“I have a big problem with library technology. Let’s be honest, all libraries do! Mainly, the problem is… it sucks. Most of the time our tech already doesn’t work right, somebody decides to break it, and then we don’t have the money to fix anything.”
Archives for September 2018
The Gutenberg Bible Was An Information Revolution That Changed The World
The first printed Old and New Testaments, reproduced in this new Taschen facsimile edition in two folio volumes, marked a cultural turning point, which was to shape religious controversies and political crises and conflicts throughout the following centuries. The production was technically complex and required an extraordinary amount of careful labour, which included setting 42 lines of text per page, consuming 2,500 bits of type, drawn from a font of 300 distinctive pieces.
The Senate Judiciary Committee – A Tale Of Two Internets
If you are liberal—and in this political climate, we’re calling readers of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN liberals—you went on the internet this morning and saw a flood of #BelieveWomen tweets and women talking about how Blasey Ford’s testimony moved them to tears. But if you are conservative, you went on the internet today and saw a deluge of #BackBrett tweets, a great deal about flying, and a lot of lamenting.
San Francisco Theatres Fight In Court Over Who Gets To Stage ‘Harry Potter’ And ‘Evan Hansen’
“Nederlander of San Francisco, which operates that city’s Orpheum and Golden Gate theaters, this week asked a judge to prevent an ally-turned-rival, the producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, from staging the shows” — Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Dear Evan Hansen — “at the nearby Curran Theater, which she owns and has lavishly restored and ambitiously programmed.”
How “Hair” Changed Theatre In London Fifty Years Ago
Prior to the autumn of 1968, any reference to homosexuality, bisexuality and nude performances would have been considered too outrageous to be shown on a British stage. Even something as seemingly harmless as a reference to Walt Whitman’s poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, in John Osborne’s play Personal Enemy, was banned because it was seen as a codified reference to homosexuality.
The New Literary Star From (Of All Places) Greenland
“Nordic noir, Scandinavia’s best-known cultural export, mixes violent crime and political intrigue. The climate is savage, the characters terse and there aren’t many laughs. Instead, you get snow, secrets, abuse, alcohol and some pretty ragged writing. Niviaq Korneliussen’s debut novel is completely different.”
Canadian History Isn’t Boring, It’s Just The Way It’s Told…
“The way that a lot of our history in Canada is curated, it seems that it’s the same types of histories that are repeated over and over again, and then there are other histories that we never hear about. So we have to start questioning and looking at that critically, of why we’re hearing some things and not others.”
When A Public Radio Pro Turns To Solo Podcasting (And Wonders If He’s Going Insane)
Public radio fans may remember Scott Carrier from his segments (many involving long road trips) on This American Life. In 2015, he switched to podcasting, reporting and producing the series The Home of the Brave with funding provided solely by listeners. Barrett Golding, who co-founded with Carrier the Peabody Award-winning NPR project Hearing Voices, talks with him about the transition to solo work and everything that it takes (and takes out of you).
Does Banned Book Week Serve Any Purpose?
Are we winning any converts with this annual orgy of self-righteousness? The rhetoric of Banned Books Week is pitched at such a fervent level that crucial distinctions are burned away by the fire of our moral certainty, which is an ill that wide reading should cure not exacerbate. And what books are actually, effectively “banned” in the United States nowadays? The titles on the Top 10 Most Challenged list, in fact, sell hundreds of thousands of copies every year. How many authors would kill to be “challenged” like that?
In Which Bradley Cooper Makes A Journalist Question All The Premises Behind Celebrity Profiles
Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrestles in print with the actor’s famous reluctance to discuss his personal life (after having wrestled with Cooper himself over it during the interview) — and comes to understand (after several thousand words) that “he was just telling me that I’m asking the wrong questions.”
New Discoveries Change What We Know About Mayan Civilization
Combing through the scans, Mary Jane Acuña and her colleagues, an international 18-strong scientific team, tallied 61,480 structures. These included: 60 miles of causeways, roads and canals that connected cities; large maize farms; houses large and small; and, surprisingly, defensive fortifications that suggest the Maya came under attack from the west of Central America. “We were all humbled.”
Why We Should Stop Trying To Justify The Arts (And Their Funding) With Measurable Data
“Underlying the development of quality metrics seems to be the question: ‘Are the arts justified?’ In other words, we are looking for evidence. This is the opening the quantifiers of the world need. Witness the attempts to find the value of the arts in their instrumental benefits to society, to the economy and to things like cognitive development. Not that these things can’t or shouldn’t be measured. It is just that they are not the reasons for art to exist. No child ever picked up a paintbrush to benefit the economy.”
Cultural Districts — How Can We Ensure They’re Not Run For The Few?
“Who gets to decide how cultural districts – areas of a city with a concentration of cultural production and consumption – are designed and run? How do you ensure the right voices are heard: artists and cultural organisations, citizens and civil society groups, property developers and corporates, and urban planners and authorities? Whose interests should districts seek to serve, for what purpose, and how is the appropriate balance of power maintained?” Global Cultural Districts Network director Beatrice Pembroke offers some ideas.
