The town of Sligo, specifically, and the dire cholera outbreak there in 1832. Dracula author Bram Stoker’s mother lived through that epidemic, and there’s evidence, circumstantial but convincing, that it was her memories of the pestilence on which Stoker built the original vampire novel; Transylvania, which the author never visited, was simply a stand-in location. – Atlas Obscura
How To Write A Novel: A Practical Guide
The most important point to start from is that while there are a number of things you should consider when planning your book – such as characterisation, plotting or the style and voice of your work – there is no single golden rule for how to write a novel. – Psyche
After A Century Of History, Audio Drama Is Thriving Again
“Just as the coronavirus crisis has stimulated a surge of digital theatre on our screens, it has also sparked a wave of theatre via our headphones, the latest, unexpected development in an audio drama landscape already undergoing seismic shifts.” – The Stage
Where Did “Shit Hits The Fan” Come From?
The true origins of the expression “shit hits the fan” are largely undetermined, though some sources suggest that Canada is to blame—it might have come from particularly picturesque Canadian military language of the early twentieth century. Another suggestion is that the idiom is descended from “an old joke.” – JSTOR
Post-Plague Poetry In Medieval England Could Be Downright Reactionary
With the huge drop in population following the Black Death, peasants and laborers were able to take advantage of the labor shortage to demand higher pay and improve their lives. Those who had been at the top of 14th-century society weren’t happy about that — and since they were the ones who were literate, such works as Langland’s Piers Plowman, Gower’s Vox Clamantis, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales reflected and reinforced their readers’ wish that the social order stay the way it was. – The Conversation
Venetians Are Loving This Not-Utterly-Overrun-By-Tourists Thing. Is There Any Hope Of Preserving It?
Residents and interested observers have been concerned for years about the local economy’s addiction to mass tourism and the ills that accompany it. Italy’s COVID lockdown has, at least temporarily, returned Venice to its own people, and many of them are wondering how they might be able to keep it. – The New York Times
Here’s One Area Of Publishing That’s Making Progress On Diversity: Audiobooks
“Audiobook publishers are increasingly offering opportunities to narrators of color, … a response to a broader range of stories and desire for the voice talent to reflect that diversity. … But the particular demands of the job, compared with film and stage acting, make this tricky. What does representation mean when actors can only be heard and not seen? What constitutes a black, Latino or Asian voice? And to complicate matters, in most audiobooks a single narrator voices multiple characters, who may have a variety of ethnicities and accents.” – The New York Times
Between Theatre And The Screen – A New Form?
It’s not film. (Except when it is.) It’s definitely not television. It’s…theatre on a screen? As COVID-19 continues to force industries online, one Bay Area organization is exploring a hybrid platform that could sustain theatre through the pandemic—and possibly beyond. – American Theatre
Black Theatre Workers Call Out Broadway Racism
Several black actors, writers, and others working in the New York theater have come forward to share the stories of the racism embedded in the industry. Many of them described hearing subtly or overtly racist language from powerful white people within the industry and described their frustration with producers and theater owners currently issuing boilerplate statements (like many brands) about the Black Lives Matter movement. – New York Magazine
Why Our Sense Of Time Is Messed Up Under Lockdown
Our internal clocks and external cues have fallen out of sync, explains Anthony M. Tobia, associate professor of the Division of Consultation Psychiatry at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The external cues we’d process without really thinking about it pre-pandemic “just don’t exist anymore, so we’re not automatically doing the things we usually do,” he says. “Therefore, there’s a loss of time perception.” – Mic
Bruce Jay Friedman, Satiric Author, Playwright, And Screenwriter, Dead At 90
“Mr. Friedman, who also wrote the screenplays for the hit film comedies Stir Crazy and Splash, was an unusual case in American letters: an essentially comic writer whose work skipped back and forth between literature and pop culture. … [His] early novels, short stories and plays were pioneering examples of modern American black humor, making dark but giggle-inducing sport of the deep, if not pathological, insecurities of his white, male, middle-class and often Jewish protagonists.” – The New York Times
Why Is The Human Brain So Efficient?
