The paths they each followed are telling. If you are even marginally involved in the theater, it is impossible not to envy the state support of the arts that benefited Stoppard in Britain or be angry at how, like most American directors, Nichols spent so much time chasing the dollar. Their biographers, too, take differing approaches to these lives. – The New Republic
Colleges Aren’t Turning Out The Kinds Of Students America Needs
“The U.S. education system is not held accountable for ensuring that students are properly equipped with the skills and capabilities to prepare for a career where they can obtain financial stability. Additionally, employers continue to rely on a traditional four-year degree requirement as a primary means of determining job candidate employability. The disconnect here is obvious, and the result is nearly 15 million un- or under-employed individuals.” – Harvard Business Review
How The AI That’s Supposed To Revolutionize Dubbing Foreign Films Actually Works
“The technology is related to deepfaking, which uses AI to paste one person’s face onto someone else. … It involves capturing the facial expressions and movements of an actor in a scene as well as someone speaking the same lines in another language. This information is then combined to create a 3D model that merges the actor’s face and head with the lip movements of the dubber.” – Wired
Why Are Telecom Companies So Bad At Media?
“Joseph Epstein once wrote that “Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.” He must have been talking about the telecom chief executives. Envy is the driving force behind their explorations — and the reason their efforts repeatedly fail. They are almost always envious of the success of Internet-based companies. They hated Google for making money from advertising. They hated Apple for making money from music. They were envious of Netflix making the big dollars from streaming.” Om Malik
‘This American Wife’: When Yale Drama Grads Take On The ‘Real Housewives’ Franchise
“This project takes formal cues from lensed images. It’s styled as an episode of Real Housewives run amok, and the team cites French surrealist film, the photography of Man Ray, and the melodramas of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Douglas Sirk as major inspirations.” – The New York Times
Sometimes The Best Way To Preserve Ancient Mosaics Is To Rebury Them
“[Floor mosaics are] an art form that is usually in good condition when first discovered because floors are the first area to be naturally buried over time. But once exposed, mosaics become especially vulnerable to damage by root growth, animals, and humans.” – Hyperallergic
‘The French Author Is No Longer Just The White Man Over 50’; The Gallic Literary World Is Finally Diversifying
“Major publishers have created special collections to promote first-time authors and ethnic minorities while new publishing houses are opening the field to a larger spectrum of writers, styles, and subject matter. … In parallel, writing workshops and graduate degrees in creative writing – once seen as a North American concept – are popping up around the country and acting as gateways to publication for burgeoning writers. Taken together, these efforts are forcing change in an industry steeped in tradition and pushing French literature to represent the reality of its diverse society.” – The Christian Science Monitor
Honey, I Found A Guarneri In The Attic
“A violin found in an attic in Italy has been confirmed as a priceless instrument made by Giuseppe Guarneri ‘filius Andreae’ in c.1705. The age of the wood was confirmed using dendrochronology, and the researchers were even able to prove it came from the same tree as the wood in an already-identified violin by the same maker.” – The Strad
This Is What Banksy Gets For Saying ‘Copyright Is For Losers’
“In a new decision issued by the [European Union] IPO Cancellation Division, a trademark owned by street artist Banksy has been declared invalid. … The attorney who represented the opposing party in the case” — a greeting-card company — “said ‘the real nail in the coffin’ that led to the ruling was ‘the public comments of Banksy and his lawyer’.” – World Trademark Review
New York’s Drama Book Shop, Saved By ‘Hamilton’, Set To Reopen
“[The] quirky 104-year-old Manhattan specialty store that has long been a haven for aspiring artists as well as a purveyor of scripts, will reopen next month with a new location, a new look, and a new team of starry owners — the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as the show’s director, Thomas Kail, lead producer, Jeffrey Seller, and the theater owner James L. Nederlander,” who bought the store in 2019 after it lost its lease and closed. – The New York Times
Will Audiences Return To Movie Theatres?
