Ernie Smith gives a brief history of the very American phenomenon, from its 1949 birth (pitching Vitamix blenders, actually a legit product) through the Psychic Friends Network and Miss Cleo. “In a lot of ways, the modern app-store ecosystem shares much in common with the televised grift that many vintage infomercials specialized in. The difference, of course, is scale and intent.” — Tedium
Miami’s City Theatre – America’s Master Of Short-Form Plays?
With Kentucky’s Actors Theatre of Louisville ending its short-play contests and festivals in 2017, City Theatre has emerged as the professional company most committed to championing an art form as formidable as any other. After all, short stories are recognized as a literary form of comparable value to novels; why not short plays? – American Theatre
How To Present ‘Problematic’ Plays — And How To Handle The Fraught Talkbacks Afterward
Maddie Gaw, who was part of the selection panel for the first-ever Problematic Play Festival this past fall, writes about what makes plays “problematic” (i.e., subject matter violent or controversial enough to make most theatres and funders flee) and about how the festival altered the standard post-play talkback to make it safe for audience members to process what they had seen. — HowlRound
Our “Algorithmic Music Culture” Is Making Music Poorer
On the consumer side, streaming and social-media platforms have transformed the nature of music discovery, which was previously more proactive by necessity—requiring manual effort to open up a newspaper, dig through crates at a record store, or attend a live show. Nowadays, “discovery” can be as easy and passive as scrolling mindlessly through a personalized feed or shuffling an algorithmically -curated playlist in the background of a holiday party, without help from a critic or other human guide. Because of its inherently passive nature, algorithmic curation has also made one core function of criticism defunct. – Columbia Journalism Review
They Tried Once To Save Atlantic City With Art, And It Flopped. Can It Work This Time Around?
Last time, in 2012, it was the “multimillion-dollar, casino-tax funded Art Park conceived — but indifferently received and later returned to its roots as a vacant lot — by Lance Fung, a world-renowned curator. This time, an Atlantic City art scene is being birthed by less renowned people: longtime community activists, returned locals, old high school friends, and artist/entrepreneurs.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Why Beauty Pageants Still Have A Hold On The Popular Imagination
Pageants still tend to fascinate. The very word suggests why: The ceremony and accoutrements of beauty contests play a powerful role in the national imagination, with their sashes and their tiaras and their inevitable rows of machine-stitched sequins. The ratings for Miss America have fallen consistently since its heyday, but 4.3 million viewers still tuned in to ABC to watch Nia Franklin triumph at this year’s ceremony in September. The pageant, despite everything, still catches the eye, a shiny, contoured, rose-clutching cultural behemoth. – The Atlantic
How The Lost Short Stories Of Naguib Mahfouz Were Rediscovered And Published (And Lost In The First Place)
The Nobel laureate had evidently intended to publish them sometime in 1994. Then he lost track of them after a very, very bad day. Two decades on, a critic in Cairo came upon them while searching for something else entirely. — Literary Hub
NPR’s ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me’ To Be Adapted For TV
The hour-long program, being developed by NBCUniversal’s Wilshire Studios, “will stay true to the original while delivering bigger, visual and variety-themed games that can’t be captured on the radio.” — Deadline
University Group Asked Comedians To Sign ‘Behavioural Agreement’ Before Benefit Performance
A student group supporting UNICEF at the School of Oriental and African Studies, a prominent research institution in London, booked five comedians for a benefit performance. Then it sent them a contract “agreeing to our no tolerance policy with regards to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia or anti-religion or anti-atheism. … All topics must be presented in a way that is respectful and kind.” — The Guardian
Alvin Epstein, One Of America’s Great Classical Stage Actors, Dead At 93
He was Marcel Marceau’s assistant in his U.S. debut tour, played the Fool to Orson Welles’s Lear, was a founding member of both Yale Rep and American Rep Theatre, and acted in everything from the Greeks to Shakespeare to Brecht and Weill. But he made his biggest mark in the plays of Samuel Beckett. — The New York Times
Truth: It Probably Doesn’t Matter Where You Go To College
The seemingly obvious answer is, Of course it matters! How could it not? Ivy League and equivalent institutions provide more than world-class instruction. They confer a lifetime of assistance from prodigiously connected alumni and a message to all future employers that you’re a rarified talent. College isn’t just an education; it’s a network, a signal, and an identity. But what appears obvious may not be true. – The Atlantic
New Tech Could Revolutionize How We Reproduce Art
RePaint, a resin-based 3D printer that renders reproductions in color four times closer to the original than the next-best tool, utilizes a palette of 11 different inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, black, green, blue, orange, red, violet, transparent white and opaque white. Comparatively, traditional 2D printers typically operate in CMYK, or cyan, magenta, yellow and black, which is the keyline color. – Smithsonian
Has Gossip Gotten A Bad Rap?
