ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

Meet The Teenagers Who Started A Bookclub To Read Banned Books

The teen members of Kutztown’s Banned Book Club, meet every two weeks to read and discuss literature that conservatives across the country are working to ban from school libraries. - The Guardian

Superstar Concert Ticket Prices Soar, Pricing Out Many

“Even with the inflated prices, I’m still going to go to gigs because music is what I live for. But working-class people are getting priced out of seeing the musicians they love.” - The Guardian

Tracking Broadway’s Uneven Reopening: Winners And Losers

The quick upshot: While the formerly $15 billion industry was still recovering, many shows made up much, if not all, lost momentum. But the gains were uneven; established brands saw strong sales while newer work, especially plays, struggled. - Forbes

Spotify’s Real Problem: Unrealistic Ambition

What’s become increasingly clear in recent weeks is that the source of Spotify’s headaches isn’t Rogan. It is Spotify’s own corporate ambition to dominate the audio business — and keep investors happy — by reaching 1 billion users and 50 million “creators.” - Los Angeles Times

US Treasury Department Warns Of Money Laundering Through Fine Art

The treasury department did find evidence of money laundering in the high-value art market. A common theme is that criminals use shell companies to buy art and hide behind a corporate veil. - Toronto Star (AP)

Cellist Leslie Parnas, 90

From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, Parnas was the principal cellist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He went on to be a prizewinner at the Tchaikovsky, Geneva, and Musich International Cello Competitions, as well as a Pablo Casals Prize recipient at the Paris International Cello Competition. - The Violin Channel

Here’s How China’s Influence On American Culture Works

“Red Dawn” would become a case study observed by every producer in Hollywood who needed this market to make a profit. And soon, it wouldn’t be just Hollywood taking the lesson of the movie to heart.  - The Wall Street Journal

Is Hollywood Rethinking The Romantic Gender Age Gap?

“Men on screen have a whole life, and women only have a shelf life,” says Nicky Clark, the founder of campaign group Acting Your Age, which lobbies for age-appropriate casting and representation for older women on screen. - The Guardian

Perhaps We Need A True Oscars Villain To Know Movies Can Come Back From The Pandemic Brink

The true way to unite a culture is to give the Best Picture nod to something like Crash. (Please do not, though. Please.) - Vulture

Henry Darger’s Landlords Inherited The Rights To His Art, But Should They Have?

Good question, though without the landlords' advocacy, the world might never have heard of the artist and his work. "Now distant relatives of Darger — tracked down by a collector of vintage photography — are making a legal claim to that legacy." - The New York Times

How Physics Shape Opera, And The Rest Of Reality

It's all about resonance. "A system’s natural frequencies depend on its intrinsic properties: For a flute, for instance, they are the frequencies of sound waves that exactly fit inside its cylindrical geometry." - Wired

It’s Possible That On Tuesday, The Oscars Will Nominate No One New For The Major Acting Awards Or Director

The trend is weirdly strong: "If you read the tea leaves put forth by the nominations for the DGA and SAG, there’s a strong possibility that all three of those categories may not include a first-time nominee." - Variety

Artist Damien Hirst Faces His 16th Accusation Of Plagiarism

Can one plagiarize a painting of cherry blossoms? Perhaps. "English artist and writer Joe Machine ... says they look just like his own cherry blossom paintings." - The Observer (UK)

Why Are People Upset About The Sudden Demolition Of This 1945 House?

The Marcel Breuer-designed Geller House "embodied the optimistic, now-vanished values of postwar suburbia: technological progress and a lifestyle built around children’s needs." - The New York Times

Along With COVID Disinformation, Turns Out Joe Rogan Was Peddling The N-Word An Awful Lot

Spotify has removed 70 episodes wherein Rogan used the N-word, but none of the episodes removed were related to the protest over Rogan's habit of hosting guests who say ... interesting ... things about the novel coronavirus. - Washington Post

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');