If you don’t want to be a covidiot, spend some of your quatorzaine at home boning up on the new words about Miss Rona, from the Chinese tagline for social distancing to the German term for sports played in empty stadiums (and the one for the weight fans at home are putting on) to the metaphor for hoarding that a Dutch sign language interpreter came up with on the fly. – 1843 Magazine
Is This A Good Time To Launch A Book Titled ‘Notes From An Apocalypse’?
Well, perhaps it’s the perfect time. “Readers, for their part, will emerge feeling doomed—yet oddly uplifted.” – The Economist
In The Movies AI Is Helpful… Until It Turns On You
“Artificial intelligence, and the desire to smooth out the rough edges of human biology through it, has frequently made its way into the movies. But while the most intriguing of films that dabble in the subject tell entertaining stories, they warn of the complications of relying too much on technology to solve problems. Will a smart machine bring salvation or destruction?” – The New York Times
How The Last Pandemic Crept Into Literature
Elizabeth Outka: “I have spent the last five years writing a book about how the sensory and affective climate of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic infuses interwar literature, often in ways we have not recognized. My new awareness of the traces of that pandemic shifts my perception of this one, as if the sights and sounds from a century ago have re-emerged, becoming timely in ways I both feared and never wanted.” – The Paris Review
John Tavener’s Final Opera Is Now Recovered And Will Be Staged — Thanks To Prince Charles
The popular composer, who died in 2013, finished writing Krishna in 2005, but it was never published or produced and few were aware of its existence. Then the Crown Prince, a longtime friend of Tavener’s, asked director David Pountney to take a look at it — and, said Pountney, “I was astonished to discover this massive complete work.” He will direct it in the summer of 2024 at the Grange Park Opera festival. – The Guardian
Georgia Film Industry In Lockdown
Georgia’s film industry is big. It accounted for $3 billion film/TV production in 2019 and employs 92,100. It’s all shut down now, and many wonder if it will survive. – ArtsATL
NPR Reporter Shows You How To Build The Perfect Home Radio Studio
“Don Gonyea, NPR’s roving national political correspondent, has a lot of experience recording high-quality audio outside of a studio. He often records his features and spots from hotel rooms across the country while he follows political hopefuls. … We thought Gonyea’s expertise building temporary studios with everyday items like couch cushions and pillows may come in handy for those of you at home who could use some guidance. Here are his top tips.” – Current
Artists Begin Working, Nervously, With Artificial Intelligence
“Not only is A.I. a tool for artists, who are employing machine intelligence in fascinating ways, it is also frequently a topic to be examined — sometimes in the same piece. And underlying many of the works is a deep unease. As Lisa Phillips, the director of New York’s New Museum, put it, the worries come down to ‘the prospect that machines are going to take over.’ She added, ‘What are we unleashing?'” – The New York Times
COVID Has Cost U.S. Arts Orgs $4.5 Billion: Study
“Arts and culture organizations across the country are estimated to have lost a combined $4.5 billion because of the health crisis so far, according to an ambitious new survey conducted by the Americans for the Arts. And that’s just the start.” – Artnet
Home Alone: What We Know About Solitude And Its Healing Power
Steadily, slowly, research interest in solitude has been increasing. Note, solitude – time alone – is not synonymous with loneliness, which is a subjective sense of unwanted social isolation that’s known to be harmful to mental and physical health. In contrast, in recent years, many observational studies have documented a correlation between greater wellbeing and a healthy motivation for solitude – that is, seeing solitude as something enjoyable and valuable. – Aeon
Archeologists Arrested In Peru For Violating Lockdown
The team, led by archeologist Pieter van Dalen, were caught digging at the Macatón cemetery in the town of Huaral during the state of emergency on Sunday, April 4. The group from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos were taken into custody for breaching Peru’s strict lockdown measures, despite their claim that they were simply securing the national heritage that was left exposed at the site as agreed with the ministry of culture. – Artnet
Emergency Aid To Artists (Without Lots Of Paperwork)
The emergency package has an initial pot of $10 million for 2,000 grantees. The funds are culled from the operations budgets of the seven US-based organizations: Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Artists. With most of the arts programming cancelled, the grants-giving organizations formed a group to design a mechanism that will allow them to give money to artists directly. – Quartz
What Explains Why Millions Are Tuning In Online To Watch Orchestras?
