It would be easy to dismiss the rise of “social distance socializing” as a product of pure necessity, a stopgap until we are, hopefully, able to safely congregate in person again. But these online gatherings are the culmination of a much broader cultural shift: the revelation that so much of our lives is already lived online. What we might call our “digital bodies” — our online avatars, the words we write on Twitter or Facebook, the photos we post on Instagram — are not artificial projections of who we are into an artificial space, but rather part and parcel of our identities. Our “digital bodies” are as much part of us as our legs or our fingers. – The New York Times
Musician Sues Pension Fund For Risky Investments And Wins $28 Million Settlement
Thursday’s settlement deal in a case brought by a onetime Philadelphia area saxophonist against a $2 billion musicians’ pension fund shows that the trustees who ratify advisers’ and outside managers’ investment picks can be held responsible for their mistakes. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Why We Should Bail Out Classical Music
Matthew Walther: “If it is worth bailing out restaurants and bars and other places where people congregate together for merriment and diversion, we must not neglect those institutions in which men and women come together for something that satisfies all the deepest longings of our species.” – The Week
In Europe, Cinema Production Has Been Thrown Into Utter Crisis
Even before COVID-19 shut down production completely, three historic companies were in trouble – deep in debt to creditors, troubled by streaming, etc. Then seven feature films in Paris alone stopped dead, one leaving a street recreated in WWII-era styles. Some relief: “The National Cinema Center (CNC) plans to relieve the short-term cash flow of 1,200 arthouse cinemas and distributors. It also suspended payment of the ticket tax (TSA) in March and authorized the advance use of the support fund.” – Le Monde
Apparently, Everyone Wants To Read Camus Right Now
That’s right, Camus’ The Plague is leading a wave of “pestilence fiction.” Get this: “The British publisher of The Plague, Penguin Classics, says it is struggling to keep up with orders. ‘We’ve gone from shipping quantities in the low hundreds every month to the mid-thousands.'” – The Guardian (UK)
Hollywood Workers And The Bailout
For actors, writers, directors, and all of the many, many thousands of craft workers, there’s a little help: “The act includes a provision known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance that extends unemployment benefits to those who otherwise would not qualify, including the self-employed and independent contractors.” – Los Angeles Times
Defiant British Museum Appoints Mary Beard As Trustee
Despite her nomination being rejected by Downing Street last year, the British Museum appointed her anyway. “The Cambridge don, who will take up the role for an initial period of four years on Monday, said she was delighted. ‘It was a visit to the BM which first inspired me to work on the ancient world,’ she told the Observer. ‘I have been a huge beneficiary of this and other museums in the country over the past 60 years, and am now delighted to be able to give something back.'” – The Observer (UK)
LACMA Demolition Continues Despite Calls For Quarantine
Not everyone is happy about this. “Opponents of LACMA’s building project have zeroed in on county funding that includes $117.5 million released last April, arguing that the money should be reallocated to address a pandemic that has led to mass shortages of much-needed medical supplies, such as face masks for health workers, COVID-19 test kits and ventilators for sick patients.” – Los Angeles Times
Original Cast Recordings To Get You Through The Pandemic
Why now? “As an adult, I’ve try to keep my performing past under wraps. Being a theater nerd was never cool to begin with, but … polite society seems to find something sad about being nostalgic for the activities you loved in adolescence. But now that we’re in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, shame is no longer a concern of mine.” – Slate
Actors Are Also Out Of A Job – All Of Their Many Jobs At Once
So what are they doing instead of booking, acting, producing, and bartending? Hosting livestreamed music classes for kids in the morning and asking watchers to donate $5 if they have it; building creative communities; and, well, kicking up the “coronavirus content” subgenre. – The Atlantic
For Commercial Dancers In Los Angeles, All Revenue Streams Are Gone
There’s no touring, no practicing for Coachella, no videos filming. There’s nothing. “As the entertainment business comes to a halt, commercial dancers and choreographers — the performers who animate film, TV and music videos — said the experience has been surreal and stressful.” – Los Angeles
The National Symphony Orchestra Lays Off All 96 Musicians With A One-Week Notice
Despite a $25 million stimulus package for the Kennedy Center, the musicians of the NSO were told late Friday night that their April 3 paycheck would be their last, and their health care would end at the end of May if concerts have not resumed. Unsurprisingly, given that their collective bargaining agreement requires six weeks of pay before layoffs for economic hardship, “the union has filed a grievance challenging what it believes is an illegal action.” – The Washington Post