“The unfinished manuscript of [an essay collection titled] The Clockwork Condition was written by Burgess in 1972 and 1973, after Kubrick’s 1971 adaptation of A Clockwork Orange was accused of inspiring copycat crimes, prompting the director to withdraw it from circulation.” – The Guardian
Just When You Thought Bundling Was Dead, The New Disney And Hulu Discussion Began
When every site, production company, and channel seem to be creating their own streaming services, and when Disney decides it might want to sell its own bundle, it’s time to acknowledge that murdering cable with streaming might only have created a Night King. – Bloomberg
How Changes In Facebook’s Algorithm Disadvantaged The Arts
The algorithm discouraged sharing of news. “While every subject group saw major reductions, on a percentage basis arts and entertainment referrals from Facebook to news pieces took the greatest hit. Legal issues may have been down 25%, politics down 34% and education down 35%, but arts and entertainment referrals were driven down by 71% overall.” – The Stage
Academics Worldwide Worry About New Online Censorship Law In Singapore
Earlier this month, the country’s government introduced a draft of the Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. It would authorize any minister in Singapore to order “corrections” to online content hosted anywhere in the world if the minister deemed that a statement is “false or misleading” in whole or in part, when that statement is made available online to one or more users in Singapore and it is deemed to be in the public interest to issue such a correction. – Inside Higher Ed
Jan Morris At 92
“Morris has lived many lives, and it is impossible to separate who she is now from who she was before. … She is impatient with questions about transgender politics, possibly because she made peace with her own decisions so long ago. Having reached her age and lived for equal amounts of time as a man and as a woman, she says, the transition she made so long ago somehow feels less relevant.” – The New York Times
Study Shows That People Cannot Identify “Fake” Voices Created With Technology
The tech is now so good, it can impersonate voices you know. “The main takeaway is that human brains may not be able to distinguish a speaker’s voice from its morphed version, which means that people would be susceptible to voice impersonation attacks at a fundamental biological level.” – The Daily Beast
Wawa The Destroyer, Chewing Up Philadelphia Architecture And Spitting Out Identical Boxes
The iconic Philly convenience store/sandwich chain, writes Inga Saffron, “is on a relentless march through central Philadelphia, where it picks off architectural trophies, runs them through the brand’s blanderizing machine, and spits them out as indistinguishable clones.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Be The Better You! Audio Books Are Assaulting Our Leisure Time
They’re the fastest-growing segment of the books industry, a real success for an industry that has struggled to reinvent. Learn while you’re doing something else. That’s what successful people do, right? Maximize their efficiency? But listening isn’t reading, and attention spans being what they are… – The Baffler
Notre-Dame Isn’t Just An Architectural Monument And A Place Of Worship — For Centuries It Was The Intellectual Center Of Paris
“Influential medieval thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Erasmus, John Calvin, several popes and many other intellectual luminaries studied or taught [at the cathedral’s school] in its early centuries. The opportunity to study with famous scholars drew students from across Europe.” Indeed, it was Notre-Dame’s school that grew to become the University of Paris. – The Conversation
Subtitling Movies Is A Serious, Difficult Craft (And Studios And Filmmakers Need To Remember That)
An outcry over the quality of translation in the subtitles of Roma has received a frustrated response from top professional subtitlers. Yes, they say, subtitling is getting worse — because the industry wants it done on the cheap. “A film-maker wouldn’t outsource their colour correction or audio mix and just think: ‘I’ll leave them to it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.’… Subtitles are the conduit allowing you to communicate your film’s ideas around the globe.'” – The Guardian
Should We Really Drop Kate Smith’s ‘God Bless America’ From Sporting Events Because Of A Couple Of Racist Songs She Sang 80-Odd Years Ago? Well, Yes
Last week, someone brought forward two now-embarrassing songs about black people that Smith recorded in the 1930s (we’ll spare you the titles), and teams in New York and Philadelphia that had been playing her version of the Irving Berlin anthem at games promptly dropped her. Anne Midgette wondered if this was an overreaction — until she talked to two black opera stars who’ve done a lot of singing at sports events themselves. – The Washington Post
Filmmaker John Singleton In Coma Following Stroke
“The 51-year-old director behind films including Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice and 2 Fast 2 Furious was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. last week after falling ill after a trip to Costa Rica. While under medical care, he suffered a stroke, which had been described as ‘mild,’ but it apparently wasn’t.” – Yahoo!
Organist Marilyn Mason Dead At 93
“She commissioned more than 70 works from composers, including William Bolcom and Jean Langlais … and shaped generations of organists over a record-breaking 67 years on the faculty at the University of Michigan.” – The New York Times
Bill Frisell And Thomas Morgan: “Epistrophy”
Guitarist Frisell and bassist Morgan are captivating in their exploration of pieces whose variety extends from the harmonic challenges of Thelonious Monk to the deceptive simplicity of “Red River Valley.” – Doug Ramsey
Meet Four Black Playwrights Who Are Challenging American Theater
“They are the talk of the theater world: a generation of black playwrights whose fiercely political and formally inventive works are challenging audiences, critics and the culture at large to think about race, and racism, in new ways.” A conversation with Jackie Sibblies Drury, Jeremy O. Harris, Antoinette Nwandu and Jordan E. Cooper. – The New York Times
‘The Most Powerful And Relevant Theater Being Written Today’ — Ben Brantley On New Plays By Black Writers
“I can’t remember a more electrifying run of new, innovative plays during my 25-year tenure as a New York theater critic than the heady spate of works by African-American playwrights that have opened Off Broadway during the past two seasons.” – The New York Times
10 Works Over 5 Years by Black Playwrights, All Intended to Challenge
“Oftentimes, the most outrageous of plot twists are what make that happen,” say Ben Brantley and Jesse Green. – The New York Times
China’s Biggest Movie Star Makes First Public Appearance In Over A Year
“Megastar Fan Bingbing has appeared in public for the first time in almost a year, after a mysterious disappearance from the public eye believed to be linked to charges of tax evasion. [She] appeared at a Beijing gala on Monday night in honour of iQiyi, a popular video-streaming platform.” – The Guardian
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Has A(nother) Tentative Opening Date
According to director Richard Armstrong, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, part of the emirate’s Saadiyat Island complex of museums, is expected to open in 2022. “The Frank Gehry-designed museum, which would be the Guggenheim’s biggest space at around 320,000 sq. ft, was initially due to open in 2012 and then in 2017.” – The Art Newspaper