The streaming series, a spinoff of the old broadcast series The Good Wife, is known for its satirical Schoolhouse Rock-style cartoons called Good Fight Shorts. Last week, in place of the Short, the audience saw 8½ seconds of a placard that said “CBS HAS CENSORED THIS CONTENT.” Many viewers figured it was satire. It wasn’t. Emily Nussbaum reports on what went down at CBS. – The New Yorker
Dave Chappelle Awarded 2019 Mark Twain Prize For American Humor
“Known for his incisive, off-kilter and sometimes controversial approach to joking about race, family and relationships, Chappelle has influenced a generation of younger comedians since becoming a national sensation with Chappelle’s Show, his early 2000s sketch comedy series on Comedy Central. His subsequent sudden retreat from the public eye added a layer of mystique, but Chappelle has been actively performing stand-up since 2013 and has since won two Grammys and two Emmys.” – The Washington Post
Lucerne Festival Bosses Axe Easter Festival And Piano Festival
While things will proceed as planned for the rest of this year, from 2020 onward, the Lucerne Festival will redirect focus and resources to its flagship late-summer event and its in-house orchestra (directed by Riccardo Chailly) and academy. Consequently, the satellite Lucerne Easter Festival and (late-autumn) Lucerne Piano Festival are being eliminated by the artistic director and board, who have determined that those events are “strategically of lesser importance” to the Festival’s brand. (in German; for Google Translate version, click here) – Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Zurich)
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui At The Royal Ballet
“Despite running a ballet company — and his many commissions for ballet companies — Mr. Cherkaoui is still largely seen as a contemporary dance-maker … [and he] seem[s] half-amused, half-pained by the idea that he is seen as an outsider in the ballet world.” Reporter Roslyn Sulcas talks to the choreographer about his new work for London’s august ballet troupe, Medusa. – The New York Times
This Soprano Just Won Her Second $50,000 Award In A Month
“The Metropolitan Opera has named Lisette Oropesa the 2019 recipient of the Beverly Sills Artist Award, just one month after the young soprano was announced as this year’s Richard Tucker Award honoree. Both awards come with a $50,000 prize.” – Playbill
Brazil’s ‘Godmother Of Samba’, Beth Carvalho, Dead At 72
“[She] was among Brazil’s most celebrated singers, with a husky alto voice that soundtracked dances, street parties and the earsplitting, eye-widening Carnival festival … [She] filled soccer stadiums with her followers, battled music-industry machismo, and championed overlooked composers and performers.” – The Washington Post
Have Video Games Become The Definer Of Common Culture?
Film can no longer claim to perform a function for our whole culture when there is no whole. When Golden Age Hollywood promised to tell the story of our culture, it was usually the story of a cultural mainstream. Now it is even clearer that Hollywood’s promise is meaningful only to one, admittedly still large, audience in the plenitude. New audiences, also in the millions, seek their cultural centers elsewhere—in video games and social media. – Wired
That “Game Of Thrones” Accidental Coffee Cup? After Internet Ridicule, HBO Has Erased It
While the big, bad Night King failed to “erase the memory of Westeros,” as Bran Stark put it, HBO was able to do so using the magic of digital editing. – The New York Times
The Nebraska Theatre That Pops Out Of A Storefront On To Main Street
The Storefront Theater is a retractable theatre disguised as a shop. It was built to re-invigorate the main street in the town of Lyons, Nebraska, and create a community space for its residents. – Dezeen
The five actions of art-making
A particularly lovely passage in François Matarasso’s recent book, A Restless Art: How participation won and why it matters, describes the opportunity of art-making for children, which Matarasso describes as an interplay of five actions. – Andrew Taylor
Ralph Peterson And Company Remember Art Blakey
Ralph Peterson & The Messenger Legacy: Legacy Alive (Onyx)
Paying concentrated attention to all of the new releases that arrive at Rifftides is out of the question. Some, however, simply cannot be passed over. Here is one of those. – Doug Ramsey
Listen Up: Social Media Is Not A Public Square (Though We Understand The Confusion)
Kara Swisher: “What’s obvious is that the rules are not clear in a world in which the idea of the public square has been turned on its head. It is a truly challenging problem for democracy in the United States and for its increasingly voluble citizens who are now experiencing limits to what they can say. – The New York Times
Emotional Labor Is Uniquely Human, Right? But What If It’s Outsourced?
The real risk is that companies might now try to outsource emotional labour rather than do it in-house – just like they did with ‘brain work’. The rise of management consulting a century ago was one upshot of the advent of ‘brain work’. What might the equivalent development be for emotional labour – and will it be an unalloyed good? – Aeon
They’ve Uncovered A Hidden Cupid In One Of Vermeer’s Most Beloved Paintings
“During restoration work [on Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window], conservators discovered, to their surprise, that the naked figure — which dominates the upper right section of the picture — was overpainted long after the artist’s death.” – The Art Newspaper
‘The Queen Of Swing’, Lindy Hop Dancer And Singer Norma Miller, Dead At 99
“[She] was the youngest recruit and last survivor of the original Lindy Hoppers, the all-black Herbert White troupe that broke in at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom and popularized the Lindy Hop in Broadway shows, on tours of Europe and Latin America, and in Hollywood films.” – The New York Times
In The Age Of Brexit, There’s A Whole New Crop Of Video Games About Britain
“They come in all shapes and sizes, from Nintendo’s Pokémon Sword and Shield, which riffs on the architecture of Oxbridge and London, to PanicBarn’s anti-Brexit polemic Not Tonight. Most began development long before the EU referendum, but they are useful explorations of national identity at a time when what Britain stands for is hotly contested.” – The Guardian