After the terrible effects of COVID-19 on the arts, what should Australia do next? One think tank says the country, where arts funding dropped in the years leading up to 2020, needs a plan to “ensure creatives industries have a place at the ‘big table’ of decision making and budgets.” – ArtsHub
Ai Weiwei’s Thoughts On China, Colonialism, And Controversial Statues
On culture wars as a symbol of democracy: “It’s not only democracy, it’s about art as symbols of our existence. You know, whenever we talk about democracy, we’re never talking about a perfect state, but rather continuous questioning and argument. [Public monuments] are about us, about those questions, not about any authority.” – The Observer (UK)
One Potential Fix For That Cecil Rhodes Statue At Oxford
Turn him to face the wall in shame. That way, those who demand the statue stay get their demand met, but the implication is obvious. – The Guardian (UK)
Chi Modu, Photographer Who Shaped Rap’s Visual Identity, 5
“In the early and mid-1990s, working primarily for The Source magazine, at the time the definitive digest of hip-hop’s commercial and creative ascendance, Mr. Modu was the go-to photographer. An empathetic documentarian with a talent for capturing easeful moments in often extraordinary circumstances, he helped set the visual template for dozens of hip-hop stars. The Source was minting a new generation of superheroes, and Mr. Modu was capturing them as they took flight.” – The New York Times
People In Cars Scream Racial Epithets At Ballet West Dancers
And this didn’t happen once, bad as that would have been. The company says “two black dancers had people scream racial epithets at them while driving by, and it happened on two separate occasions last week.” – KSL
The Power Of Fiction Helped Millions Of Us Get Through Lockdowns
Author Valeria Luiselli just won the Dublin literary award. She says that she, her daughter, and her niece have been reading out loud to each other since the pandemic began. “I can say, without a hint of doubt, that without books – without sharing in the company of other writers’s human experiences – we would not have made it through these months. If our spirits have found renewal, if we have found strength to carry on, if we have maintained a sense of enthusiasm for life, it is thanks to the worlds that books have given us.” – The Guardian (UK)
Jerome Hellman, Producer Of Midnight Cowboy And Coming Home, 92
With barriers at every turn, from an anxious director who didn’t want to work with the leading actors to disastrous early scripts, no one expected Midnight Cowboy to get completed – or be a hit. Jerome Hellman “helped steer the project through crisis after crisis, fudging on cost estimates, fighting with recalcitrant collaborators and surreptitiously shooting scenes on the streets of Manhattan to produce a bold, barrier-breaking movie that in 1970 became the first and only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.” – Washington Post
Gavin MacLeod, Star Of The Mary Tyler Moore Show And The Love Boat, 90
MacLeod had been a working, but struggling, actor for many years when he read for The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. He had been asked to audition for the role of Lou Grant – the role that eventually went to Ed Asner – but asked to read for Murray instead. “As Murray, the balding, humble head writer and Mary’s office best friend, Mr. MacLeod was given to firing zingers at the show’s other regulars, especially the pompously vain anchorman, Ted Baxter (Ted Knight, a longtime friend of Mr. MacLeod’s). He saw Murray as an Everyman character.” Then came The Love Boat. – The New York Times
How The Show ‘Friends’ Helps People Around The World Learn English
Yes, that’s right, the long-running sitcom (still massively popular with Millennials and Gen-Zers thanks to streaming) is useful for English language-learners around the world. “The dad jeans and cordless telephones may look dated, but the plot twists — falling in love, starting a career and other seminal moments in a young person’s life — are still highly relatable.” – The New York Times
USC’s Pacific Asia Museum Reopens With A Goal
And that goal is to decolonize itself. Museum director Bethany Montagano: “We felt a sense of urgency to do this because colonial systems of oppression were really rearing their ugly head in the wake of COVID … especially as it relates to Asian Americans and the colonial brand of poison projected onto Asian Americans.” – Los Angeles Times
What Ta-Nehisi Coates Did For Black Panther
And, as his five-year run writing for the comic series comes to an end, what it did for him. “Coates decided early on he wanted to see how Wakanda truly became the technologically unmatched African ideal, which meant looking in the closet for skeletons.” – Washington Post
How Will Amazon Exploit Bond, Other MGM Classics?
Amazon desperately needed content, but will the Bond plan work? “Bond is a treasure trove, unexploited beyond the 25 feature films focusing on its star, which Amazon would dearly love to develop into a Marvel- or Star Wars-like ‘universe” ‘The only problem is that Bond is partly owned by Eon Productions in the UK, which is run by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, who exercise strict control over how the character is used – even down to choosing the actor who plays him.” – The Guardian (UK)