"Rather than offering an escapist vision of a world unravaged by pandemic, I've taken reassurance from the way these shows offer an escapist vision of pandemic. They present quarantine conditions as a utopia in which creative laborers, isolated in a single space for an extended period of time, yield art validated through external adjudication. They have 'flourished,' instead of...
Well, A Quiet Place II's boffo box office seems to indicate that people are sick of their living rooms and, one hopes, fully vaccinated and ready to go to the movies. - Variety
How'd the dry run for the YOLA concert hall go? "It would be hard to imagine a less proper acoustic assessment, or a better real world one. The ensemble of student string players spent the pandemic practicing at home and taking instruction via Zoom. Yet their assignment, on only their third time back together, was the tricky first movement...
"On May 25, 1991 — 30 years ago Tuesday — Billboard … started counting album sales with scanners and computers and whatnot, and not just calling up record stores one at a time and asking them for their individual counts, often a manual and semi-accurate and flagrantly corrupt process. … Virtually overnight, SoundScan changed the rules on who got...
For its first post-pandemic performances this fall, Lyric Opera of Chicago — based, it seems, on feedback from potential audience members and official guidelines last year — decided to keep all performances under two-and-a-half hours and eliminate intermission. When he reported this, writes Chris Jones, "my mailbox immediately filled up with one burning question from Chicago's opera fans: When...
"This is an existential moment for museums across America, with many facing yawning budget deficits alongside calls for deep structural change — and visitors only trickling back through their doors as the pandemic's chill on cultural life slowly lifts. For some directors of small and midsize museums, the events of the last 12 months have given fresh urgency to...
"After a regional trial run, French president Emmanuel Macron is launching his program to fund cultural activities for young people nationally. Culture Pass, as the initiative is called, is now open to all 18 year olds in France, and will be extended to high schools across the nation in 2022." - Artnet
Apparently, 70 percent of the moviegoing public - which is, let's note, far higher than the percentage of fully vaccinated people in the U.S. - feel comfortable going to reopened movie theatres now. This week, "before the studios showed off trailers for their upcoming slate of movies, Schwarzenegger led the audience in a chant: 'We are back. We...
Like so many businesses, the movie theater industry has been ravaged by the economic effects of the pandemic. Theaters were starved of audiences when lockdowns went into effect, and studios delayed new releases or, in some cases, put them out on streaming services. Some chains have shut down and others have declared bankruptcy. AMC Entertainment’s chief executive, Adam Aron,...
The first scheduled event is the finale of this year's Tribeca Film Festival on June 19. Only vaccinated people will be admitted. And how will management ensure that patrons are telling the truth about their shots? Said CEO James Dolan, "That's a really good question, I have no idea." - The New York Times
And that seems like something to celebrate, and take advantage of, to a lot of museum directors. "We know that all museums’ audiences will be more local, which offers a great opportunity for arts and culture to sit at the heart of their communities, especially where those communities have experienced such hardship over the past year." - The Observer...
After 15 months of COVID-19 restrictions, deaths, infections, fear, and all kinds of life challenges, we must have more public art. "It does a simple but essential thing: reminds everyday people that they are not alone in this bizzarro moment, and miraculously and fortunately, they are still alive and kicking." - Hyperallergic
The traffic started out the other way, of course, with over-the-air programs being released as or adapted into podcasts. "But podcasting has turned into an incubator of sorts for new radio shows, with several now making their way to local airwaves. … Starting out as a podcast offers show creators a chance to explore and experiment while also building...
Why? Money, of course: to put it in business-speak, the companion podcast "offers a new way for creators to diversify IP assets." What's the draw? "People want to spend more time thinking and talking about the shows that they're watching, whether they're binge-watching it or watching it once a week," says HBO's director of podcasts. "It's on their mind,...
"Ticket-buyers are being told they will be required to wear face masks (although it's not clear how changing advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might affect that expectation). Theaters will have upgraded HVAC systems with virus-trapping filters. Most ticketing will be digital. And theaters are reserving the right to impose a variety of safety protocols" —...
