Part of what illness does is to unsettle both the sense of ourselves that emerges from our patterned and effortless doings, and our capacity to project this sense outwards, into the social world. In illness, the body as it is processed and experienced by others takes over and wholly penetrates the lived-in body, the body as it feels “from the inside.” – The Point
For What Do We Need Nations?
Over the centuries nationalism has swung back and forth as a progressive and retrograde force, depending on historical conditions. In revolutionary France the “nation” started as a wrecking ball against feudalism and the church. Before the “nation” became defined by its limit of concern, it appeared to the Old Regime as terrifying in its limitlessness. Before the “nation” could be for anyone it had to be against specific someones: kings, priests and their enablers. Nationalism became a forest fire of fraternity that Napoleon wanted to control-burn through Europe in order to make fertile ground for the imposition of his uniform Code. – The Point
COVID Risks For Wind Players
It is understandable to wonder what the additional risks are for wind musicians, above the nonzero background risk of COVID-19 spread. How might we mitigate these risks for ourselves, our colleagues, audiences, students, and families? – University of Iowa
Edinburgh Fringe, On Brink Of Insolvency, Gets A Rescue
Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop has announced a £1 million interest free loan and £149,000 in funding from a “resilience” fund for the Fringe Society, which runs the official website, box office and programme for the event “to enable its return next year.” – The Scotsman
A Conservative Reckoning In Book Publishing?
Publishing such authors was once uncontroversial. The conservative publishing industrial complex has been a mainstay ever since Allen Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind topped the bestseller lists. Free speech has always been a slippery concept in book publishing. At times it is presented as a badge of honor—we stand by Salman Rushdie!—but mostly, it is an excuse to publish something that is profitable but otherwise valueless. Beleaguered publishers have understandably cast themselves as slaves to the marketplace: They publish whatever it is people want to buy. – The New Republic
The Lasting Damage That Movies Like “Gone With The Wind” Have Wrought
For years now activists have been attempting to cancel the Confederate flag and eliminate other monuments to the fallen Confederacy, along with removing the names of former slave owners and white supremacists that continue to adorn buildings on various school and college campuses, among numerous other attempts to destroy the legacy of the slaveholding south that was supposed to have died with the end of the civil war. We can now add films celebratory of this defeated legacy like Gone With the Wind to the list as well. – The Guardian
As Much As They’d Like The Business, Booksellers Are Not Rushing To Reopen Their Stores
“Many governors across the United States have been eager to begin the multiphase reopening of businesses, but bookstore owners are acting cautiously. In remarks gathered from more than 25 independent bookstores, PW found that owners are reopening to in-store traffic more slowly than state guidelines allow, guided by their own sense of what it will take to ensure the safety of their employees.” – Publishers Weekly
Leadership Succession Crisis At Paris Opera
“Outgoing director Stéphane Lissner dropped a bombshell Thursday, saying Europe’s biggest opera and ballet company was ‘on its knees’ and he would be leaving seven months early in January. But his successor Alexander Neef said Friday he knew nothing of Lissner’s early exit, and cast doubt on whether he would be able to immediately step into his shoes just as the opera faces one of the biggest crises in its 350-year history.” – France24 (AFP)
French Government Seeks Designs For Memorial To Victims Of Slavery
“Last week, the country’s ministry of culture launched an open call for the design and production of the public work, which will be installed in Paris’s Tuileries Gardens, next to the Musée du Louvre.” The Representative Council of France’s Black Associations, one of the leaders of the campaign for the monument, says that “the artist chosen must be of African descent.” – Artnet
Internet Archive Ends Its Free Library Initiative Early After Publishers Sue
The Internet Archive announced the National Emergency Library project on March 24, in response to the widespread closures of libraries and schools during the Covid-19 crisis. The temporary initiative unilaterally removed the usual one copy/one user restriction on scans borrowed from the Internet Archive’s Open Library project, allowing unlimited borrowing of the roughly 1.4 million titles scanned, unless an author or publisher opted out. The NEL was set to last until June 30, or until the crisis is over. – Publishers Weekly
Art Buyers Are Asking For Big Discounts Right Now
Buyers demand discounts of as much as 30% on new works and 50% on the secondary market, according to art dealers. Temporary reprieve, including government rescue loans or rent reductions, will go away. And art fairs, one of the largest sources of revenue for galleries, aren’t coming back soon. – Bloomberg
Director Of Art Basel: Online Galleries Won’t Replace Art Fairs
Marc Spiegler: “Fortunately, the Amazon art world won’t come to pass. For one thing, artworks are unique, and thus not so easily commodified. They have no utility value, no truly provable worth, no strict comparables. All of which makes buying art an act of trust. It goes both ways, too, because galleries build the reputation of their artists by selling to great collections, while avoiding the speculators who might rapidly “flip” works into auction.” – Financial Times
