Today’s Stories
Rethinking (And Reinvesting In) Our Public Spaces
While the pandemic has revealed the power of our shared public spaces, it has also magnified enormous disparities in quality and access to them. Demand has outstripped supply, in some cases leaving beaches and parks packed with more people than social distancing guidelines allow. – Medium
Pointe Shoes: A Brief History
“With their ability to elevate a dancer both literally and metaphorically to a superhuman realm, [they] are the ultimate symbol of a ballerina’s ethereality and hard work. … The shoes carry an almost mystical allure: They’re an endless source of lore and ritual, with tips, tricks and stories passed down over generations. [Here’s] how a delicately darned slipper introduced in the 1820s has transformed into a technical tool that offers dancers the utmost freedom onstage today.” – Pointe Magazine
Abstract Art Can Changes Your Mindset: Study
Looking at non-representational art tends to induce what’s called “psychological distance.” As one of the lead researchers put it, “This means that art has an effect on our general cognitive state, that goes beyond how much we enjoy it, to change the way we perceive events and make decisions.” – Inverse
All The Flags Now At NYC’s Rockefeller Center Were Custom-Designed By Artists (Some Of Them Quite Famous)
“Hundreds of New Yorkers submitted proposals earlier this year to design eight-by-five-foot flags. This past Saturday, the 192 winning designs were unfurled on the [flagpoles] surrounding the plaza’s ice rink. In addition to the open call, 13 well-known artists” — among them Laurie Anderson, Faith Ringgold, KAWS, Marina Abramović, Hank Willis Thomas, Jenny Holzer, Sanford Biggers, Sarah Sze, and Carmen Herrera — “were also commissioned to create flags.” – Artnet
‘Not To Put Any Pressure On You, But The Entire American Theater Is Depending On You To Be Really Smart’
That’s what Actors’ Equity president Kate Shindle said (via video call) to the cast of the Berkshire Theater Group’s Godspell, the first live-with-audience musical Equity has approved since COVID struck the U.S. Michael Paulson reports on the elaborate measures the production has in place, onstage and off. As Shindle put it, “People are going to look to you to know that theater can happen without anybody getting sick.” – The New York Times
An App For Serialized Novels Draws Tens Of Millions In Investment Dollars
“Radish, which has offices in Seoul and New York, says it has seen significant revenue growth since its 2016 launch, and that it has produced more than 6,500 episodes across 30 original series. Genres currently available on the app include romance and paranormal/sci-fi, but growth is planned for the LGBTQ, young adult, horror, mystery and thriller categories.” – Deadline
Eric Bentley, One Of 20th-Century Theatre’s Most Important Critics, Dead At 103
“[He] was among that select breed of scholar who moves easily between academic and public spheres. His criticism found its way into classroom syllabuses and general-interest magazines. And more than dissecting others’ plays, he also wrote his own and had some success as a director. He adapted work by many of the European playwrights he prized, especially Bertolt Brecht, whom he first met in Los Angeles in 1942.” – The New York Times
England’s Theatres Reeling As Christmas Pantos Get Cancelled
“Dozens of pantomimes across the land have been cancelled or postponed due to uncertainty about easing lockdown restrictions for theatres. … Though it is only August, pantos take months to prepare and many venues and producers have been unable to commit to spending money on shows that might be scrapped.” Local theatres depend on these holiday shows every bit as much as American ballet companies depend on Nutcracker — and so do local communities. – The Guardian
UK Report: TV Watching Surged During Lockdown
Its annual study into UK media habits suggested adults – many stuck indoors – spent 40% of their waking hours in front of a screen, on average. Time spent on subscription streaming services also doubled during April. At the height of lockdown, adults spent an average of six hours and 25 minutes each day staring at screens. Screen time overall was up almost a third (31%) on last year. – BBC
Stripped-Down Salzburg Festival Opens
While the 2020 Salzburg Festival may not have such a global audience, it has commanded the world’s attention by forging ahead against all odds. New regulations notwithstanding — including compulsory masks, half-full theaters and no intermissions — it often felt like business as usual: a bustling festival for a wealthy and elegant audience amid the grandeur of the Alpine landscape. – The New York Times
Can Neil Young Really Win A Lawsuit Against Trump Playing His Music At Rallies?
