Far from the WASP families in suburban homes seen in Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver (and The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family and on and on), The Goldbergs — created by its star, Gertrude Berg, who also wrote every episode — featured a thoroughly Jewish immigrant couple and their American-born children in a Bronx tenement. And 1950s America loved it. – BBC
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Approves Musicians’ Contract With No Pay Cuts
“The pact, announced this week, was passed unanimously by the musicians, the SPCO board and the board of the American Federation of Musicians Local 30-73 some 15 months before the current contract was set to expire. It will maintain musicians’ pay, benefits and work rules from July 2022 until July 2024.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
‘Little Did I Know’: A Theater Critic Considers The Anniversary Of The COVID Shutdown
Helen Shaw: “The pandemic has been a period of getting a lot of ‘little did I know’ stuff out into the open, including (but hardly limited to) the troubling ethics of the industry and the intense vulnerability of those who make a living in it. … I celebrate that our theaters closed, because it’s one of the few ways we’ve protected our people, by acknowledging that they were not essential. Theater is vital, beautiful, useful, inevitable. Won’t those words do as well?” – Vulture
A Political Winner In Boston — The Arts?
“As it happens, this year’s wide-open mayoral race — a political rarity in Boston — offers the cultural sector a golden opportunity to flex a little political muscle. At this early stage of the race, all of the candidates are looking for a way to stand out, and their agendas are still evolving. The cultural sector needs to ensure that the arts occupy a prominent place in the campaign conversation. Being the Arts Candidate would seem to be a pretty potent political brand.” – Boston Globe
The Indigenous Choreographer And The Presenter — A Dispute Spirals
The dispute burst into the open earlier this year when Emily Johnson severed her connection with Peak Performances and wrote about her decision in “A Letter I Hope in the Future Doesn’t Need to Be Written,” which she posted online on Jan. 22. In it she likened Jedediah Wheeler’s behavior — what she recounts as his screaming, his failure to apologize, his use of power — to “white rage.” – The New York Times
Could Netflix Transform Africa’s Cinema Ecosystem?
In Sub-Saharan Africa there are and have been numerous impressive filmmakers, but only Nigeria and South Africa have fully developed industries in which films can be funded, shot, edited and gotten to a wide public, all domestically. But the continent is full of growing markets that Netflix would like to enter, the company has plenty of money to fund films, and high-speed Internet access there is spreading. – The Guardian
Boris Johnson Says The Elgin Marbles Will Not Be Returned To Greece
“Boris Johnson has used his first interview with a European newspaper since becoming the UK’s prime minister to issue a point-blank rejection of the Parthenon marbles being returned to Greece. [He] insisted that the sculptures, removed from the monument by Lord Elgin in circumstances that have since spurred one of the world’s most famous cultural rows, would remain in Britain because they had been legally acquired.” – The Guardian
How Robert Fulford’s Arguments With Glenn Gould Shaped Him As A Critic
As students, Fulford and Gould would argue about music. Fulford was acquiring a taste for jazz and other forms of popular music, which Gould dismissed. Having to argue with someone as informed and quirkily opinionated as Gould forced Fulford into becoming an ad hoc critic, thus beginning a second career on top of journalism. – The Nation
The Book ‘Empireland’ Is Selling Well – And Britain’s Imperially Nostalgic Are Flinging Hate Mail At Its Author
The author is pleased by the support from his publisher, but the hate has truly ramped up. Sathnam Sanghera: “In a way, it proves the need for this conversation. No conversation or theme I’ve ever tackled is as dysfunctional as empire. It’s like, the strength of opinion out there is in inverse proportion to the amount of knowledge.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Silver Lining Of Netflix’s Password Crackdown Is Your Security
No, really. “Sharing user names and passwords with even your closest relations can have woesome consequences” – and the Netflix crackdown might help save your identity in the future. – Wired
How Did Disney Get The Bachelor So Wrong This Year?
The Mouse promised change at the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death. But the online chatter over racism on The Bachelor has only grown. “As the furor crests heading into the finale, neither Disney nor ABC has commented publicly on the matter, despite leadership’s less than year-old pledge to be open about racial issues. The subject was not raised during this week’s Disney shareholder meeting. Neither Disney nor ABC responded to requests for comment from The Times.” – Los Angeles Times
Memoirs Tell Us What We Don’t Know About The People We Know
A good memoir “gets into the feelings that are so buried and complex that they rarely come into focus in a conversation, even among good friends.” – LitHub
How Exactly Does Voting For The Grammys Work?
