Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, attracts an average of 30 million visitors a day, and its users watched more than one trillion minutes of content last year, according to the company. – The New York Times
Archives for 2021
Has The Jazz Scene Survived The Pandemic?
The tentative return of gigs could not have come soon enough for jazz performers. A 2008 study on the economics of the genre found that 49% of jazz musicians’ income came from live performances. – The Guardian
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s New ‘Cinderella’ Could Start Performances Despite Extension Of UK Shutdown
Declaring “Come to the theatre and arrest us,” Lord Lloyd Webber vowed last week to reopen all his West End venues at full audience capacity on June 21, “come hell or high water.” At the beginning of this week, with caseloads of the Delta variant of COVID rising, Boris Johnson postponed the lifting of theatre restrictions from the 21st until at least July 19. Even so, Johnson and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden have offered to make Cinderella part of a pilot scheme of public performances in the next few weeks — but Lloyd Webber doesn’t want to participate if the plan doesn’t involve the entire industry. – The Daily Mail (UK)
Literary Novelists Rediscover Historical Fiction
As students of history know, fashions ebb and flow; it’s increasingly clear that the historical novel is being embraced and reinvented. – The New York Times
More Evidence That Jane Austen Was Probably Anti-Slavery
“Austen’s personal values — namely, whether she supported slavery — have been debated by literary enthusiasts and experts who read her work like a cipher. A new discovery [reveals that her] brother Henry was sent as a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840.” What’s more, one of Austen’s letters “mentions her love of the work of Thomas Clarkson, an abolitionist author.” – CNN
How “In The Heights” Made NYC’s Streets Dance
The last time I felt such a sense of release watching dancers spill onto the streets in a movie was in “Fame.” – The New York Times
‘Miniature Pompeii’ Unearthed Under Derelict Movie House In Verona
“Construction workers renovating an abandoned cinema in the northern Italian city of Verona have stumbled upon what’s been dubbed a ‘miniature Pompeii’ during excavations of the building’s basement. The ancient site was probably abandoned after a fire, but ‘the environment was preserved intact, with the magnificent colors of the frescoed walls dating back to the second century,'” said the local preservation authority. – Artnet
Why NYC Was Such A Creative Time For Music In The 1980s
“It was still a gritty city, before gentrification really took over. Artists could afford to live in the city – they didn’t have to scramble to make rent, so they could concentrate on their work. You could afford to experiment.” – The Guardian
COVID’s Toll On Argentina’s Tango Scene Has Been Heavy
“The empty, dark dance floor at the Viruta Tango Club is a symbol of the pandemic-induced crisis facing dancers and musicians of an art form known for close physical contact and exchanging partners. … Equally damaging has been the closing of borders, preventing the arrival of tourists, the main source of financing for the local tango industry. Tango tours abroad have also been canceled as Argentina continues to suffer high coronavirus caseloads more than a year after the pandemic began.” – AP
The “Other” Brains In Our Bodies
We get constant messages about what’s going on inside our bodies, sensations we can either attend to or ignore. And we belong to tribes that cosset and guide us. Still, we “insist that the brain is the sole locus of thinking. – The New York Times
Will Paris Supplant London As Europe’s Art Capital?