“If he has withdrawn those two particular songs from BMI’s political license program, then the Trump administration does not have a license to play them at a political rally and they have a good case that they will more likely win.” – Rolling Stone
Virtuosity Doesn’t Mean Playing Lots Of Notes
You don’t think minimalists can be virtuosos? Tell it to Ernest Hemingway. Tell it to Thelonious Monk. Tell it to the Japanese calligrapher who spends his entire life perfecting a straight line, or drawing a flawless circle. – https://psyche.co/ideas/true-musical-virtuosos-are-minimalists-who-put-roll-before-rockPsyche
Tracing The Ancient Art Of Bullshit
If we want to trace bullshit back to its origins, we have to look a lot further back than any human civilization. Bullshit has its origins in deception more broadly, and animals have been deceiving one another for hundreds of millions of years. – Lithub
Seattle Children’s Museum In Turmoil Over Black Lives Matter Post
Staff posted to social media but the museum’s director later deleted “Black Lives Matter” from the posts. Some museum staff went on strike, and then were laid off. – The New York Times
Disney Posts A Near $5 Billion Loss In Q2
The Burbank entertainment giant posted a net loss of $4.72 billion for the three months that ended in June, Disney said Tuesday. That’s compared with the $1.43 billion in net income the company reported for the same period in 2019. – Los Angeles Times
Premium Classifieds
J.S. Bach: The Six Solo Cello Suites Performed by Wendy Sutter
Sunday, August 23 Perspectives Ensemble presents a two-part event: J.S. Bach: The Six Solo Cello Suites Performed by Wendy Sutter Part I: 3pm EDT (Suites 1-3) and Part II: 6pm EDT (Suites 4-6) … [Read More...]
Golden Thread Productions Hiring New Executive Artistic Director
Golden Thread Productions is seeking a new Executive Artistic Director to follow in the footsteps of Founding Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian. Established in 1996, Golden Thread Productions is … [Read More...]
The World’s New Favorite Refugee Writer Tries To Get Comfortable With Freedom And Fame
Far from his native Kurdish village, escaped from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, now released from the Australian internment camp in Papua New Guinea where he wrote his award-winning No Friend but the Mountains on a cell phone, Behrouz Boochani has received asylum in New Zealand and is settled in safe, pretty, tranquil Christchurch, where most Kiwis seem thrilled to have him. It’s driving him a little nuts. – The New York Times Magazine
Report: Hollywood Has A Problem With Chinese Censorship
“Beijing has sent a clear message to the filmmaking world, that filmmakers who criticize China will be punished, but that those who play ball with its censorship strictures will be rewarded,” proclaims the hard hitting “Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing” report. – Deadline
Washington Post’s Theater Critic Ends Up With A Hairdressing Degree (What Twitter Hath Wrought, Part MMMDCLXII)
Peter Marks: “Some people warn that you enter the bilious environs of social media at your peril. But I say, power up your device and be Zen about whatever transpires. Because you just might innocently scroll down one morning and end up with an honorary doctorate in hairdressing from a large chain of salons in Ireland.” – The Washington Post
Call For More Transparency In Choosing Public Art
“There is a cultural revolution happening in the United States, and people are realizing that they have the power to be more engaged with how public art is decided,” explained Patricia Walsh, who helps run the Public Art Network, a membership group of more than a thousand public art professionals organized by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts. “Best practices need to be reinvented to become more equitable and diverse.” – ARTnews
Everyone’s A Copy Editor In This New Card Game For Word Nerds
“The game involves some role playing. If you use only the Grammar cards, the dealer is called the Copy Chief, as in ‘The Copy Chief shuffles the fifty Grammar cards.’ If you mix in the Style cards, the dealer is the Author, the players are Copy Editors … and the deck is huge.” New Yorker Comma Queen Mary Norris writes about Stet!, a spinoff from Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer’s 2019 book Dreyer’s English. – The New Yorker
Pete Hamill, The Ultimate New York Newspaperman, Dead At 85
“[He] became a celebrated reporter, columnist and the top editor of The New York Post and The Daily News; a foreign correspondent for The Post and The Saturday Evening Post; and a writer for New York Newsday, The Village Voice, Esquire and other publications. He wrote a score of books, mostly novels but also biographies, collections of short stories and essays, and screenplays, some adapted from his books.” – The New York Times
The Forgotten Black Musician Who Helped Create Bossa Nova
João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim were just two of many Brazilian musicians who considered pianist-singer-composer Johnny Alf a genius and his “Rapaz de Bem” the first bossa nova song. So why isn’t he as famous as they are? Racism was certainly a factor, but not the only one. – The New York Times
Why ‘Norma Rae’ Is, After 41 Years, As Relevant As Ever
What remains powerful, writes Naomi Fry, is “the movie’s suggestion that no struggle can take place alone. Norma Rae is heroic, but she comes into her own, as a woman, because she is fighting for class solidarity — a struggle that, in turn, could not happen without a breaking down of long-standing ethnic and racial barriers.” – The New Yorker
Installation Art As Big Business Proposition (Think Of Kusama Infinity Rooms, But For Profit)
“Superblue, as [the venture] is called, will open a series of experiential art centers (EACs for short) that won’t sell precious objects, as conventional galleries do. They’ll present art experiences: deep dives into all-encompassing works by such artists as JR, the French photographer who focuses on issues like migration, displacement and imprisonment; and James Turrell, the celebrated Light and Space artist.” What are they selling? Tickets, of course. – The New York Times
Even The ‘Veep’ Showrunner Says Trump’s Axios Interview Outdid ‘Veep’
David Mandel: “At the end of the day, this is why we ended the show. … Sometimes I have the horrible thought of if we had filmed a show last fall that was supposed to be on right now, and between when we were done filming and began editing, the pandemic and all of this stuff happened. I think you’d have to throw the show in the garbage.” – The Washington Post