Jeremy Gerard: “I’m all for producers and the sometimes preposterous lengths they will go to in order to promote and protect their shows. That’s their job. But I’ve often wondered why we, the critics, so willingly go along with their manipulations. Especially when they interfere with the, well let’s call it the journalism part of our job — reporting to our readers and giving context to the cultural news of the day.” – Broadway News
‘Weimar On The Pacific’: When L.A. Was The Capital Of German Literature
Alex Ross revisits that odd period when the Nazi regime had driven the cream of pre-war German arts and letters — Werfel, Döblin, Viertel, Brecht, Adorno, three different Manns, along with composers, actors, and stage and film directors — into a disorienting exile under the palms. – The New Yorker
All About Tights And Tutus
Where they came from in the first place, how they’re made (and laundered), and why they got Nijinsky fired. – The Stage
Chicago’s Public Schools Have A Major Collection Of WPA Murals. Why Are People Calling For Them To Be Covered Up?
For essentially the same reasons that some people wanted the murals at George Washington High School in San Francisco to be covered over or removed. – Artnet
Poland’s Formidable Filmmakers Versus The Right-Wing Nationalist Government
The country’s cinema has a redoubtable history (think of Kieślowski and Wajda), famous auteurs at their peak (Paweł Pawlikowski, Agnieszka Holland), and an impressive younger generation. And they’re all facing the culture war being waged by the Law & Justice Party that heads the government. As Pawlikowski puts it, “we have a common enemy, so there’s a sense of common purpose.” – The Guardian
Computers Are Amazing. They’re Not Intelligent
The amazing feats achieved by computers demonstrate our progress in coming up with algorithms that make the computer do valuable things for us. The computer itself, though, does nothing more than it ever did, which is to do whatever we know how to order it to do—and we order it to do things by issuing instructions in the form of elementary operations on bits, the 1s and 0s that make up computer code. – American Scholar
A Backlash To Oversharing Our Lives?
Oversharing just doesn’t look like it did before. Like most things on the internet, it too has become commodified. Where we once divulged, without much thought or artifice, the hardships in our marriages or the frustration of a bad-hair day, now this seems a little cheap and amateurish. Professional influencers make a living from their oversharing. Ours doesn’t look as neat, as well thought-out, as supported. Even our connection to oversharing is controlled, manipulated, and artificial. – Wired
Two Veteran Chicago Tribune Reporters Search For Someone To Buy The Paper
Late last year, a one-third share of the Tribune was purchased by Alden Global Capital, an equity firm notorious for buying newspapers and stripping them bare. Contractual issues prevent Alden from acquiring a controlling share until June — so a pair of Tribune investigative reporters is using every tool they have to find some other, more sympathetic buyer. Are they having any success? – The New Yorker
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s ‘The Gates’, 15 Years Later
Kriston Capps reviews the 26-year-long process of convincing the City of New York to allow the project to happen in Central Park — and allows as how, when it was over, the biggest question was why anyone had ever objected. – CityLab
Yes, Hitler Wrote An Opera (A Bad One)
Long speculated about, but never before seen in public, the manuscript was apparently written after Hitler had had only a few months of piano lessons. And it clearly demonstrated the future dictator’s “inflated sense of his own abilities. The single sheet is believed to be the only surviving page of an ambitious project based on Germanic mythology that closely apes an unfinished work of the same name by Wagner himself. – The Local AT
Inside The Actors Studio Host James Lipton, 93
The show featured an A-list roster of Hollywood and Broadway royalty, including Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams, Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg. In exchange for their appearance, Mr. Lipton provided a relatively safe space for sometimes guarded celebrities to reveal themselves more personally before a live audience. – Washington Post
Despite Ten Years Of Economic Disaster, Athens Has Become A Hotbed Of Live Theatre
Michael Billington: “A decade described as a manageable catastrophe saw an explosion in theatre, even if artists didn’t always get paid. You can see the effects today in that money is tight but ticket prices are low. … Where does one start in such a hyperactive scene?” – The Guardian
The Very Tricky Art Of Making Five-Minute Series Episodes For Snapchat
Quibi has been getting all the press for its plans to make video series expressly to be watched on smartphones. But Snapchat has been doing that for years, creating 95 Snap Originals (as they’re called) so far. It isn’t easy to do; short running times and vertical screens are only the start of the challenges. – New York Magazine
Thousands Sign Petition To Cancel South By Southwest; Facebook And Twitter Pull Out
Fears over the spread of the COVID-19 virus have led more than 20,000 people (so far) to join in the request that organizers call off this year’s festival, which is still scheduled to run March 13-22. And even as the two tech giants withdraw from SXSW, a number of high-profile individuals say they’re still in, including Hillary Clinton and Rep. Adam Schiff. – Dallas Morning News
Leaker Of AGMA Report On Plácido Domingo Reveals Himself (He Had His Reasons For Doing It)
“As a sexual assault survivor myself, my conscience would not allow me to be a party to an agreement than allowed the union to bury the details of Domingo’s decades-long abuse of female AGMA members,” wrote Samuel Schultz in his letter resigning from AGMA’s board and acknowledging that he gave the report to the AP. Schultz is the singer who accused countertenor David Daniels and his husband of drugging and raping him in 2010. – NPR
Ulay, Audacious Performance Artist (And Marina’s Ex), Dead At 76
“Since the early 1970s, Ulay created performances and photographs that made frequent use of his own body. Having worked collaboratively for more than a decade with Marina Abramović, his former partner and currently the world’s most widely known performance artist, it was not until the later stages of his career that Ulay’s solo work achieved its own sort of notoriety.” – ARTnews
The New Disney Parade: A Hotbed For Dance?
The stars of Magic Happens are the dancers, significantly elevated from their traditional role revving up the crowd with upbeat moves between set pieces. The 90-or-so performers are graced with heavily theatrical choreography, which at times borders on interpretive dance. In turn, Magic Happens possesses a keen awareness of dance as a language. – Los Angeles Times
Has YouTube Become A Weapon For Radicalization?
“Look up one thing out of curiosity and YouTube is ever willing to offer far, far more, often getting far more extreme and pushing further out to the extremes, because that is how YouTube works. They have become an organ of radicalisation instead of taking responsibility, for that is the way their algorithms work.” The Guardian
The latest news about Mrs. T
Mrs. T survived her double-lung transplant surgery and has been moved to the cardio-thoracic ICU. As her surgeon put it, “We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re moving in the right direction.” – Terry Teachout
Two New Albums From Rebecca Kilgore
In one, concentrating on songs with winter themes, she is accompanied by a distinguished European quartet. A second album finds her alone with the harmonically resourceful and swinging Chicago guitarist Andy Brown. – Doug Ramsey
If TV Ends, What Comes Next?
Snapchat is trying to figure it out, but guess what? Condensing narrative into tiny, smart-phone-attention-span-sized pieces is a challenge. “There’s no time for slow builds on mobile.” – Vulture
The Walkout At The ‘French Oscars’ Shows The Massive Fracture In French Film (And Society)
Unsurprisingly – but not a great look for the men of French cinema – mostly women have supported Adèle Haenel after she walked out when Roman Polanski was awarded for his film about the Dreyfus Affair. But even France’s Minister of Culture doesn’t think the award looks good at a moment when the #MeToo movement is truly starting to explode in France. – Le Monde