Filmmaker Todd Solondz Brings His Jet-Black Humor To The Stage
As A.O. Scott once noted of the man behind Welcome to the Dollhouse and Wiener-Dog, “We don’t turn to Mr. Solondz for warm affirmations of human decency.” Elisabeth Vincentelli talks to Solondz about his debut as a playwright and stage director, Emma and Max.
Teens Are Using Dance To Protest School Shootings
“Tackling social justice causes has typically been the territory of mature dance artists and brainy college students. Not anymore. This year, teenage dancers throughout the country have started getting involved to highlight an issue that directly affects them in the worst way possible: gun violence. And they’re doing it through dance.” Jennifer Stahl presents some examples.
With The Merger Of PRI And PRX, What’s Coming Next?
“Behind the scenes, executives are reviewing departments and evaluating staffers’ expertise to determine ‘the most efficient merger’ and to ‘match people to the right roles based on our priorities,’ said Kerri Hoffman, the former PRX CEO who holds the same position in the new entity. … The merger, announced last month, will also bring a combined board, free services for stations, and new experiments with PRI’s The World, the network’s flagship newsmagazine.”
Can You Mix Bach And Community Engagement? Yo-Yo Ma Can
“Over the next two years, he will visit 36 cities — winking at the fact that each of the six [Bach cello] suites has six sections — on six continents. In each city, he will pair a performance of the full cycle … with what he’s calling a ‘day of action’ that brings Bach into the community. It’s a small and glancing, but also deeply felt, attempt to suggest that this music, with its objectivity and empathy, its breathless energy and delicate grace, could, if heard closely by enough people, change the world.”
How A Pioneering Woman In Silicon Valley Became A Classical Music Philanthropist
“The Chamber Music Society (CMS) of Lincoln Center recently received a $5 million gift from Ann S. Bowers of Palo Alto, earmarked for its CMS Two residency program, which develops the next generation of young musicians. … Bowers’ gift is the largest individual gift in the society’s 48-year history. If that wasn’t newsworthy enough, consider the source of the gift. Bowers has the distinction of being the first woman to hold a vice president title in Silicon Valley while working for Apple. In a giving space where tech donors remain less than enthusiastic about the arts, Bowers’ gift is a notable outlier — and an encouraging one.”
Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Budget-Cutting Pays Off
“The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, which two years ago had to cut costs after reporting a $200,000 operating deficit, posted its second consecutive year with a surplus, … thanks in part to cutting more than $500,000 in expenses compared with the previous season. The company also reported less revenue, taking in $268,689 less than the 2016-17 season, thanks to a shortened touring schedule.”
Art Dealer Sentenced To 18 Months In Prison For Fraud
“Ezra Chowaiki, who was the face of Chowaiki & Co. Fine Art Ltd. on Park Avenue before its bankruptcy last year, … ripped off at least a half dozen art dealers with sham transactions in which some victims were led to believe they were buying stakes in fine art earmarked for quick resale. Other victims left works at his gallery on consignment and never got them back.”
Pussy Riot’s Pyotr Verzilov Released From Berlin Hospital After Suspected Poisoning
Verzilov, who took part in the protest at the World Cup final and runs an independent news website in Russia, was rushed to the hospital on Sept. 11 after losing his ability to see, speak, and walk and was later airlifted to Berlin for specialized treatment. Doctors says there are now no traces of toxins in his system but that poisoning is the most likely explanation for his illness; Verzilov believes he was poisoned by the GRU (military intelligence agency).
21 Years After Fire Nearly Destroyed It, Turin’s Chapel Of The Shroud Reopens
“A masterpiece of Baroque architecture, designed by the mathematician priest Guarino Guarini, it was commissioned in 1668 by the Savoy ducal family … The origin of the fire that raged throughout the night of 11 April 1997 remains a mystery. It burned especially fiercely because the chapel, which had just been restored, was still full of wooden scaffolding.”
At This Theatre, Every Show This Season Is Directed By A Woman
When Anna Bergmann became the director of the playhouse at the Badisches State Theater in the German city of Karlsruhe, “her first major decision … was downright radical: Tired of hearing that theaters would like to hire female directors but could find few, she said she wanted women to lead most of the productions during her first season at the helm. The State Theater’s general director … proposed going further: Why not exclusively use female directors, for once?”
Misty Copeland: Instagram Is Bringing People To Dance
“I’ve connected with the most people using Instagram’s platform,” she said. “I just think that it allows people who may have felt intimidated — or they didn’t belong in [spaces] like the Metropolitan Opera House — it kind of gives them a view into my world.”
Is Firing NY Review Of Books Editor A Chilling Of Intellectual Courage?
Laura Kipness: “Allocution is a tough genre. But even when the account is disingenuous and self-pitying, I’m interested in what the accused have to say for themselves, including those I think are guilty and despicable and who haven’t learned the proper lessons from their crimes. One of the reasons we read prison literature is because we’re all guilty and despicable. One of the reasons we read literature as such is to know what it’s like to be a criminal, a coward, a refugee, a pariah. In other words, human. Something significant was lost last week.”