ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

What The Hollywood Bowl Means To LA

The Hollywood Bowl represents L.A. in all its naked splendor, idealism, commercialism, diversity, communal aspirations toward equality, social division, tackiness and even sordidness. It has been, for its full 101 years, the best of us and, if maybe not the worst, the not-so-hot of us. - Los Angeles Times

Is Social Media Really Making Us Worse?

There’s so much focus on sweeping claims that aren’t actionable, or unfounded claims we can contradict with data, that are crowding out the harms we can demonstrate, and the things we can test, that could make social media better. - The New Yorker

Manhattan Versus Brooklyn: The New Battle For American Culture

New York City’s intellectual landscape is increasingly split between two warring scenes, divided by geography, aesthetics and politics. Which of these prevails could affect whether America shifts right or remains where it is. - New Statesman

Is Netflix Pivoting To Studio Dinosaur Status?

 For much of its existence, Netflix has thought of itself as a tech company, moving fast and breaking things; now it’s seeking to emulate the dinosaurs it once thought it would effortlessly replace. - The New Republic

Canada’s Dearth Of Opera

We in Canada are operatically underserved. Our so-called second largest company offers its patrons the grand total of three mainstage productions annually and this season, shockingly, so does our largest company. So where does this leave Verdi, Puccini and Wagner? Out in the Canadian cold. - Toronto Star

The Man Who Spent 60 Years Building His Own Cathedral

The cathedral’s crypt would be his burial place. And he’d be buried there because it was his cathedral. He’d designed it entirely in his head, without a single measurement or calculation on paper, without a record of any of the materials he’d used. And he had done it largely by himself. - The Guardian

Deconstructivist Legacy In Architecture: Constant Revolution

The idea that a building was a means to solve problems and serve clients, to which postmodernism only added the idea that the results should be properly and effectively communicated and scaled to a diverse audience, was crumpled up and replaced with shards, fragments, and experiments. - Dezeen

Hollywood Makes Progressive Movies? The Data Say Otherwise

I’ll stipulate that the people who make movies may skew progressive in their beliefs, commitments and voting patterns. The movies themselves tell another story. - The New York Times

Not Quite Music, But Sorta? (In An AI Kind Of Way)

James Blake’s new album, “Wind Down,” is created in collaboration with the A.I.-powered app Endel, which collects data on individual users from devices like the Apple Watch and generates personalized ambient music in real time. - The New Yorker

Why People Love Sending Gifts To The Queen

For the last year, we have conducted interviews with people who have given at least one gift to a member of the royal family to try to understand the motivation of these present-givers. - The Conversation

All About Green Screens

"For more than a century, filmmakers have been using the 'green screen' technique. ... So where did it come from? And why is it so popular? And most importantly: why is it green? It's time, for once, to let the green screen occupy the foreground instead of the background." - Quartz

Everyone Is Hating On The State Of Book Reviews. But What Are They Even For?

 If, in fact, book reviews are on the whole too positive, as some suggest, does this mean that the purpose of book reviewing is to sniff out what’s rotten? Or, if book reviews are too negative, does this mean that public-facing literary criticism’s purpose is to highlight what’s worth reading? - LA Review of Books

Alexei Ratmansky Reconstructs Petipa’s “Harlequinade”

It's a "miracle," he says, that a ballet in 1900 was notated at all, let alone that the notation survives. As for teaching the movement to performers in 2022, he says, "I very much disagree with the idea that the technique of the dancers is so much better now. I think it's just different." - The Age (Melbourne)

UK Police Censor Violent Rap Music. Should They?

Even a hardened civil liberties advocate would have to down a stiff drink and say a prayer or two before defending someone’s right to publically mock murder victims and their families. - The Critic

The Ancient Egyptian Discoveries At Saqqara Just Keep Coming

"This week, archaeologists from Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the recovery of more than 250 sarcophagi, 150 bronze statues and a variety of other antiquities from the site. The remarkably well-preserved objects in the necropolis are still in good — and sometimes colorful — condition." - Smithsonian Magazine

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