Yes, there are secret committees. “And they’re just one strange, clandestine part of a voting process that is largely shrouded in mystery.” Yikes. – Vice
Leon Gast, Filmmaker Of ‘When We Were Kings,’ 84
Gast spent 22 years making the documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, and in the end, it paid off: “In 1996, Mr. Gast and Mr. Sonenberg took it to the Sundance Film Festival, where they received a special jury citation and 17 distribution offers. Critics praised the film, which nearly swept the awards for documentary films that season — including, in early 1997, the Academy Award for best documentary feature.” – The New York Times
Angelica, Eliza, And Healthcare Workers Making Pandemic-Related Art
Some healthcare workers created dances to deal with the losses and tragedies – and stresses of people not believing in the virus’ toll – and some painted. Some silkscreened; some embroidered on old bedsheets when fabric became less available. But all of the healthcare workers used art to cope. One physician: “The suffering we have seen with COVID-19 is [a] thousand times worse than any other illness, ever in my lifetime.” – Los Angeles Times
Musical Brit Awards Exclude Nonbinary Musicians
So do most awards – and that excludes nonbinary, extraordinarily popular singer Sam Smith. The official line: “The Brits are committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review. But any changes made to be more inclusive need to be just that – if a change unintentionally leads to less inclusion then it risks being counterproductive to diversity and equality. We need to consult more widely before changes are made.” Well, corporate-speak aside, perhaps next year. – The Guardian (UK)
A Broadway Pop-Up Concert Slash Rally Briefly Invigorates New York
With Chita Rivera, André De Shields, and an array of singers and dancers, the pop-up on the anniversary of Broadway’s shutdown gave paying work to performers who haven’t seen much of it in a year. And it was hopeful: “Although they aren’t likely to perform inside theaters again until after Labor Day, the message of the show was that the end of the industry’s nightmare seemed to be getting closer.” – The New York Times
Novelist Yaa Gyasi Goes Shopping In Her Own Bookshelves During The Pandemic
We all have books that are waiting for just such an occasion. When the author of Homecoming and Transcendent Kingdom was young, her parents made her “write a report on the children’s book I was reading at the time. I think it was The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. … I wrote something to the effect of ‘This book is very good. If you’d like to learn more about it, read it yourself.’ I’m happy to say that was the end of the book reports but not the end of my love for reading.” – The Guardian (UK)
Live Theatre Finally Gets Its Own Guidelines In Los Angeles
The guidelines are stringent – each county must cycle completely out of “colors” of COVID-19 infections before indoor theatre can open, and they have to cycle way lower rates before outdoor theatre can open at a low capacity, with reservations and assigned seating, and only with people from within 120 miles of the theatre. It’s weirdly different from movie theatres, but: “Any progress — any change that allows arts groups to rebuild a sense of community — is critically important.” – Los Angeles Times
The Secret History Of Women Writing Liner Notes
Representation is a problem across the board in the Grammys, including – weirdly, wildly – the writing of liner notes (which is an actual Grammy), a category women have won three times since the inception of the award in 1964. But women are still writing liner notes: “The ability to take an intricate snapshot of a particular recording and then trace the concentric circles of its resonance beyond the studio are reasons notes still matter and why these women authors so deeply value them.” – The New York Times
Herge’s Heirs Are No Fans Of A French Artist’s Edward Hopper/Tintin Mashups
So much not fans that they’ve sued the artist making the images. Hergé’s heirs specifically said of Xavier Marabout’s images that “it was not funny to take advantage of Tintin by putting him in an erotic universe, especially as Hergé had chosen not to caricature women.” – The Guardian (UK)
French Actor Wears A Donkey Costume Soaked In Fake Blood, And Then Strips, At The Cesars
The details: “Actress Corinne Masiero took the stage in a donkey costume covered in fake blood, before stripping down to a faux gore-soaked gown and, finally, fully undressing altogether, while presenter Marina Fois looked on in shock and (eventually) the audience applauded.” The message? Arts workers need a lot more support. – Vulture
Want To Hear The Lego Microtonal Guitar?
Of course you do – and the electromagnetic harp, the “evolved piano,” and more of the winners of a new instrument competition. – The New York Times
The Pandemic Has Shown Us That We Need A Lot More Art
Yes, we need food and water, air and health care. And we’re desperate for cultural nourishment as well. For one family at an outdoor event, “After weeks of seeing very little but the inside of our house, it felt almost impossibly bright and colourful. When we reached a magical glade hung with giant, sparkling thistledown, my eight-year-old tugged on my hand. ‘Artists are so clever,’ he said, his eyes like saucers.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Stunt Doubles Of The Art World
When museum staff are preparing for a show, they need maquettes, like an actor’s stand-in, to represent the works themselves. But they can’t be replicas. They’re “‘really just trying to evoke the salient features, the sculptural qualities’ of the original pieces. Their utility stems from their simplicity.” – The New York Times