Howard Sherman says the time has come to figure this out: “So long as there are categories for best actor and actress (or best male and female actor), those who identify outside of the binary will be left out, misidentified and othered. This will come home to roost the first time someone with non-binary identity is nominated for an award, and then we will see awards-giving organisations doing hurried acrobatics to come up with a solution. The better option is to understand where the thinking is heading, and thoughtfully make the appropriate changes now.” – The Stage (UK)
So, What Exactly Is L.A.’s Urban Plan For The New LACMA District?
Um … indeed. “The big question is whether Los Angeles can pull it together to approach its public urban spaces in ways that are more cohesive and more mindful of human scale — and perhaps (just perhaps!) correct some of the errors of the past.” – Los Angeles Times
How A Large, Decentralized Social Network Is Dealing With A N*zi Problem
Mastodon was meant to be a kinder, gentler, no-fascist Twitter. Then a right-wing social network moved to Mastodon. “It’s a hard problem, playing off the deepest limitations of decentralized projects like Mastodon. Mastodon arose from the idealistic open-source software movement, designed to let anybody run their own social media site. But it was never intended to support something like Gab.” – The Verge
Someone (A Lot Of People, To Be Honest) Has To Mow The Lawn At The Largest Sculpture Park In The U.S.
Storm King is big. Really, really big: “The art here is nestled amid 500 acres of verdant hills, exposed to the ever-shifting and unrelenting climate of New York’s Hudson Valley.” – The New York Times
The Offstage Toll It Takes To Play A Loathsome Racist Character
“It can be fraught and isolating, it seems, portraying a white character activating the racial overtones of a beloved novel brought to the stage. Just ask Fred Weller, essayer of Bob Ewell, the patently evil father of Wilhelmi’s Mayella, who forces her to concoct the story that sends a blameless black man, Tom Robinson, to prison for rape.” – Washington Post
In Praise Of The Guilty Pleasure
Because it’s often used in a winking way, the term “guilty pleasure” feels innocent, like a joke we’re proving we’re in on. But if that joke is about something that brings us genuine joy and isn’t harming anyone, then what’s the punch line? – The New York Times
Conductor Who Transformed Sistine Chapel Choir Resigns As Financial Investigation Continues
“Msgr. Massimo Palombella” — who raised the (previously abysmal) standards of the papal ensemble, garnering it a major-label recording contract and international respect for the first time in many decades — “has resigned amid an investigation by Vatican prosecutors into alleged money laundering, fraud and embezzlement in connection with the choir’s funds.” – Financial Times