His opera Life Is a Dream had a difficult birth: the company that commissioned it closed before it was produced, and Spratlan was reduced to raising money himself for performances of the second act -- which became the first opera to win a Pulitzer in 40 years. - MSN (The Boston Globe)
The so-called “Tripod of Freedom” — which positions free enterprise, along with civil liberties and democracy, as “one of the three great elements” in the American way of life — was an invention of the business lobby, one that was accompanied by abhorrence for any government involvement. - Washington Post
Each day is bringing us a little bit closer to a kind of information-sphere disaster, in which bad actors weaponize large language models, distributing their ill-gotten gains through armies of ever more sophisticated bots. - The Atlantic
Worries about music today ignore every development in the transmission of music in the past. “I mean, when recorded music first came out, people were like, nobody’s ever going to learn how to play anything ever again. Then came radio and nobody’s ever gonna go and see live music.” - The Guardian
“We share their treasures with the world, and the world comes to the UK to see them. The collection of the British Museum is protected by law, and we have no plans to change it.” - ARTnews
By default events like the Oscars have come to serve as a primary yardstick of representational gains. Hence our joyless new annual award-season tradition: the scrutiny of the nominees and the eventual winners for their diversity, mostly in the acting races. - The New Yorker
Nowadays the majority of the art world gatekeepers are ever more myopic, risk averse and conformist, daring only to support what is “hot” or on trend. That feeds into the money going to an increasingly small coterie of “celebrated” and hyped-about artists, producing what the market rewards. - The Critic
As opposed to the “starchitect” impulse to create something iconic and instantly recognisable – to stamp their mark on a place – architecture, for him, is a vehicle to pursue civic and public good, even if that means “almost disappearing” behind it. - The Conversation
All in all, it is not as clear as it once seemed how the project of critical theory maps onto the practical politics—institutional and insurgent—of our moment. More serious is the looming sense that critical theory is somehow near the center of the crisis of our time. - Hedgehog Review
ATSC 3.0 is to broadcast television what 5G was to mobile a few years ago: a mixture of buzzwords and real innovation, something that’s definitely coming, but no one really quite knows yet what its true impact will be. - The Verge
Vinyl revenue grew 17% and topped $1.2 billion last year, making up nearly three-quarters of the revenue brought in by physical music. At the same time, CD revenue fell 18% to $483 million, the RIAA said. - NPR
Sure, some of the sequences were a bit zany (and then there are the hot dog finers), but the film "feels more in line with last year’s winner, CODA, suggesting that pandemic-scarred academy voters are especially fond of cozily sentimental family dramas these days." - Los Angeles Times
Stop thanking Shakespeare and Falstaff, and start looking at Vermeer's women. "Into the mundane and commonplace, this master of stillness and of light manages to infuse a beguiling lyricism. His brushstrokes conjure up a shimmering, almost otherworldly, mood that is bewitching." - The Observer (UK)
"Streaming services are often thought of as a competitor for the movie theatre experience, but some in the industry see streaming as a benefit by keeping films in the conversation longer." - CBC