What explains why the Philadelphia Orchestra’s BeethovenNOW concert, with two full symphonies webcast from an empty Verizon Hall on March 12, is up to 771,000 YouTube views? Or why the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s abbreviated Beethoven 9th video — with each instrumentalist playing separately from home, titled From Us to You, is closing in on 2 million views since its March 20 posting? – Philadelphia Inquirer
Theatre Moves Online
It has been difficult at times, looking at the closed doors of theatres and remembering there are no productions to leave the house to go see or participate in. But if the last couple of weeks of new art, streamed productions, and archival releases (and Andrew Lloyd Webber giving everyone a full weekend of Donny Osmond’s Joseph) have shown anything, it’s that there is still an absolutely overwhelming amount of art out there to consume. Theatre artists may be stuck inside, but it’s certainly hard to argue that they’re not as vibrantly creative as ever. – American Theatre
Another COVID Casualty: Superheroes
Superheroes can fight secret quasi-Nazi conspiracies, invading aliens and android armies. But they are ill-equipped to fight the coronavirus. Superheroes on screen have saved the world repeatedly. But, in this real-life crisis, the Marvel Comic Universe’s vision of empowerment via teaming up to blast things to smithereens seems woefully inadequate. – The Guardian
Arts Philanthropist Anne Bass Dead At 79
The first wife of Fort Worth oil billionaire Sid Bass, she ultimately “became one of New York’s most respected philanthropists, supporting, in large but unflashy ways, the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of Modern Art and … the New York Public Library and its Jerome Robbins Dance Division.” She was best known for her long support of New York City Ballet and its school, though she left its board in 2005 after giving warnings, then unheeded, about the behavior of the company’s and school’s leader at the time, Peter Martins. – The New York Times
TicketMaster Does It Again: Infuriates Fans With Its Refund Policy
Online, fans are fuming about being unable to get refunds for concerts that have been postponed, often with no rescheduled dates in sight. As they see it, ticketing outlets are being greedy at a time of crisis, holding billions of dollars in consumers’ cash that people now need for essentials. Their anger is being stoked by the sense that some vendors switched their refund policies mid-crisis to avoid repaying consumers. – The New York Times
‘Quarantine Soirées’ And ‘Confinement Concertos’ — How Classical Music Performance Is Developing In The Days Of Social Distancing
“So far, nothing has approached the embarrassment factor of the quarantine meditations from Madonna’s bathtub. But is this classical music’s brave new world? A temporary novelty? A dead end? And will there be some viable mechanism for getting the artists paid?” David Patrick Stearns looks at how some of the new content turning up online for homebound fans is (or isn’t) panning out. – WQXR (New York City)
Reclaiming The Private Art Experience
If we are cut off from experiencing art with others, we are perfectly placed to consider an old and out of fashion idea: the power of private contemplation and solitary engagement. The silence in the room as you read a poem or look at a print, or prepare to listen to a piece of music, isn’t absence. It is the presence of your undivided attention. – Washington Post
Original Drawings Of The Statue Of Liberty Have Been Discovered
Several drawings appear to depict a bulkier shoulder and more vertical arm—a more structurally sound arrangement. But one of these sketches (below) was marked up by an unidentified hand with red ink that tilts the arm outward. – Smithsonian Magazine
Budapest Festival Orchestra Saved By The Government Its Conductor Keeps Criticizing
Iván Fischer, who founded the ensemble and led it to become one of the most admired in the world today, has been a vocal critic of the increasingly autocratic rule of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Nevertheless, Orbán’s government and the city of Budapest have announced an arrangement to increase the subsidies that the long-strapped BFO needs to survive. – OperaWire
Disney Plus Has Signed 50 Million Subscribers In Five Months
“Disney has taken an especially hard hit from the pandemic, with its theme parks shuttered, movies postponed and ESPN cable channel without live sports to televise. But the company on Wednesday offered an upbeat update on its newest business — one that may as well have been built for home quarantining.” – The New York Times
NEA Releases Guidelines For Distributing Its $75 Million In Coronavirus Relief To Arts Organizations
“A wide variety of non-profit organizations can apply for a share of the money, including ‘arts organizations, local arts agencies, statewide assemblies of local arts agencies, arts service organizations, units of state or local government (and) federally recognized tribal communities or tribes.’ But all applicants … must be previous NEA award recipients from the past four years.” – Chicago Tribune
Explosion And Fire: Latest Snafu To Beset Construction Of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum
Two pots of hot tar took flame at an entrance to the old palace that’s being rebuilt to house the ethnographic collections of Berlin’s various museums. The incident sent black smoke through the city, but actual damage was limited to discoloring of the building’s façade. The $700 million project has been bedeviled by schedule and cost overruns as well as controversy over the contents of its collection, which includes a number of the Benin Bronzes. – Artnet
L.A. Phil Cancels Rest Of Regular Season, Cuts Musicians’ And Staffers’ Pay
“Payroll reductions of 35% in the aggregate will include the layoffs of 94 part-time employees and pay cuts of more than 35% for the leadership team, the orchestra said. Orchestra members will receive 65% of their weekly minimum scale beginning April 20.” Music director Gustavo Dudamel will forgo his salary. The Philharmonic will maintain health insurance for all full-time employees. – Los Angeles Times