Up there, as in the States, organizations themselves explain (again) that endowments are for providing income year after year and that drawing down capital is less than prudent (and forbidden by regulations). But in Canada, the issue is complicated by the fact that many of those endowments include money that came from the government, and there’s an argument that “it is bad public policy to lock up today’s tax dollars in foundations for future needs when the government might otherwise spend them on immediate public benefits.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
What James Whiteside Has Been Doing With (Or To?) Dance Through The Lockdown
“As theaters went dark during the pandemic, the New York-based Whiteside” — best known as a prinmcipal at ABT — “began putting out a flood of original content on Instagram and YouTube: going behind the scenes of his workouts and rehearsals, offering live dance classes, creating comedic skits, and debuting inventive music videos … [all featuring] bombastic online alter egos, such as a singer named JbDubs, drag artist Ühu Betch, and a turkey-baster-wielding journalist called Shannon Bobannon (who ‘fires news like a cannon’).” – Fast Company
05.14.21
Uffizi Gallery Is Making Up Its Pandemic Cash Shortfall By Releasing NFTs Of Its Collection
“And it’s starting off with a bang: an encrypted Michelangelo painting of the holy family, Doni Tondo (1505-06), just sold for €140,000 ($170,000). The museum will split the proceeds with Cinello, an Italian company that has patented a new way to make digital facsimiles of famous paintings, … produced in the dimensions of the original piece, and purport[ed] to be completely unique and theft-proof.” – Artnet
Can The Golden Ratio Predict Hit Musicals?
You can imagine my astonishment when, early one morning, my calculations revealed that within Les Miserables, the principal characters of Fantine, Eponine, Gavrosche and Valjean all died on or very close to a golden ratio point. Further analysis revealed that major changes in the story line (matching to within less than 1%) coincided with all 16 golden ratio points. – The Conversation
Why Workers At The Walters Museum Are Organizing A Union
The goal is to form a wall-to-wall union representing workers in nearly every aspect of museum operations. “We’ve got conservators, we’ve got people working in security who are on the floor, we’ve got frontline workers, educators, administrative staff,” says Elizabeth Norman, an Assistant Manager of Gallery Experience in the visitor experience department, one of the organizers. “There’s just a huge variety.” – BMore Art
How The Golden Globes Brought On Its Own Demise
“The association has long been considered corrupt by critics and other members of the press, but that’s not what people are really mad about. The HFPA now faces the most serious crisis in its 77-year history because a bunch of separate Hollywood factions led by a lightning brigade of entertainment publicists finally decided to call out the organization they’ve grimly tolerated and secretly hated for so many years under the guise of pushing for more progressive politics.” – New York Magazine
And The Dylan Thomas Prize Goes To
Raven Leilani for Luster, her debut novel (which was also awarded the admiration of former President Barack Obama, but that’s a different kind of prize). – LitHub
Pervis Staples, Who Moved His Family’s Staple Singers From Gospel To Soul, 85
Staples once compared the Staple Singers’ “effect on ecstatic church audiences to ‘a miracle or the hand of God.'” Pervis Staples “attended grammar school with the future singing stars Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls. After class, Pervis and his friends would practice singing under street lamps and in Cooke’s basement.” – The New York Times
The Dictatorial Polish Conductor Who Changed The Sound Of American Orchestras
The tale of Artur Rodzinski is not a charming one, and yet, “arguably no man had more of a hand in turning American orchestras into the technical marvels they became in the mid-20th century — whether through those he led himself, or through the example he set. He jolted up the standards of some of the great ensembles of the radio age: the Philadelphia Orchestra (as an assistant from 1925 to ’29), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (as music director from 1929 to ’33), the Cleveland Orchestra (1933 to ’43), the NBC Symphony (which he created in 1937), the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, as it was then known (1943 to ’47) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for a single, tempestuous season after that.” – The New York Times
Artists Protest Plans To Raze Major Art Institutions In Delhi
A massive government redevelopment plan – funded and touted by Prime Minister Narenda Modi – will demand “the demolition and relocation of iconic Indian institutions: the National Museum of India, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), and the National Archives Annexe.” Photographer Ram Rahman: “The suspicion of altering history by removing archival documents is something many scholars think is already happening. … And one can only imagine what is going to happen when entire bodies of material, which in any case are not kept very well, are moving and shifting.” – Hyperallergic