There’s an important distinction to make here about how most of us define gossip – as a way of trash-talking someone not present – and how scientists do. In social science, gossip usually is defined as communication about a person who isn’t present in a way that involves evaluation of that person, good or bad. This kind of informal communication is crucial for sharing information. Gossip is necessary for social cooperation; it’s largely this kind of talk that cements social bonds and clarifies social norms. – BBC
Late Night Talk Shows Are Booking Novelists
In a television landscape where literature has become largely overlooked, late-night hosts like Mr. Meyers and Trevor Noah have made it their mission to put a spotlight on writers — giving them an enormous amount of influence in the publishing world. – The New York Times
A New York Times Critic Explains How (And Why) They Do What They Do
A.O. Scott: “We assume that readers are looking not only for advice, but also for ideas, arguments, provocations and the occasional joke. … Some of the time some of our readers might think we’re wrong, but being wrong — starting an argument about what matters to us — is one of the ways we can be most useful.” — The New York Times
Upright Citizens Brigade Starts Laying Off Staff As Money Woes Mount
“The [comedy] theater, which has four spaces, including the flagship that opened in Hell’s Kitchen last year, has struggled in its new location, in part because of increased competition and high rents.” — The New York Times
This Is Why Boston Symphony’s Principal Flutist Is Suing Over Equal Pay
When Elizabeth Rowe launched her lawsuit against the BSO, it was reported that she is paid less than the (male) principal oboist. How much less? More than $66,000. Geoff Edgers does a deep dive into both this case and the larger issue. — The Washington Post
Washington’s National Gallery Of Art Names New Director, First Woman To Hold Post
“Kaywin Feldman, 52, who has been director and president of the Minneapolis Institute of Art since 2008, will succeed Earl ‘Rusty’ Powell III, who is retiring after 26 years. She is credited with doubling the Minneapolis museum’s attendance, improving its digital reach and strengthening its connection to the community through initiatives on equity and social justice.” — The Washington Post
Social Media Has Surpassed Print As News Source For Americans
According to the study from the Pew Research Center, television is still the leading source, with just under half of respondents saying they get most of their news from it; hard-copy print came in last of five. — Smithsonian Magazine
Brazil’s Publishing Industry In Crisis With Wave Of Bookseller Closures
The country’s two major bookstore chains are in or near bankruptcy and are closing so many stores that many cities will be left with no place to buy books. The head of one Brazilian publishing firm has been reduced to pleading with the public to buy books as Christmas gifts. — The Guardian
Staff Sues To Stop Reconstruction Of St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Palace Museum
“Staff of the State Russian Museum are taking legal action to protest against the imminent $17m reconstruction of its main building, the Mikhailovsky Palace in St. Petersburg.They argue that the project has not been properly vetted and threatens both the 19th-century structure … and one of the world’s most important collections of Russian art.” — The Art Newspaper
How ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ Helped Spark The Birth Of Modern Islamic Fundamentalism (Seriously)
It was a fateful night circa 1949 in Greeley, Colorado, when Sayyid Qutb — then an Egyptian exchange student, but who went on to become a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood — was scandalized by seeing men and women dance together, with their arms around each other, to this song (he thought it was a little rapey, too), in (worst of all) a church hall. And he drew certain conclusions about America. — Quartz
The 70s Hit That’s Now The Most-Streamed Song Of The 20th Century
Boosted by the new movie Bohemian Rhapsody, the 1975 single and music video surpassed 1.6 billion streams globally, record company Universal Music Group said in a statement. — The Irish Times
The Tension Between Voice And Form
By way of continued labor, poets attempt to craft language that can carry their ideas beyond the passing moment, reframing their experiments as steps toward the ultimate realization of their aesthetic visions. The poet’s will toward synthesis of voice and form is about having something vital to say and knowing time is always running out. – The Atlantic
Listen vs. Tell
Here’s an updated version — call it 2.0 — of last year’s chart outlining the two main ways (the wrong one and the right one) of approaching the means by which arts organizations connect with the public. — Doug Borwick