and craftsmen to repair and refurbish used instruments. … [The program] will be open to any K-12 student in public, private and charter […]
Attempt To Steal Rembrandt Paintings Stopped By Police
“One or more intruders broke in to Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London late on Wednesday and removed two paintings from the Rembrandt’s Light exhibition. Police were called and following a search of the area officers challenged a suspect running from the scene. … Neither painting left the gallery grounds and remain in the gallery’s […]