The History Of The Hollywood Foreign Press Association And Black Movie Critics
It’s not great, as we all know. Here’s the detailed story of Samantha Ofole-Prince, who was invited in 2013 to become a member, sponsored by several other members – and then had her application tanked, apparently because some other members (all white at the time) were worried about “territorial competition.” Now, Ofole-Prince says, “They’ve had decades to address the diversity issues. Unfortunately, they’ve chosen not to … I don’t think it’s salvageable.” – Variety
Masks And Other PPE Won’t Leave Movie Sets Anytime Soon
The one thing movie crew members – at least the vaccinated ones – can give up is face shields. One guild member says, “As the studios have negotiated the way forward with the unions and there are still insurance risk factors for studios and production companies, it’s not really up to us as individuals — if we want to work, that is.” – Variety
Barry Jenkins’ Underground Railroad Is Different From Other Slavery Stories
Some of the show, though it does depict the violence of enslavement and other forms of anti-Black oppression, draws on an almost spiritual connection to the land through which the refugees are running (and taking the train). – The Atlantic
It’s Actually Good For Ellen – And Us – That Her Show Is Ending
Though she handled the end of the talk show far worse than anyone thought she could, even given the circumstances, she had to get free of that grind. “DeGenenres’ career before Ellen was unique. As a stand-up and then a sitcom star, she elevated LGBTQ rights in this country — courageously, tenaciously and at great personal cost. The sitcom Ellen was terrific, and not just because it gave us the “toaster oven” joke or even because it featured both DeGeneres and her character coming out, a multilayered first for American television. It was just a very good show and DeGeneres was very good in it. That it ended, and that her next show foundered, and she subsequently struggled to find work, had nothing to do with her talent and everything to do with homophobia, sexism and a culture that did not appreciate a lesbian standing up for herself in an authentic way.” – Los Angeles Times
How Spotify’s Podcast Dance Around Music Copyright Constraints
Basically, it owns both: Some shows use “a hybrid format, which Spotify calls ‘shows with music’ or ‘music and talk, that allows creators to incorporate full songs from the service’s vast catalog into their podcasts free of charge. (Spotify takes a 30 percent cut of ads set up through the service.) The format gives podcasters easy access to music that would be difficult or too costly to attain on their own and presents listeners with a seamless interface for learning more about a song or adding it to their library.” – The New York Times
The Brontes Probably Died Young Because Of Their Water
It came from a graveyard. Or maybe some public privies. In any case, the water was very, very bad. – LitHub
Behind The Scenes At The Reopening Of The Hollywood Bowl
“If reopening the Bowl is like riding a bike,” the L.A. Phil president and CEO says, “the organization has swapped out a Tour de France Cannondale for a unicycle.” – Los Angeles Times
Longtime Curtis Institute Dean Robert Fitzpatrick, 75
Mr. Fitzpatrick served as dean at Curtis from 1986 to 2009 and was dean of students and executive assistant to the director from 1980 to 1984. – Philadelphia Inquirer
At 50 Pianist Lars Vogt Was Diagnosed With Cancer. Here’s What He’s Learned
For sure, in classical music, we have internalized particularly strongly an ideal image of ourselves—which we think we need to communicate to others— as the omnipotent magician who makes magic at the piano and whose personal life is going great as well. – Van
Paul Meecham Named Executive Director Of The Tucson Symphony
Paul Meecham comes to the job after leading the Utah Symphony & Opera for three years and a 10-year run as CEO of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. His résumé also includes two years at the Seattle Symphony. – Tucson.com
Increasingly — Vaccination Has Its Privilege
Come summer, the nation may become increasingly bifurcated between those who are permitted to watch sports, take classes, get their hair cut and eat barbecue with others, and those who are left behind the spike protein curtain. – The New York Times
Nobel Committee Was Nervous About Giving Prize To Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Fifty years on (as is the rule), documents on the deliberations for the 1970 prize have just been made public, and some committee members were genuinely concerned that awarding the Soviet dissident writer, who had already spent time in the gulag, would put him in danger. While Solzhenitsyn did win that year, he didn’t collect his medal until after he was expelled from the USSR in 1974. – The Guardian