While Covid-19 quarantines have made television one of the more dominant mediums around, they’ve also altered the diet of what we watch within that medium. Pre-pandemic, people could watch movies in theaters, TV shows on Netflix, and live events at concert halls, clubs, and stadiums. Now, all of those things are channeled through televisions (or, in some cases, through smartphones, laptops, and other devices). Our definition of what it means to “watch TV” has changed a lot over the last few years. – Wired
The Fictional America And How It Powers Fictions No Longer True
“In the extraordinary drama of America, fiction is paramount to preserving systemic structures of imbalance. That’s how it has been for centuries, and that’s how Trump supporters would like it to remain. But that kind of fiction has no place in a healthy, stable democracy. It’s a contaminant and a cancer, a barrier to the remaking our country requires and the change ahead. In the America we want to build, we no longer have a need for it.” – Wired
Louvre Reports 72 Percent Drop In Admissions For 2020
The museum has reported one of its worst attendance figures ever, with around 2.7 million visitors—a 72% drop compared to 9.6 million in 2019. – The Art Newspaper
On Hearing The Music While You Read
Writers have to listen as well as read. “As I read The Waves, I started to ‘hear’ language as if for the first time. It was as though a window flew open, and the sounds of the author’s words rushed in. I began to notice the sonic patterns of Woolf’s sentences, how she composed a music all her own with her rhythmic language and sentence structure.” – The New York Times
Writer Jenny Offill On What Can Be Done During The Pandemic
If you have elderly parents and kids to care for, not much. “The pandemic has been through all these different stages and you’re constantly moving between boredom and terror. We recently converted our dining table to a ping-pong table and I felt that was the final stage of getting through the winter.” – The Guardian (UK)
Thieves Made Off With Most Of San Jose Dance Theater’s Handmade Costumes
The carefully designed and handmade costumes are priceless for the ballet company, but not useful for almost anyone else, says costume director Renee Forbes. “They can only be used in something like ballets and dance performances. It is not something everyday people need or use. … These costumes are like my children.” – KTVU (San Jose)
Instagram Has Turned Into A Source Of Funding, And Patronage, For Indigenous Beadwork Artists
When artists drop collections on Instagram, they often sell out in a matter of minutes. Beadwork takes time; there’s no way to mass-produce, and that’s part of the value. For artist Jaymie Campbell, Anishinaabe, from Curve Lake First Nation near Ontario, “the amount she puts into every piece means it isn’t possible to fully scale up to meet demand, and that’s OK. Each earring or pendant is ‘a piece of me, and my family and my story.'” – The New York Times
The National Society Of Film Critics Picks Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland As Best Pic
But not just best pic: “The film won best picture and best cinematography, while Zhao was awarded best director and star Frances McDormand was named best actress.” That’s a big sweep. – Variety
Reckoning With Author Patricia Highsmith At 100
Highsmith – author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, not to mention The Price of Salt (renamed Carol to go along with the movie) – had a dark, dark well of self-hate that affected most of her fiction. And yet: “It feels good to be hunted. If you read the genres of suspense – crime and mystery and horror in its many iterations – you know the sensation of allowing a master of her craft to pursue you through a maze; the tingly energy of the chase, the eroticism of encountering the end of the line.” – The Guardian (UK)
One Of The Coolest Trends That Should Stay Post-Pandemic
Renting your own movie theatre isn’t cheap, but (once we can gather in greater numbers than two or three), it’s not exactly unaffordable. And it makes some things far better: For instance, “when attending a public theater, your experience is completely reliant on the strangers in there with you. It all hinges on others adhering to theater etiquette rules, which tend to vary from person to person. This is a problem that is mitigated by the private theater experience.” – CinemaBlend
Why Has Post-War Britain Been Obsessed With Portraiture?
Seriously, Britain, what’s up? “The best-known artists are the ones who wedded their style to ‘human clay.’ America, on the other, hand has seen Pop Art, Minimalism, and Color Field painting challenge their predecessor, Abstract Expressionism, which had challenged Regionalism and Conceptual Art; the proverbial ‘Death of Painting’ challenge all of painting; and marginalized artists challenge all of these implicitly conservative narratives focusing on the end of history, art, and painting.” – Hyperallergic
Dr. Fauci Says That Theatres May Reopen In The Fall If Vaccination Program Is A Success
He said that “the timeline hinged on the country reaching an effective level of herd immunity, which he defined as vaccinating from 70 percent to 85 percent of the population.” In addition, audiences will likely be required to wear masks for some time, for the safety of performers and staff. – The New York Times