So how did the author of How to Do Nothing survive the various self-isolations, lockdowns, and other stay-at-home initiatives before vaccines got their start? For one thing, she remembered what she had learned about social media, "this way of engaging with the attention economy that feels toxic to me, that I talk about in the book, how much that’s...
How wild to have a show with Crip Camp nominated for best documentary, a show that prevented disabled people in L.A. from getting to their subway trains - and also forced hordes of people to find the new site for COVID-19 testing. Ash Pana, who lives by Union Station and "who suffers from chronic pain and sometimes uses a...
Young was an acclaimed poet, but he also wrote novels - and always, always, worked jazz into his readings and his life. And along with music, he had his voice. "Writing a poem, Mr. Young believed, was only part of the process. Reading it live — something he did with a compelling, resonant voice — was the other." -...
And visitors who have been in lockdown number ... infinity? ... and have been absolutely starved for art are more than happy to be in the galleries, masked, in person. - The Guardian (UK)
Basically, her subjects tell their stories; she works with those stories and fictionalizes them, and then the subjects act out their fictionalized lives. "The outcome is scripted but the raw material is fact. There’s a personal rediscovery for the men and women onscreen as they interpret themselves in Zhao’s fabricated versions of their realities." - Los Angeles Times
She spoke or could read 13 languages, ran the New York Marathon, and was the third-longest serving employee of the NYPL, where she catalogued rare books for more than 50 years. She wrote books, edited books, and told those taking tours of the underground steel stacks that catalogers were "the most important workers in the library." - The New...
Yes, Nomadland is only the second movie directed by a woman to win a Best Picture Oscar, and the first Best Picture Oscar to go to a film directed by a woman of color. But also: Nomadland is about women. "Movies about women basically never win Best Picture. By my count, Nomadland is one of only six movies focused on the...
By 20-year-old Aaron Yang's estimate, "he's now contacted around a thousand libraries and acquired untold numbers of pencils, stickers and awards." Is ... is this OK? Librarians are torn. - NPR
Protests have been going on outside the museum for the last three weeks. "These protests, called 'pop-up deoccupations' in the activists’ parlance — have so far been tame, focusing on 'speakouts' and performances while keeping a measured distance from the museum’s entrance. But this might change next Friday, April 30, as the activists plan to escalate their protests and bring them...
Ludwig was most prominently associated with the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, but she also sang at the Met. She "rose from straitened origins in a shattered wartime Germany to the height of the singing world, aided by a sense of discipline instilled by her strong-willed mother — her only real teacher and a constant presence throughout...
For a supposedly capitalist industry, what the heck? A study found that "America’s film industry is the country’s least diverse business sector and that its systemic anti-Black biases cost it at least $10 billion in annual revenue. Black content is undervalued, underdistributed and underfunded, the analysis found. It also found that Black talent has been systematically shut out of creator,...
A dubious proposition, but a possible one: "If numbers or data or statistics can provide any ounce of entertainment, there’s no better time than the present." (If you're a betting person, bet on Nomadland to take it all.) - The Hollywood Reporter
Broadcast TV ratings have been declining for years, and this ceremony will be no different - and won't mean anything about the actual movies involved. "I have long thought that the thing the Oscars needs most is one of those old Christmas special sets, with the cool living room sofa, the baby grand and that front door through which...
