Steve Lazarides also recalls the early days, including the day Banksy strapped a helium-filled sex doll to a McDonald’s-branded balloon and released it into the sky. Many different police officers, he says, saw the stunt, “thought we could do something about this, but 1,000 tourists are going to take our picture and we’re going to look like absolute dicks, so they just drove off.” – HuffPost
Pinterest’s Audience Algorithm Is Awesome. Now It Has To Change
The company’s leaders say they want to map a different route to success in Silicon Valley, one that’s less meteoric and more humane. But in its first year as a public company, it faces a pivotal challenge: How to grow beyond a user base that has historically skewed toward white, suburban women without alienating loyalists, stereotyping newcomers, or potentially allowing for the spread of misinformation and radicalization. – Medium
Hong Kong Has A New Protest Song Anthem
The orchestra wear hard hats and gas masks, the choir emerges from a swirl of tear gas-like smoke, and as the music swells, cutaway shots show crowds thousands-strong marching through the streets of Hong Kong. – The Guardian
Hannah Svensson And Friends
One of the highlights of the 2019 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival was a concert by Hannah Svensson. Now, Ms. Svensson’s new album, Places And Dreams, presents her along with the colleagues who backed her at Ystad. – Doug Ramsey
Have The Movies Gotten Too Loud?
Many filmgoers say they believe sound levels have been crawling up the decibel scale, and not just for the adverts and trailers. Several sufferers also argued that a lack of balanced settings in an auditorium can create an unpleasant booming sensation. – The Observer (UK)
What Does It Mean To Be An Audience, And How Does An Arts Institution ‘Develop’ It?
The idea of audience development as a solution has taken over everything in arts organizations, but there’s more to it, at least from the audience side. “Being an audience member means being a citizen, customer, community member, and worker. It is a sort of control interface for ruling.” – HowlRound
Another Book Award Changes Its Name (This One Due To A Murder-Suicide)
Originally the James Tiptree Jr. Literary Award was meant to give encouragement to writers with new or creative thinking about gender, but the award’s focus has changed – and now the award name is changing too. “We entered into this discussion as a conversation about how to interpret what happened at the end of Alice and Huntington Sheldon’s lives. … But the responses to our post made us realize that this was in fact a conversation about whose lives and voices we value. And that’s a matter about which there should be no ambiguity.” – Tiptree Award
Ang Lee Just Can’t Quit His High Frame-Rate Obsession
Uh-oh, Ang Lee, what happened to you? “If you’re wondering why a filmmaker as good as Ang Lee couldn’t, in this case, see the forest for the schlock, the answer may be that Gemini Man, which was shot at 120 frames per second, indicates that he’s become an apostle of technology first and a filmmaker second. He’s been to the mountaintop and has seen the light of high frame rate. He wanted a big dazzling action movie to hang his new world on, and he found one.” – Variety
Where Is The Missing Leonardo?
And will it ever appear again? With less than two weeks to go before the Louvre’s Leonardo exhibition, “there are now serious doubts as to whether the star of the exhibition will be included, as the Paris museum had hoped.” – The Observer (UK)
The Hollywood Of Utah
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is making a lot of movies and TV in Utah. “This year, BYU Broadcasting, which owns BYUtv, is in production on 25 shows including TV movies, scripted dramas, reality shows, religious content and a cooking show. It is staffed by 158 full time employees, more than 200 students who work part time, and a small army of freelancers who operate in just about every job, from directors and producers to grips and production assistants.” – The New York Times
Britain Bets On The Man Booker Prize Shortlist, And Here Are The Odds
Margaret Atwood’s new book is running at 2/1, while Ducks, Newburyport is at 6/1, and so forth for the other short-listed books. Put your money where you see fit. – The Observer (UK)
John Giorno, Who Starred In The Andy Warhol Movie ‘Sleep’ And Tried To Move Poetry Off The Page, Has Died At 82
Giorno wanted more for poetry than simply the page, good as that is. He “turned to the world of art and the mechanisms of mass media to shake poetry loose from the page and embed it more deeply in the fabric of everyday life.” – The New York Times
Ballet Has Transformed The Lives Of Women In This New Zealand Prison
At the Auckland Region Women’s Correction Facility, the Royal New Zealand Ballet has taken on a plan to make ballet more accessible. The teacher of the women who asked to join the class says, “Every week you can just see them become more confident. With confidence comes the drive to want to get better. They’re very engaged and very present.” – Stuff (New Zealand)