ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Another Day, Another Streaming Dispute

People who subscribe to Dish or Sling suddenly found themselves without Disney's network of channels on October 1. While the companies blame Disney for hardball negotiations, customers on social media are furious with the delivery systems instead. - The Verge

The Minsk Cafe Was A Neglected Masterpiece Of Social Realist Architecture

Now, after having been restored by a billionaire, it's an art gallery in Potsdam. - The Guardian (UK)

Why A Gaming Designer Won’t Let His Kids Play Video Games

"Using the data we collected, we experimented with every feature of our games to see which versions allowed us to extract the most time and money from our players. For us, game addiction was by design: It meant success for our business." - The New York Times

When Music Is Torture

Musicologist Lily Hersh says that "people are still surprised that music can be used in negative ways: they think music is supposed to be sublime and uplifting ... but music can just as easily be destructive. That destructiveness is not something to cover up or shy away from." - Culture Study

Oscar Pettiford, The Minnesota Composer And Player Who Changed The Sound Of Jazz

Pettiford claimed, "Basically I’m a bass player. For kicks I play cello, for thought I play piano, and for odd moments I beat on the drums." His style would be "familiar to any modern ear, ... propelling the rhythm section to the front of the sound." - Sahan Journal

The Andy Warhol Lawsuit That Could Drastically Change American Art

"It’s not just Warhol and Prince. Fair use is the doctrine that allows us to record broadcast materials, permits filmmakers to incorporate clips of existing materials into their projects, and ... without it, our cultural experience would be markedly different, and certainly not better." - The Atlantic

Billy Eichner On Writing Himself, And Gay Male Culture, Into A Rom Com

"If it shocks people a little, well, I grew up with Madonna. I like to be a little shocking, a little provocative. I really never cared about being for everyone." - The New York Times

Celeste Ng On Writing A Terrifying Book

The author of Little Fires Everywhere says that as she wrote during the Trump years, she "wanted to look at what had happened in the past, and the dark times in which we have dealt with authoritarianism, and to remember that we’ve gotten through it before." - The Guardian (UK)

Why We Can’t Escape The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Pageviews, Benjamin. Pageviews. "Newsrooms have jumped onto Marvel releases as reliable sources of traffic because the eyeballs are just always there, and people are hungry for that content." Even Good Housekeeping gets in on the act now. - Nieman Lab

The Latinx Sounds Of Hollywood

Latinx composers made Hollywood's scores, songs, and sounds, starting a century ago. Maria Grever "had studied with French composer Claude Debussy before returning to her native Mexico where she wrote boleros. ... Then, Grever composed songs for movies." - NPR

The Artist Who’s Been Drawing For MAD Magazine For 60 Years

As a young man, Sergio Aragonés was confused by MAD's offices. "Where was the whimsy? The MAD-cap frivolity? This was no clubhouse of high jinks." So he drew the high jinks into his cartoons for the magazine - and he hasn't stopped for six decades. - Washington Post

Biden Restores The President’s Arts And Humanities Commission

That's "an advisory board that was dissolved five years ago after its members resigned in protest over President Donald J. Trump’s reaction to the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va." - The New York Times

Ed Sheeran Will Stand Trial In The US Over Copyright Of Marvin Gaye Song

The trial is about "claims he copied his hit 2014 song Thinking Out Loud from Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, after a federal judge rejected the pop star’s efforts to toss out the long-running copyright case." - The Guardian (UK)

Oh, The Humanities

Humanities departments have to face up to what's happening to their students, both undergrad and (here, the news is even worse) graduate students. Where can history majors, for instance, get jobs? "We must do a much better job of providing students with windows into careers." - Inside Higher Ed

Sue Mingus, Who Promoted Her Husband Charles’ Work, Has Died At 92

Sue Mingus "helped secure legacy as one of the 20th century’s greatest musical minds" after his death of ALS at age 56. Incredibly, she "organized three bands, each with different strengths, to wrestle with the more than 300 compositions he left behind." - The New York Times

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