“Like many systems that appear meticulous, the writing of citations is a subjective art. Never more so than in fiction, where citation is an entirely other kind of animal, not required or even expected, except in the “acknowledgments” page, which is often a who’s who of the publishing world. (Also a good way to find out who is married to whom.) But in the last two decades, bibliographies and sources cited pages have increasingly cropped up in the backs of novels.” – The Drift
The Moral Imperative For Releasing The Patents On Vaccines
“The pharmaceutical industry and the governments of several vaccine-producing countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Commission, have been resisting the IP waiver, while 150 public leaders and experts have sent an open letter to US President Joe Biden in support of it. There is no longer any question about who is right. Given the surge of COVID-19 in several regions, most recently in India, the continuing emergence of new and deadly variants of the virus, and the inability of the current vaccine producers to keep pace with global needs, an IP waiver or its equivalent has become a practical urgent need as well as a moral imperative.” – Project Syndicate
A California Appeals Court Holds Amazon Responsible In Third-Party Sales
A hoverboard burst into flames, harming the person who bought it from a third-party seller on Amazon Marketplace and leading to a court case in which a California appeals court said Amazon can’t duck out on this one. “Bottom line: Amazon — and by extension other online retailers — isn’t just a bystander when someone purchases a third-party product. It’s a key part of the transaction. And it can be held accountable if that product turns out to be harmful.” – Los Angeles Times
Rotten Tomatoes Added A 1941 Review That Wrecked Citizen Kane’s Perfect Rating
Citizen Kane used to have a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Then things changed. “The writer, credited as Mae Tinee (a play on ‘matinee’) comments: ‘It’s interesting. It’s different. In fact, it’s bizarre enough to become a museum piece. But its sacrifice of simplicity to eccentricity robs it of distinction and general entertainment value,’ adding: ‘I only know it gives one the creeps and that I kept wishing they’d let a little sunshine in.'” – The Guardian (UK)
Writing Mainstream TV Shows About Native American Families
It’s normal – but an exciting kind of normal – for Sydney Freeland. When she started film school, “I remember thinking, like, ‘OK, wait. I’m Native American and I’m transgender, but I want to be a film director? That’s insane. That isn’t going to happen.’ But I wanted to see what I could do anyway.” – HuffPost
The West’s First Superstar Composer (His 500th Anniversary Is This Year)
Josquin des Prez was, in his day and for more than a century after his death in 1521, the most influential and most revered composer in Europe. He demanded, and got, the highest salary; he was the first to have an entire volume of printed music devoted to his work alone; he was the first composer about whom anecdotes and jokes have survived. Zachary Woolfe gives a brief explanation of why his music is both important in music history and wondrous to listen to, then present-day composer Nico Muhly interviews Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars, who have just completed their project of recording all of Josquin’s mass cycles. – The New York Times
Blackface Didn’t Start With American Minstrel Shows. It’s Been Around For Centuries
“The origins of blackface minstrelsy are much older than most people know, with deep roots in the English medieval and Shakespearean theatrical traditions. Understanding the often-forgotten medieval roots of blackface might help us to end old performance traditions and to create new ones.” – Smithsonian Magazine
Indonesian Theme Park Ordered To Take Down Lights That Violate Chris Burden Copyright
The theme park had recreated Burden’s collection of street lamps that he made for the front of the LA County Museum in Los Angeles. “The court has ordered Rabbit Town to take down its Love Light installation within 30 working days since the verdict.” – Coconuts
How Kate Winslet Went About Mastering The Notoriously Tricky Philadelphia Dialect
“Few sounds are as difficult to master as the rounded Os, erratic As, dropped consonants and smushed syllables of the Philadelphia accent — or Filelfia acksent, as the locals would say.” Winslet says it’s one of the two trickiest accents she’s ever had to learn; here’s a look at the hard work she put in to get it right. – Los Angeles Times
These $63 Million Paintings, Literally Kidnapped And Held For Ransom, Are Now The Subject Of A Billion-Dollar Lawsuit
