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How Streaming Devalues Movies

You can sense it in all the calculations Disney has been making with regard to what goes to theaters, what’s PVOD, and what goes directly to Disney+. - Slate

Second 1887 Time Capsule Found Under Robert E. Lee Statue

News accounts described its dozens of donated artifacts, including Confederate memorabilia. Based on historical records, some have also speculated the capsule might contain a rare photo of deceased President Abraham Lincoln. - The Guardian

“A Movie In Conversation With Its Own History”: How Spielberg And Kushner Retrofitted “West Side Story”

"Vulture's theater desk, Helen Shaw and Jackson McHenry, discuss the 2021 version, how it alters a hugely familiar piece of art, and how and where those changes worked." - Vulture

Will Crutchfield: New Opera Is Thriving

New opera, by any reasonable definition – by any defensible amalgamation of the definitions commonly put forward over the years – is thriving. - Osborne on Opera: A Critical Blog

Dostoevsky And The True Crime Craze In 1860s Russia

How the pulp nonfiction devoured by the public during Tsar Alexander II's reign led to Crime and Punishment — and how Dostoevsky used the hunger for true crime stories to get his political message into the public's hands. - The New Republic

The Best Books Of The Past 125 Years? The NYT Book Review Asked Readers…

In November, we presented a list of the 25 most-nominated books (one per author) for a vote. After tallying more than 200,000 ballots, the winner, by a narrow margin, is... - The New York Times

Good Things Happen When A Variety Of Black Viewpoints Can Be Seen On Broadway

"In the last few weeks, I've seen … Trouble in Mind, Caroline, or Change and Clyde's. Individually, their plots and period settings offer great insight into how far we've really come. But taken together, they reveal a full range of aesthetic and racial possibilities." - The New York Times

The Rare Fabric That Was Coveted 200 Years Ago That No One Now Knows How To Make

Made via an elaborate, 16-step process with a rare cotton that only grew along the banks of the holy Meghna river, the cloth was considered one of the great treasures of the age. It had a truly global patronage, stretching back thousands of years. - BBC

Latin American Telenovelas Are Old Hat. The New Hotness Is Turkish Dizis

In many countries these days, including Spanish-speaking ones, the Turkish serial dramas are replacing telenovelas on TV schedules. The popularity of dizis has now made Turkey a larger exporter of television programming than any country but the U.S. - PRI

How Orchestras Are Trying To Diversify Audiences

Orchestras are approaching these audiences through multilingual websites, artist and repertoire choices, and outreach activities, connecting more firmly with the communities they touch. - Strings

Creating Choreography For Animated Characters

Sherrie Silver, who usually works with film stars and models, talks with a reporter about how she created, and then communicated to animators, the dance moves for Sing 2. - Variety

How Merce Cunningham Upended Concert Dance’s Conventions: Technology, Philosophy And Randomness

"This video from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis explores six aspects to Cunningham's 70-year career, from dance maker, collaborator and chance taker, to innovator, film producer and teacher, to put his influence and legacy in context." - Aeon

Once Threatened, This One-Million-Pound Artwork Is Being Rehomed

Elyn Zimmerman's rock-and-water installation Marabar was erected in 1984 in the courtyard of the National Geographic Society — which now has other plans for that space. Then American University came to the rescue. - The New York Times

When Someone Hears Music That Isn’t There

Here's an explainer about Musical Ear Syndrome — which isn't a form of tinnitus or of audio hallucinations caused by a psychiatric condition. In fact, MES is pretty common. - Ludwig Van

99 Finds: The Most Exciting Art And Artifact Discoveries Of 2021

Sorted into categories such as "Missing masterpieces", "Ancient art", "Prehistoric peoples", African-American and indigenous North American history, and "Royal treasures", here are nearly a hundred pieces of (mostly) good news. - Smithsonian Magazine

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