Disney turned 100 in 2023 (as you've no doubt heard ad nauseam). Its founder's "legacy was the production of a modern shared language, a set of reference points instantly recognizable to almost everyone, and an encouragement to dream out loud about a utopian future." - The New York Times
VHS tapes are back, baby. And DVDs, Blu-Rays, cassette tapes, essentially anything that a streaming corporation can't surveill - or suddenly yank away. - Washington Post
No, not its mojo dojo casa house - though it's likely the Barbie movie will eventually stream there because studios have started offering older shows to the OG streamer again. Why? "They missed the money too much." - The New York Times
"Every artist must exist in two realms: as the art maker, who thinks and ponders and creates work of radical honesty (an activity that one could argue is inherently political), and as the art mover, who, however reluctantly, must be part showman and part businessperson." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Not only have start times been changing from the traditional 8:00 pm to 7:30 or even 7:00, but more weekend matinees are being added and weeknight shows moved. These five directors and producers from the San Diego area say this is all about audience demand. - The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
The report, titled “What We Watched,” includes viewership data for the movies and television shows watched on the streaming service between January and June 2023. - Washington Post
As more major films, including some big hits, run longer than three hours, exhibitors can schedule fewer showings per day — so they want to give the patrons another opportunity to buy popcorn and sodas. And the patrons themselves would very much like to visit the restroom. - The Hollywood Reporter
Why was Fini, who was part of the first major surrealist exhibitions, ignored for so long? André Breton, of course. He "would not have a woman be a Surrealist. In his view, women were muses." - NPR
"It was embarrassing to want excitement, but never more than when looking at a Ruisdael did I realize how wholly I was a creature of the age of entertainment." - The Guardian (UK)
After a play about Black Frenchwomen's experiences premiered in the summer in southern France, a series of racist attacks followed - and one actress dropped out before the play transferred to Paris. - The New York Times
Lynn Nottage: "American Spectacle has always begun with a field trip to the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. ... We also go to vogue balls, courtroom trials, and megachurches. The event that the students especially love, which I never would have anticipated, is wrestling." - Paris Review
The potential AI controversy is just the latest in a series of humiliations. "All of these companies have followed the same strategy: 'leveraging” the SI brand and wringing maximum cash from it, even as they actively undermine the journalism that built that reputation." - The Atlantic
Jeremy Hobson, the creator of the weekly evening show called The Middle, "found much of modern public radio’s heavily produced, pre-recorded nature grating, as it appeared the hosts were too scripted, sounded unnatural, and pandered to a single worldview." - The Daily Beast