The Shchukin Gallery, which sells Russian art in Paris and New York, is suing a Russian oligarch for damages and attorney fees of $950 million — in what might or might not be the culmination of an unusually tangled legal battle over three paintings by Kazimir Malevich and two by Natalia Goncharova that were, as Shchukin’s attorney puts it, “hijacked” and are now in an “art hostage situation.” – The Art Newspaper
How Pixar Pushes The Boundaries Of Color To Push The Buttons of Moviegoers
“In a way, every filmmaker is really just playing with moving light and color on surfaces. That’s the whole ball game, a filmic given. But Pixar takes it further, or perhaps just does it more self-consciously and systematically. Its emotionally weighty, computer-generated animated films deploy precisely calibrated color and light to convey narrative and emotion … But I’ll tell you a secret: When it comes to wringing emotion from color, Pixar cheats.” Reporter Adam Rogers explains precisely how they do it. – Wired
Amsterdam Branch Of The Hermitage In Danger Of Closing Permanently
“After laying off 25% of its full-time staff, including those who had been there since opening day,” the only Western European satellite of the St. Petersburg institution “finally reached the bottom of its reserves last month. Because the Hermitage [Amsterdam] is a private institution ineligible for [Dutch] government aid, it is now calling for one million euros in donations by May 1. … Whether that will even be enough to survive the pandemic is difficult to say.” – Hyperallergic
France’s Cultural Venues Get An Official Reopening Date
“Museums, theatres, cinemas and concert halls will reopen on May 19, along with non-essential shops and outdoor seating at cafes and restaurants, [President] Macron told regional French newspapers in a highly-anticipated announcement.” – Yahoo! (AFP)
Scottish Government Ordered To Reconsider Six-Foot-Distance Reopening Rule After Arts Groups Rebel
Following a personal intervention by the culture minister, “controversial new guidelines which will force Scotland’s arenas, concert halls and comedy clubs to impose two metre social distancing on audiences are to be reviewed in the wake of warnings they will force most venues to remain closed.” – The Scotsman
UK Artists Demand Action On Post-Brexit Touring Crisis
“We are extremely concerned by the lack of progress which has been achieved over the last three months to unravel the mountain of costly bureaucracy and red tape which now faces the creative industries,” the letter said. “With scheduling already under way for creative work later this year, you have a limited window of opportunity to resolve this crisis which is threatening our industry.” – BBC
A $2 Billion Plan Would Transform LA’s Arts District
An Arts District cold-storage plant dating to the 1890s would be replaced with housing, offices, a hotel and shops in a proposal unveiled Thursday by Denver developers. With a price tag between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, the complex would rank among the largest L.A. commercial real estate developments in recent memory. – Los Angeles Times
Getting In To A Concert Got A Lot More Complicated In The COVID Protocols
“Gone was the chance to rush to a concert after work and plop down into your seat as the curtain rose. Before they entered the Shed, concertgoers would need to check one of three boxes: show proof of full vaccination; demonstrate a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event; or have taken a rapid antigen test, which is less reliable, within six hours of showtime.” – The New York Times
As Western Museums Prepare To Return Benin Bronzes, Nigeria Prepares Their New Home
“The Legacy Restoration Trust … was set up by Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the Edo State government and the royal court of Benin to plan and build the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City. … Designed by David Adjaye, the museum will house artefacts from the kingdom of Benin, which British troops invaded in 1897, plundering the royal palace.” – The Art Newspaper
How Did A Cranky Old Scholar Come To Own An Indigenous Language?
Frank Siebert’s writing system was an obstacle for people who were eager to learn the language. “It was a giant pain for everyone,” he said. “Why did this white guy come in and introduce such a nonintuitive alphabet? It was really off-putting. Like, ‘This is the language my grandmother spoke, and now there’s all this technical stuff I have to learn?’ ” – The New Yorker
Stephen Hawking — A Life In Ideas Obscured By Celebrity
Hawking was no Newton. He said so himself. At a White House event in 1998, First Lady Hillary Clinton read a question from the Internet: “How does it feel to be compared to Einstein and Newton?” He replied, “I think to compare me to Newton and Einstein is media hype.” Then again, as Charles Seife demonstrates in Hawking Hawking, he “worked very hard to cultivate” these comparisons. – New York Review of Books