The Real Music Wages Database is an anonymous, crowd-sourced list of real wage transactions reported by musicians. We track how much someone has been paid, who paid them, and how many hours of work it involved. The more entries are added to the spreadsheet, the more discernable a true economic snapshot of the new music industry is visible. – NewMusicBox
The Problem With The UK’s Approach To Controversial Statues
At first glance, the notion that controversial statues should be explained and contextualised seems like a step in the right direction. However, for many activists and museum workers, this new law might feel like a step backwards. The emphasis of this law is clearly on the museum’s “duty to the nation to conserve and preserve our heritage,” but with a very narrow view of that heritage. – The Conversation
The Music School Flourishing On Remote Easter Island
With donated land, instruments and crowd-sourced funding, Mahani Teave, along with her partner Enrique Icka, a construction engineer, broke ground on their Toki School of Music in 2014. From the start, they envisioned a sustainable, yet stylish building – “an earth ship in the shape of an eight-petaled flower.” – NPR
The Oprah Effect: What Being Interviewed By Winfrey Can Do For You
“[It] means being ready to expose yourself to her satisfaction, in exchange for having one of the world’s great empaths help you reshape your public image. As with the best therapists, you are exposed, but in some fundamental sense you are also safe: You bring the raw material; she helps you put the narrative together.” – Slate
Using Lockdown Boredom For Good
“During this period of soul-crushing boredom, it would be valuable to pay more attention to what people are feeling and thinking, rather than trying to distract and lull them; to collect our daydreams, reveries and thoughts from this time, and let expectations and desires find common expression.” – The Guardian
There’s Nothing New About Cutting Offensive Stuff From Children’s Books, So Calm Down About Dr. Seuss Already
For instance, ugly ethnic stereotypes from the 1920s and ’30s were removed from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books all the way back in 1959, and from Mary Poppins and The Story of Dr. Dolittle in the ’80s; Roald Dahl himself rewrote the original, now-cringeworthy portrayal of the Oompa-Loompas in the early 1970s after complaints from the NAACP. – The Guardian
What’s A Conductor Good For? Let A Veteran Orchestral Player Tell You.
“A great maestro, through the sheer force of his or her spiritual presence, can inspire musicians to play not with our hands but with our hearts.” Barbara Bogatin, longtime cellist at the San Francisco Symphony and former principal in the Milwaukee and New Jersey Symphonies, explains how one little explanation from the likes of Kurt Masur or Esa-Pekka Salonen can make all the difference in a performance. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Charleston Symphony Eliminates Music Director Position
To cope with the huge income shortfall caused by the pandemic, South Carolina’s largest performing arts organization will let go of conductor Ken Lam after next season; concertmaster and principal pops conductor Yuriy Bekker will become the orchestra’s artistic director, with guest conductors being engaged for core classical concerts. – The Post and Courier (Charleston)
TV Newsman Roger Mudd, 93
“[A] Peabody Award-winning journalist who spent a quarter-century at CBS News and NBC News and came close to becoming a No. 1 network anchorman — not that he wanted that, anyway” — he was most famous for his reporting on the scene at Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, asking Ted Kennedy a pointed question whose abysmal answer sank the latter’s presidential prospects, and a CBS Reports special that sank the public’s and Congress’s trust in the Pentagon. – The Hollywood Reporter
Paris Biennale Is Permanently Discontinued
“The Paris Biennale, founded in 1962 and once the world’s most prestigious art fair, is no more. After years of confusion, scandal and strife, the French union of antique dealers that ran the fair has announced its decision to ‘turn the page of the Biennale, in order to set up a new event’ in the city, scheduled for the end of November and start of December.” – The Art Newspaper
Jair Bolsonaro Blocks Arts Funding To Brazilian States With Pandemic Lockdowns
“A national culture secretary published the decree last week making clear that proposals under the Rouanet Law, which provides funding to cultural projects on a case-by-case basis, will only be considered if they involve in-person interactions and come from regions ‘where there is no restriction on circulation, curfew, lockdown or other actions that prevent the realization of the project.’ States trying to curb the spread of COVID-19 will not be eligible for support.” – Artnet
Norton Juster, Author Of ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’, Dead At 91
“A budding architect with a self-confessed tendency to procrastinate, Mr. Juster … stumbled into literature much as his most famous hero, Milo, stumbles into the marvelous world of wordplay and adventure in the classic 1961 [book]. They were bored and entirely unsuspecting of the wonders that awaited them.” – The Washington Post
Disney+ Closes In On 100 Million Subscribers
The subscriber count is up from the 94.9 million accounts Disney reported last month for the quarter that ended in January. And the surge — fueled by hits such as “The Mandalorian” and “WandaVision” — has encouraged the company to spend more on growing its streaming businesses. Disney in December unveiled an aggressive plan to ramp up programming for the service to 100 new titles a year. – Los Angeles Times
DeepFake Technology That Animates Images (Really Creepy)
The AI family history app MyHeritage allows users to animate photographs from the past. Run a document through the app and it will seemingly bring it to life, making the subject’s eyes blink and look around. – The Conversation