Like so many businesses, the movie theater industry has been ravaged by the economic effects of the pandemic. Theaters were starved of audiences when lockdowns went into effect, and studios delayed new releases or, in some cases, put them out on streaming services. Some chains have shut down and others have declared bankruptcy. AMC Entertainment’s chief executive, Adam Aron, said this month that the chain had been “within months or weeks of running out of cash five different times between April 2020 and January 2021.” – The New York Times
The Literature Professor Who Foresaw Neuroscience 100 Years Ago
It was a Cambridge professor of literature, almost a century ago in the aftermath of World War I, who pioneered a view of cognition we can recognize as strikingly modern, and who appreciated what we are only now beginning to rediscover: the great potential of interactions between the narrative arts and brain science. – Nautilus
The Arts’ Digital Era Has Just Begun
“I see this as a whole new game. Call me a Pollyanna, call me an early Christian, call me a Mormon going to Utah, but I really see the promised land opening up in front of me.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Debora Chase-Hicks, Pioneering Dancer With Ailey And Philadanco, Dead At 63
“[She] was a part of the generation of Black dancers, many trained in classical ballet as children, who were instrumental in bringing top-flight modern dance to international audiences.” Chase-Hicks became a full member of Philadanco at age 17; after seven years there, she spent 11 seasons with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, then returned to Philadanco as rehearsal director, a job she kept for the rest of her life. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
All Arts Are Local? Not Anymore
What does it mean to talk about a cultural community when Theatre Rhinoceros Executive Director John Fisher can claim, “My audience now extends from my bedroom to France”? – San Francisco Chronicle
After 66 Years, There’s A Professional Orchestra In Yorkshire Again
“Seventy-four years after it first formed,” and 66 years after it closed, “the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra has been revived to support musicians in northern England hit by the pandemic. … The conductor of the re-formed ensemble, Ben Crick, said the lack [of an orchestra during those decades] was ‘really strange’ given the size of the cities of Leeds, York and Sheffield.” – The Guardian
Study: Aboriginal Memory Technique Improves Recall
The students who used the Aboriginal memory technique were three times more likely to remember the entire list than they were before they were trained in this type of recall. The memory palace group were about twice as likely to recall the whole list, and the control group only improved by 50%. – Cosmos
Meet The Mother Of LA’s Inner City Shakespeare
“For [Melanie] Andrews, Shakespeare represents a foundation for success, particularly for students of color attending under-resourced schools. If they can master Shakespearean wordplay, ‘they can master anything,’ she says. But it’s not all Shakespeare. The theater ensemble has evolved into a support system and expanding network for the estimated 1,000 young people who have been involved since its founding.” – Los Angeles Times
Dr. Aaron Stern, Psychiatrist Who Headed Hollywood’s Ratings Board, Dead At 96
From 1971 to 1974, he led the Motion Picture Association of America’s Classification and Rating Administration, which gave films G, PG, R, and X ratings to films as a replacement for the old Hays Code of censorship. In 1981, longtime MPAA head Jack Valenti said that he had “made a mistake of putting a psychiatrist in charge.” – The New York Times
Chloé Lopes Gomes, Fired From And Reinstated At Berlin State Ballet, Talks About The Effects Of Her Case
“I’ve realized that my case isn’t just about calling out racism; it’s about confronting all forms of injustice in the dance world. … It’s also been really great to receive messages from dancers of color, and to feel like we’re calling out stereotypes — that our bodies, feet and work ethics aren’t suited for ballet.” – Pointe Magazine
Opera Philadelphia Gives Up This Year’s O Festival
For the second year in a row, the company’s critically praised September week of mostly new opera is called off; even as other groups expect to be in the concert hall by then, management feels that opera requires too many people collaborating in too-close quarters to be safe so soon. Meanwhile, says general director David Devan, the company will “continue the artistic exploration of cinematic opera [online].” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Final Suspect In Dresden Jewel Robbery Arrested
Police in Berlin have captured Abdul Majed Remmo, the fifth and final suspect connected to the shocking 2019 jewel heist at Dresden’s Green Vault Museum. … Authorities had been searching for the 22-year-old man since he evaded capture in a sting operation late last year. He is the twin brother of fellow suspect Mohammed Remmo; … [they are part of] one of the nation’s most notorious crime families.” – Artnet
The Case For Banning The Unvaccinated From Theatres
If universities, such as Yale, Stanford and UCLA, are planning to require returning students to be fully vaccinated, why can’t performing arts venues do the same? This policy would offer audience members some insurance that the stranger crammed into the seat next to them wasn’t a potential petri dish of COVID variants eagerly seeking a crack in their newly erected wall of immunity. – Los Angeles Times
How Tourism Is Killing Our Favorite Cities
While the number of visitors remains below the threshold, tourists use services and provisions designed for residents. Once this threshold is crossed, however, residents are forced to use services designed for tourists. – Daily Beast
Record man Koester’s blues and jazz legacy
Chicagoan Bob Koester, proprietor of the Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records for nearly 70 years, is a model of music activism and entrepreneurship from an era rapidly receding. – Howard Mandel