It could indeed happen. Christie’s is owned by François Pinault, CEO of luxury-goods conglomerate Kering (which includes, among others Yves Saint-Laurent and Gucci) and major art collector; French media magnate Patrick Drahi purchased Sotheby’s two years ago; mega-collector and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault (a rival to Jeff Bezos for the title of world’s richest man) is based in the city as well. New museums and commercial galleries keep opening in the French capital — which is, of course, home to the world’s most visited museum, the Louvre. And then there’s Brexit. – ARTnews
Fire Destroys One Of US’s Leading Organ Makers
Sparks from a malfunctioning fan appear to have ignited sawdust at the factory of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City, Iowa on Tuesday afternoon, starting a fire that consumed almost everything but part of the exterior walls. Among the instruments Dobson is best known for are the organs at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and Merton College, Oxford; the now-incinerated instrument under construction had been for the historic St. James’, King Street in Sydney. – Des Moines Register
Justice Dept. Drops Trump Administration’s Case Against John Bolton And His Book
“The Justice Department has closed its year-old criminal investigation into former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and dropped a related lawsuit connected to the publication of his book about the ex-President’s diplomatic bungling. The … criminal investigation had scrutinized whether Bolton’s book illegally revealed national security information, while the lawsuit had sought to grab royalties from Bolton for publishing his book without the administration’s full approval.” – CNN
CNN Is Selling News Clips As NFTs
In an initiative called the Vault by CNN, “the WarnerMedia-owned cable news channel … will ‘mint’ NFTs on the Flow blockchain of memorable moments from CNN’s 41-year history. It will then sell them to the public as digital collectibles.” Yes, TV coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the inauguration of Donald Trump, or the death of Anna Nicole Smith could be yours. – The Hollywood Reporter
MacKenzie Scott Is Now A Major Arts Philanthropist, Too
The total of $2.7 billion in grants announced this week “marks the third time in 12 months that Scott … has issued a wave of donations worth a combined ten figures. It’s also the first time she has funded arts organizations at scale. (The latest round of recipients also includes racial justice groups, universities, and other organizations.) Absent from the list of arts recipients are big names that wealthy donors often favor, such as the Museum of Modern Art or Lincoln Center. Instead, Scott opted to fund smaller, largely BIPOC-led groups.” – Artnet
Choreographer Cathy Marston Will Be Next Director of Zurich’s Ballet
“Particularly noted for her narrative work, … Marston will take over as new Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer for an initial period of two years, starting from the 2023-24 season. … Marston has previous directorship experience in Switzerland, having been Ballet Director at the Konzert Theater Bern from 2007-2013. There, she created several world premieres including Wuthering Heights (2009), and led the ballet from the brink of closure to a flourishing period of ensemble work.” – SeeingDance
Opera Australia Lost A Big Pile Of Money Last Year
“Opera Australia has posted a $7.1 million trading deficit for the year ended December 2020, or almost $6.5 million after bequests are included. … The company received $11.4 million in ‘absolutely critical’ JobKeeper subsidies in 2020. ‘If we hadn’t had that $11.4 million, we would have been potentially looking at a $20 million trading loss, and that would have meant us having to take more drastic action,’ says [outgoing CEO Rory] Jeffes.” – Limelight (Australia)
How Too Much Information Can Make Things Less Clear
Sometimes, attention can mislead us about the world. This is not to say that attention always distorts our knowledge of the world, but it does suggest that it might not be the unproblematic guide to knowledge that we originally thought. – Psyche
Jennifer Packer Talks About How Painting Works
I’ve never seen a painting that looked real, but I’ve seen paintings that felt real. – Cultured Magazine
Rethinking “Lord Of The Flies”
Responses to Golding’s work tend to be polarised, varying from the adulatory to the contemptuous. – 3 Quarks Daily
Of Course Networks Are Sexy Right Now. But You, Yourself, Are Not A Network
The network idea is so powerful in our connected world, that it’s tempting to apply it to everything. But not to us… – 3 Quarks Daily
Why This SF Symphony Cellist Is Eager To Perform In-Person Again
Whether you’re singing along with “Messiah” or rocking with Metallica, the common auditory input of the rhythm and melody, plus the visual input of musicians and conductor, causes our brains to “entrain” or synchronize to this shared sensory awareness. – San Francisco Chronicle
Mapping Canada’s Indigenous Culture and Language
The online, interactive map divides the province up into Indigenous territories, including some areas where there is overlap, with sections featuring language, art and culture. – CBC
‘A Star Is Born’: The History Of The Asterisk
The little mark’s use in texts goes back at least to Aristarchus, the second-century BC compiler and editor of Homer’s epics; it continued through the Middle Ages, the birth of printing, the mass market for books, and the advent of text messaging. And it meant something different in each of those times; these days, it seems to serve at least three separate purposes. – Lapham’s Quarterly
What Was Said
In May and June the Community Engagement Network hosted Conversations addressing the topic Benchmarking Equity. While we did not take the advisability of benchmarking as a given, the premise of the discussions was that without some form of accountability, statements committing to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can easily be as toothless as “thoughts and prayers” about gun violence. – Doug Borwick