How Photography Became The Definitive Record
In “A Chronology of Photography” photojournalist Paul Lowe and his contributors detail the medium’s swift progression from the purview of the scientists who invented it (noted astronomer John Herschel coined the term “photograph” in 1839, combining the Greek words for “light” and “drawing”) to its adoption by entrepreneurs who established thousands of photographic studios to meet the growing demand among members of the middle class for images of themselves, something previously available only to the wealthy. – Washington Post
Idaho Parents Demand Better Orchestra Program, Get It
The Pocatello school district had been struggling to provide instruction for the 400 students enrolled in orchestra programs, and proposed changes that would have made it even worse. Parents protested and the school district made changes. – Idaho State-Journal
Sociologist Nathan Glazer, 95
A longtime professor at Harvard University, Glazer, was among the last of the deeply-read thinkers who influenced culture and politics in the mid-20th century. Starting in the 1940s, Glazer was a writer and editor for Commentary and The New Republic. He was a co-editor of The Public Interest, and wrote or co-wrote numerous books. – Washington Post
Remembering The Simplicity Of Mary Oliver
Her work touched millions of people deeply, and not only those who consider themselves poets or poetry lovers. Oliver’s work managed to do something rare: It reached people who didn’t particularly like or “get” contemporary poetry. – Washington Post
The Power Of Theatre: “Hamilton” In Puerto Rico
In bringing “Hamilton” to Puerto Rico, Lin Manuel Miranda called international attention to the island’s progress and also to its daunting obstacles. The island, in return, projected both its hopes and its frustrations onto the show. – The New Yorker
Everything Is (Could Be) A Museum Now
Cassie Grimaldi imagines some new contenders, such as the Center for Translation Of Vague Posts: “At this research center, linguists will work to interpret vague social-media posts, past and present, interrogating concepts such as “Who is this subtweet about?”; “What does this away message with unsubtle emo lyrics indicate about its author’s life?”; and “What does the Facebook status ‘don’t ask!!!’ actually suggest?” People will flock to the center to view its coveted Rosetta Stone: an emoji tableau.” – The New Yorker
How Amazon Creates Instant Best-Sellers
To promote these works, it has tools other publishers can only dream about owning, including Amazon First Reads and Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s e-book subscription service. Together, they reach an estimated 10 million or more customers who can read offered titles with a few keystrokes. “They aren’t gaming the system,” literary agent Rick Pascocello said. “They own the system.” – The Wall Street Journal
The World’s Largest City Made Of Ice
Every winter the Harbin (China) Ice and Snow Festival assembles 200,000 blocks of ice to make a city. Millions come to see it. “The workers, most recruited from local villages, spend over a month each year cutting 3-foot-thick blocks of ice from the river and transporting them to the festival site, where they are sculpted and stacked by an even larger team of workers. Beginning before dawn and working through the day in temperatures that average -13 degrees Fahrenheit, the workers earn around $35 a day for some of the world’s most backbreaking labor.” – Wired
Time To Stop Saying The Digital Revolution Will Save Us
In the jungle of unresolved emotions, Digital promises something it can’t keep: The right partner. Endless choices. The best friends. Even better friends somewhere out there. The Internet amplifies the Nervousness of our social lives on all levels — privately, socially, politically, economically. The result: Our current reality of constant shitstorms, outrage, conspiracy theories, populism and overall pessimism. The Web can do a lot of things, but it can’t hug you, it can’t heal you, it can’t connect on a human level — unless we are already connected in the analog world. – Medium
Wonder Why Movies Get So Much Science Wrong?
