With Egypt's once-dominant industry stagnating under the Sisi dictatorship, the government led by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is dropping lots of money to fill that void, building soundstages and film schools, launching a star-studded movie festival, and even directly funding productions. - The New York Times
The Council of State, the country's top administrative court, found insufficient justification for prime minister Alexander De Croo's COVID-related order closing theaters, concert halls, and cinemas while leaving restaurants, bars, and Christmas markets open. - Variety
The mass production of warm sounding words with minimal interest in real material outcomes is signifying bullshit (SB). It is nearly ubiquitous. - 3 Quarks Daily
As the nation’s big media companies look to woo new viewers trying to pick their way through a dizzying number of streaming outlets, news divisions are signing up for the battle. - Variety
The prevalence of the trauma plot cannot come as a surprise at a time when the notion of trauma has proved all-engulfing. Its customary clinical incarnation, P.T.S.D., is the fourth most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder in America, and one with a vast remit. - The New Yorker
How these two Canadian companies chose to respond to our contemporary context of anti-racist calls when interpreting Messiah provides an opportunity to have a conversation about how performers and audiences of western classical music can engage more fully in anti-colonial and anti-racist work. - The Conversation
Seeing Chuck’s image reduced to the accusations against him in recent years has inspired me to tell my story, not as a defense or rebuttal — I believe and honor the women who came forward — but to add perspective to how we see Chuck Close, even if that portrait is more Cubist than photorealist. - The New York...
Jackson, 56, earned a doctorate in urban planning from the University of California at Los Angeles, and she’s a professor at Arizona State University and a sought-after speaker on how to embed arts, culture and design into community life. Jackson previously worked at the Urban Institute. - Washington Post
While Paris works with a 15-minute radius and Barcelona’s superblocks with nine-block chunks of the city, Sweden’s project operates at the single street level, paying attention to “the space outside your front door — and that of your neighbors adjacent and opposite.” - Bloomberg
"Far from being a children's story, Bambi was actually a parable about the inhumane treatment and dangerous precariousness of Jews and other minorities in what was then an increasingly fascist world, the new translation will show." - The Observer (UK)
The way the idea of giving up figures in our lives, as a perpetual lure and an insistent fear. The giving up that involves leaving ourselves out of what we had wanted, or thought we had wanted. The giving up that is linked to a sense of impossibility, or of possibilities running out. - London Review of Books
Gia Kourlas: "With so much emphasis on dialogue and character development, the tension — the very glue of West Side Story — seeps away. Tony, we learn, is on parole for almost killing a kid. Who cares?" - The New York Times
There’s a Warhol, there’s a Lichtenstein, there’s a Thiebaud. His work was routinely grouped with that of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and thus he must have been a pop artist. But his art resisted the inclination not to look with marvelous energy. - Washington Post
"Are those towers the most powerful act of recycling that California has ever seen? Maybe." Christopher Reynolds recounts the history of their building, including the 100,000-pounds-of-pressure stress test they had to pass so as not to be demolished. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
The self-consciousness isn’t necessary; Disney transcended the high-low debate a long time ago. A better question is whether a major art institution dedicating programming to a multibillion dollar corporate behemoth best serves a viewing public. - The New York Times
