“Prison language, or language created by inmates while incarcerated, has a long and vivid history, and is likely as old as the modern prison itself.” Says linguist Julie Colman, “It’s quite a fertile place for a language to develop. You’ve got a literally captive audience and a very dense social network.” – Canvas
Anthony Davis Builds Operas From Headlines
“The words ‘Trump’ and ‘opera’ occurring in the same sentence might seem far-fetched, but for composer Anthony Davis, whose latest work, The Central Park Five, has its world premiere at Long Beach Opera on June 15, inserting a Trump figure was, in fact, integral to the story. Based on the notorious case of a quintet of African-American teenagers falsely accused and convicted of rape and assault after a 1989 attack on a white jogger — one in which presidential hopeful Donald Trump played an infamous role — the opera tops off a series of so-called ‘ripped-from-the-headlines’ works that Davis has composed in his decades-long career.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
This Orchestra Played An Entire Concert In Total Darkness
“The string players sat in concentric semicircles, with odd-looking tangles of wires running between the players’ feet. … As the lights dimmed, long drifting skeins of sound emerged, which coalesced into warm major chords and then drifted apart again, but what really seized my attention were the fluctuating patterns of light winking in the gloom.” Ivan Hewitt checks out the Aurora Orchestra. – The Telegraph (UK)
Warning: The Internet Is Splintering In Front Of Us
As the legendary Humpty Dumpty cracked, never to be repaired, Internet 1.0 is shattering, too. Now we are hammering the internet into a splinternet of different forms. Regional digital “nations” are forming, and it’s likely that this fracturing will continue as sovereign entities apply their own rules about content, commerce, privacy, and politics. – Quartz
At Jaap Van Zweden’s Other Orchestra, Director Of Artistic Planning Is Abruptly Fired
In late May, the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s management dismissed Lam Fung, a local composer who took the position in 2017 and had received a good performance review as recently as March. “[The administration] did not offer reasons for Lam’s sudden dismissal, only saying in a statement that the orchestra ‘remains committed to the support and development of local talent.'” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Egypt’s Government Has Even Cracked Down On The Soap Operas Popular During Ramadan
During the month of daytime fasting, families and friends often gather around the TV during and after the evening meal, and Egyptian networks prepare their biggest programming events for the season. This year, the regime of Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came down hard on the soaps, restricting and sometimes dictating content and even banning one of Egypt’s most popular actors from screens. – The Baffler
The Indictment Of Donald Duck
Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart made the case in the 1990s: “What kind of a role model was he, this eunuch duck, who sought only fame and fortune, who ignored the plight of the working class, who accepted endless suffering as his lot? “Reading Disney,” they wrote, “is like having one’s own exploited condition rammed with honey down one’s throat.” – The New Yorker
Two Mexican Artists Deported From Cuba, Accused Of Trying To “Subvert” Havana Biennial
On the day of the opening of their exhibition Impulso in old Havana, the artists Jesus Benitez and his colleague, who has asked not to disclose her name in press in fear of further repercussions, were detained and interrogated by Cuban police for six hours. The artists were then deported back to Mexico from the Havana airport. – Hyperallergic
But It Messes Up The Meter! Grumpy Old Director Grumps About Gender-Swapping Shakespeare
Richard Eyre, a former director of the National Theatre in London, criticized a recent RSC production of Timon of Athens in which Lord Timon became Lady Timon — and, therefore, the line “I love that man” became “I love that woman”. Eyre, stressing the importance of Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter (which that extra syllable throws off), called the casting “a very bad decision. … Do the plays. Don’t rework it.” – The Times (UK)
Trump Administration Bans Tourist And Educational Travel To Cuba
The Treasury Department said in a statement that the U.S. will no longer allow the group educational and cultural trips known as “people to people” travel to the island. Those trips have been used by thousands of American citizens to visit the island even before the U.S. restored full diplomatic relations with the communist government in December 2014. – PBS News Hour
YouTube Bans Children From Live-Streaming Unless An Adult Is In The Room
“YouTube is taking additional steps to restrict the possibility that children will be targeted by predators on the video platform — including banning young kids from live-streaming with[out] adult supervision. The Google-owned video platform, in a blog post Monday, also said it is limiting recommendations of videos that depict ‘minors in risky situations.’” – Variety
YouTube Algorithm Started Directing Pedophiles To Home Videos Of Children
“YouTube never set out to serve users with sexual interests in children — but in the end, … its automated system managed to keep them watching with recommendations that [are] ‘disturbingly on point.’ Users do not need to look for videos of children to end up watching them. The platform can lead them there through a progression of recommendations.” – The New York Times
Museum Staffers Across U.S. Are Publicly Revealing Their (Low) Salaries
“Last Friday, museum workers began contributing to a Google Spreadsheet documenting their place of employment, salary rates, and demographic details like race and gender. … Those who contributed to the spreadsheet hope that transparency will lead to some sort of remuneration reform that may also contribute to further diversifying the field.” – Hyperallergic
Controversial Board President Of Fine Arts Museums Of San Francisco Steps Down
Philanthropist Dede Wilsey, an heir to the Dow chemical fortune and widow of a Bay Area real estate magnate, is departing after 21 years. “Her generosity to the Fine Arts Museums, among many gifts across the region, is legendary. … Yet for years she was said to run the board like a private club,” and her response to reports of her impending departure in 2016 was defiant. – San Francisco Chronicle
Turkish Filmmaker Chains Himself To Culture Ministry After Authorities Confiscate His Entire Body Of Work
“Oktay İnce, a longtime video activist fighting to retrieve an archive worth 20 years of his work, was held in police custody and accused of terrorist propaganda after he chained himself to a pole outside the culture ministry in Ankara.” – Hyperallergic
If progressives want change, we must play the game differently. Here are five things we must do.