Like, there are actual scientific rules that you can’t just break. So why not just ask some real, ya know, scientists? It turns out sometimes producers do, but it’s not exactly a glamorous job. – Wired
The Daunting Task Of Preserving Auschwitz
In the museum’s storage areas and display rooms, there are some 3,800 suitcases, along with 5,000 toothbrushes and 110,000 shoes and shoe remnants. There are also mountains of human hair, prosthetic limbs, eyeglasses and other things left behind by the prisoners. It all amounts to a huge number of artifacts given the museum’s storage capacity — but relative to the vast number of victims, it isn’t much. – Der Spiegel
Portland For Dance (No, Really)
In the past few years numerous choreographers and dancers have moved to the city. There’s space and audiences. And now there’s an interesting dance scene. – Oregon Arts Watch
New Technology Coming Soon Will Fact Check Politicians In Real Time
Duke University researchers have developed the software. The new app for TV uses databases from Politifact and FactCheck.org to check statements made on live TV. – Washington Post (AP)
Report: UK Publishing Industry Workforce Fails To Reflect The Population
The industry has failed to represent the working population of the capital, and continues to fail to connect with regions outside London. “The report shows we have a passionate industry full of people who are having to move away from their homes across the country in order to work in books – but we’ve also neglected to include the local population.” – The Guardian (UK)
Netflix Spent $12 Billion On Video In 2018. It’s Only Going Up From There
After paying $15 billion for a “sustained ramp in its original content slate in ’19,” Netflix’s cash content spend growth will “moderate” in the years ahead, BMO Capital Markets analyst Daniel Salmon said in a research note. He anticipates Netflix’s content spending will hit $17.8 billion in 2020. – Variety
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Did The People Around Robert Indiana Kidnap His “Brand” Before He Died?
It certainly looks that way. And now there are some recent sculptures (and ideas) that might need taking back… – The New York Times
Are Some Ideas Too Extreme To Be Expressed?
Which beliefs exactly should be judged as “out of bounds”—and who gets to be the referee? How wide is the circle of ideas that are not even worthy of discussion? Such questions are themselves open to debate, and the judgments we make about them in particular cases will tend to be provisional. Still, this is preferable to the alternative. For there is a growing cost to pretending we’ve arrived at a settled consensus about their answers, or to denying that they are even real questions. – The Point
Why Would Writers Sign Morality Clauses For Twitter?
“Off the top of my head, too-hot-to-handle topics now include anything to do with gender, sex, race, immigration, disability, social class, obesity and Islam (surely that list is too short). Writers who sign contracts with morality clauses would naturally shy from expressing views that depart from the dominant political orthodoxy, lest whole manuscripts be rejected and their advances be withdrawn.” – The Spectator
A Bad Idea Backed By Philosophy (Is Still A Bad Idea)
Sometimes philosophers argue for conclusions far outside the domain of ‘respectable’ positions; conclusions that could be hijacked by those with intolerant, racist, sexist or fundamentalist beliefs to support their stance. – Aeon
How Performing Arts Centers Are Evolving For The 21st Century
‘We really see that we have a role in creating pathways for creative people who are local and who are in the community to create work, have their ideas and get their work onto a stage – pathways for their work to find its way out into the wider world. And then the other way is pathways into this region, bringing work from the rest of the world to Geelong to keep us excited about what the arts are. That’s one of the ways that we’re starting to think about it for ourselves.’ – ArtsHub
Playwright Ishmael Reed’s Problems With “Hamilton”
It’s a global phenomenon, and people ask me, “Why take on a global phenomenon?” You know what else is a global phenomenon? Gone With the Wind. I think Hamilton is probably the biggest consumer fraud since The Blair Witch Project. – The Observer (UK)
The Mister Rogers Phenomenon
“When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see, or hear, or touch. That deep part of you, that allows you to stand for those things, without which humankind cannot survive.” – New York Review of Books
Generational Change: Regional Theatre Pioneer Emily Mann Leaves McCarter
Mann didn’t just lead Princeton’s $23 million theatre from a respected regional outpost to a Tony-winning incubator of new work and new talent. While there she also built on an already ground-breaking career as a documentary-play creator and feminist director to create signature American works as Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. Her stamp is on not only generations of theatre artists but creative administrators as well. – American Theatre
Is It Problematic To Present All-Male Plays?
White, black, young and old: this is what an inclusive theatre looks like. That is absolutely what theatre should aspire to, but it does not mean that works of art should not tell stories that are rooted in specific communities. – The Stage
Boy With Allergy Denied Enrollment In Theatre Program, Igniting Conflict Over Access
The conflict that ensued over how the theater could accommodate Mason Wicks-Lim’s allergy eventually grew into a legal battle that created a rift in the community, highlighting the social struggles that people with food allergies often contend with, even as they fight for equal access. – The New York Times