So why is the computer good at certain tasks whereas the brain is better at others? Comparing the computer and the brain has been instructive to both computer engineers and neuroscientists. – Nautilus
Religious Art Belongs In Churches, Not Museums, Says Director Of Italy’s Most Famous Museum
“Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi gallery in Florence, told the press [last week] that he thought many religious works of art currently in Italy’s museums and stores should be returned to the churches from which they came. … This idea is part of the Uffizi’s reaction to the coronavirus crisis, in which it is thinking about diversification and the distribution of its works of art in order to create a ‘wider’ [diffuso] museum beyond the immediate premises of the gallery.” – The Art Newspaper
How Those Mosaic Music Videos Are Made
The clap serves the same purpose as the clapperboard used on TV and movie sets. You, too, will be editing the audio and video separately; the clap creates a visual and sonic marker that helps you realign the two later. It also lets you align all the players’ videos with each other. – Wired
Why Buy The Cow When The Milk Is Free? Performing Arts Companies, Don’t Do What Newspapers Did
“There’s a long-running adage about working for free in the performing arts. ‘The problem with working for exposure,’ it goes, ‘is you can die from exposure’.” With arts companies all over the world pouring free content onto the web as their venues are closed during the pandemic, creative industries scholar Caitlin Vincent issues a warning. – The Conversation
Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center Becomes First Major U.S. Museum To Stop Contracting Police For Events
“In an Instagram statement that explicitly mentioned the Black Lives Matter movement and Floyd’s death, the museum wrote, ‘The Walker will no longer contract the services of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) for special events until the MPD implements meaningful change by demilitarizing training programs, holding officers accountable for the use of excessive force, and treating communities of color with dignity and respect. Enough is enough.'” – ARTnews
Cannes Festival Announces The 2020 Roster Of Films It’s Sending To Other Festivals
“Artistic director Thierry Frémaux picked a total of 56 films for the Cannes 2020 selection, many of which had planned to premiere on the Croisette. Instead, they will now screen at different partner festivals around the world. The titles will be gathered together in a single list, not split up into the traditional festival categories of competition, Un Certain Regard, out of competition, Midnight Screenings, and special screenings. There is no competition, no jury and no prizes will be awarded.” – The Hollywood Reporter
London’s Royal Opera And Royal Ballet Return To Live Performance
It’ll be to an empty house, though; social distancing isn’t over yet. The Live from Covent Garden series, streamed over the Royal Opera House’s YouTube and Facebook pages, begins on June 13 with a program including a brand-new dance by Royal Ballet resident choreographer Wayne McGregor and music by Handel, Britten, Butterworth and Turnage sung by Royal Opera soloists Louise Alder, Toby Spence, and Gerald Finley. – London Evening Standard
Tate Museums Say They Will Reopen In August With Fewer Visitors
French art institutions—including the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Grand Palais—revealed this week that they are planning to welcome visitors again in June and July. Some museums in Germany and Italy, with the Haus der Kunst in Munich and Galleria Borghese in Rome among them, reopened in May. – ARTnews
Warner Music Group Pledges $100 Million To Support Social Justice Groups
The fund comes amid backlash against entertainment companies that have shared messages of support for the Black Lives Matter movement on social media, without putting actions behind their words. – Los Angeles Times
Spike In Sales Of Books About Racism
Amid mass demonstrations against structural racism spurred by George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis, Minn., activist-created book lists have been widely shared across social media for would-be allies to educate themselves on white privilege, systemic racism and the history of being black in America. Sales of such titles have spiked in recent days, and retailers are trying to meet the demand, with orders for some titles jumping fivefold from a week prior. – CBC
The Worst Of Times Or The Best Of Times To Be An Arts Administrator?
Executives’ job descriptions are changing under their feet, requiring skills in handling not only a global health crisis but also issues of racial equity. – The New York Times
As Big Museums Reopen In Europe, A Benefit: No Big Crowds
Now, at most 450 people at one time are allowed in the Uffizi’s many galleries, chock full of some of the art world’s greatest masterpieces. – Washington Post
What Was The Point Of Blackout Tuesday?
“I don’t understand the point of asking people who were already posting non-stop about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and protests and racism and police brutality and links to financial and community resources and anti-racist reading guides to pause all of that just to fill their timelines with…black squares. And now our “protest” is the same protest as the San Fran Fucking 49ers’s protest? If the point of the campaign was to do literally the opposite of what it was intended to do, mission accomplished.” – The Root
The George Floyd Fallout: Art Museums Take a Knee
In a striking departure from their customary reluctance to take strong political stands that would alienate some visitors, art museums around the country, speaking separately but with one voice, responded to the asphyxiation of George Floyd. – Lee Rosenbaum