Vu Le: “I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between conservatives and progressives (see “10 things progressive funders must learn from conservative ones or we are all screwed“). Last week I brought up how progressives come to a knife fight with a spreadsheet. Maybe a logic model. But the major difference may be that conservatives are united under a single set of philosophies and strategies (their “Theory of Change,” if you will) and spend most of their time and resources implementing it, while progressives waste endless years creating and debating thousands of separate theories and strategies that are then poorly coordinated and put into action. Let’s learn from our conservative colleagues, then. Let’s create and finalize the Progressive Theory of Change, the mother of all Theories of Change, the Theory of Change that will guide all of us in the sector.” – Nonprofit AF
Good Chance Theatre Forms Apprenticeship Scheme For Young Refugees
“The paid, three-month apprenticeship programme will allow refugees aged 17 to 24 to gain experience across different aspects of theatremaking, including writing, directing, producing and fundraising. … The apprenticeship scheme forms part of a season of programmes and performances announced by the theatre company, which is known for setting up pop-up theatres for refugees and for its play The Jungle, which ran at the Young Vic and at the Playhouse Theatre in the West End.” – The Stage
The Video Game That Became A Social Network That Makes Participants Feel Better (Says This Research)
A survey by National Research Group says weekly Fortnite players now spend 21% of their free time with the game, and spend 3% less time on social media, which now accounts for 16% of players’ free time. – Fast Company
Auction Of Barnes Collection Founder’s Items Raises New Questions
In March this year, the Pook & Pook auction house in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, offered 156 lots of around 430 objects that had belonged to Barnes and his wife Laura. The lots included furniture, clocks, textiles and porcelain objects, and hammered at $98,000 in total. – The Art Newspaper
Camille Billops, Artist And Documentary Filmmaker, Dead At 85
“Billops is best known for documentary works like Finding Christa (1991), a 55-minute film that recounts why she gave up her four-year-old daughter and how they reconnected more than two decades later.” – ARTnews
iTunes, In Memoriam
Now that Apple is moving beyond iTunes, it’s worth remembering how revolutionary iTunes was. Before the iTunes Music Store, your best bet to find music online was through a file-sharing site like Napster. Your only legal options were either niche storefronts, or label-specific ones, none of them user-friendly. iTunes brought purchasing music online into the mainstream. – Wired
Can The New Website ‘3Views On Theater’ Change The Trajectory Of Criticism?
“The plan is to have monthly rotating chief editors, who will help curate the content — slated to comprise around 15 pieces a month — with the help of ongoing editors Michelle Tse (one of Stage & Candor’s editors) and Penny Pun, a playwright. What kind of content, and for whom? [Rob Weinert-Kendt] spoke recently with Tse and Pun, who were joined by two of 3Views’s founders, playwrights Sarah Ruhl and Julia Jordan, about the new magazine’s ambitions and focus.” – American Theatre
Please Don’t Boycott Us, Georgia Democrats Tell Hollywood, Which Will Probably Boycott Anyway
As a Change.org petition (with about 3,000 signatures so far) puts it, “We [pro-choice people in Georgia] now share the burden of condemnation for actions we fought from the beginning — with our time, energy, talents, and contributions. In spite of being part of the resistance, we’ll suffer the actions of our elected officials twice over.” – Pacific Standard
Grammy-Winning Jazz Drummer Lawrence Leathers, 37, Found Dead In Apparent Murder
“Leathers is best known to the global jazz audience for his affiliations with pianist Aaron Diehl and singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. He won two Grammy awards backing Salvant, as a member of the Aaron Diehl Trio; the most recent was in 2017 for Dreams and Daggers.” – WBGO (Newark, NJ)
Glenda Jackson ‘King Lear’ On Broadway Is Closing A Month Early
Despite high praise for Jackson’s performance, reviews for the show have been ambivalent at best, and initially robust sales have slowed considerably. The final performance, originally scheduled for the close of the Fourth of July weekend, will now be this Sunday, just hours before the Tony Awards (for which this production garnered only a single nomination, and not for Jackson). – The New York Times