Philosophy Born Of Isolation
“Social isolation has given me the clear stretch of time that Descartes says is required to do philosophy. Teaching has been cancelled or moved online; birthday parties have been abandoned; the spare bedroom is warm enough once I wrap a blanket round my shoulders. But disciplined reflection is difficult, and more so when one is surrounded by those who have a claim on one’s time and attention.” – Times Literary Supplement
Film Festival Choice: Go Dark Or Go Virtual
“We’re not going to be able to create this perfect simulacra of running around getting drinks with friends and having conversations in line.” But, watching films with hundreds of others, with filmmakers in virtual attendance and an ensuing discussion among viewers online, “is better than consuming something in a vacuum.” – Washington Post
Comedy Club Tries To Bring Back Standup
Despite current rules limiting bars and clubs from opening to the public, the live comedy club Stand Up NY on the Upper West Side held an invite-only show for professional comics on Wednesday night. The club was not exactly sneaky about it. Outside, there was a sandwich board with the words “illegal comedy” and an arrow pointing inside. – The New York Times
Hollywood’s Damaging Images And Stereotypes
“The south supposedly lost the civil war. There is an overused cliche which suggests that the winners write history. Is this true? If it is, then why do all these relics of the losing side still circulate in this society so many years after the civil war ended? The point is, films like Gone With the Wind should have been held accountable a long time ago. Further, Hollywood’s role in disseminating such demeaning, dehumanized, stereotypical images can no longer be ignored.” – The Guardian
Karen Kain’s Farewell To A Lifetime At Canada’s National Ballet
Kain claims she never imagined herself becoming the National Ballet’s artistic director. In this she is in a minority of one. After hanging up her pointe shoes in the fall of 1998 Kain accepted a position as part of the company’s artistic management team under then director James Kudelka. When he resigned in May 2005 it was generally assumed Kain was his obvious successor. – Toronto Star
Celebrity And The Art Of Quarantine
The currency of fame has always been deeply unstable. But, with movie theatres and live venues closed and the devices in our pockets quickly becoming our primary media machines, it can feel as though famous people are suddenly on the same footing as everybody else. Despite this illusion of a level playing field, many people are still holding on to stardom as a meaningful category, as something that validates their experiences of isolation. – The Walrus
The Radio Broadcast That Convinced The Irish Public They Love “Ulysses”
Listening on transistor radios and Walkmans, many Dubliners who had long been intimidated by the book found that they not only understood it but enjoyed it and recognised themselves in it. – Irish Times
Apple To Close Its Apple U App
The app, founded in 2007, is credited with playing a central role in opening up higher education to the public. Institutions such as Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; Duke University; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all shared free educational content on the app in audio, video or ebook format. – InsideHigherEd
American Theatre: We Don’t Want Your Messages of Solidarity
How many of the people who authored those statements actually visited the Black Lives Matter website before posting is unknown. What is known, however, is that the stirrings of support statements coming from the American theatre community was too late and certainly not enough. – Howlround
The Intellectual Underpinnings Of Populist Strongmen
Populism is not just a bull-in-a-china-shop way of doing politics. There is a theoretical tradition that seeks to justify strongman rule, an ideological school of demagoguery, one might call it, that is now more relevant than ever. – Aeon
BBC Pulls Classic Episode Of Fawlty Towers Over “Racial Slurs”
The episode in question — originally broadcast in 1975 and called The Germans — is renowned for featuring John Cleese’s deeply awkward and rude hotel owner demanding that his staff “don’t mention the war” around German guests, culminating in him doing a goose-stepping impersonation of Adolf Hitler. However, it also features a character, the elderly Major Gowen, using highly-offensive and racist language about the West Indies cricket team. – The Holywood Reporter
What Do Famous Artists Owe Their Fans?
As the famously passionate fans of the Harry Potter franchise rise up to express raging disappointment at the bigotry espoused by its creator, and the surprisingly passionate fans of Live P.D.—who launched vicious attack campaigns on journalists and critics calling for its cancellation—just rage, there’s another question beyond the right and wrong of all this. It’s the question of what, exactly, fans are owed from the culture they support—and what are they willing to accept in order to keep enjoying it? – The Daily Beast
Oscars To Have 10 Best Picture Nominations, Set Inclusions Standards
Starting with the 94th Oscars ceremony, the Academy will return to a guaranteed 10 best picture nominees, as was the case for the 82nd and 83rd ceremonies, before it shifted to a system that could yield anywhere from five to 10 nominees. This aims to maximize the diversity of the films that are nominated for the Academy’s highest honor. – The Hollywood Reporter