By the eighteenth century the asterisk was being deployed as a sort of censorship, covering up letters to represent a d**n vulgar word without actually b**y spelling it out. But, as W. Somerset Maugham points out, this has become somewhat outmoded. – Lapham’s Quarterly
Why There Are So Few Skyscrapers In Europe
Of the 218 skyscrapers constructed on the continent to date, 66% of them are located in just five cities – London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow and Istanbul. – B1M
What Culture Do Nations Own and What Belongs To The World?
The idea that “each people makes its contribution to the culture of the world,” codified in the Hague Convention of 1954, has proved particularly compelling for international legal regimes. – The American Scholar
Actors’ Equity And Producers Settle On COVID Safety Rules For Broadway Tours
“The 17-page agreement says that producers must require all members of the traveling company to be fully vaccinated and mandates free weekly virus tests. Also: ‘absolutely no interaction’ will be permitted between performers and audience members.” – The New York Times
Using Dance To Heal Rape Survivors In Congo
“‘I started doing this because of the girls who came to us in a state of silence. They were raped at a young age and they didn’t know how to express themselves. They were so withdrawn,’ said [dance teacher Amina] Lusambo. Now the same women line up in brightly coloured leggings for her classes, where they learn to reconnect with their bodies. ‘You can do more in one month of dance than in three months of psychotherapy,’ Lusambo said.” – Reuters
Jennifer Packer Talks About How Painting Works
I’ve never seen a painting that looked real, but I’ve seen paintings that felt real. – Cultured Magazine
‘A Star Is Born’: The History Of The Asterisk
The little mark’s use in texts goes back at least to Aristarchus, the second-century BC compiler and editor of Homer’s epics; it continued through the Middle Ages, the birth of printing, the mass market for books, and the advent of text messaging. And it meant something different in each of those times; these days, it seems to serve at least three separate purposes. – Lapham’s Quarterly
‘Midcentury Modern’ Was A Thing In American Classical Music, Too
“Composers from that same time period, say, the ’30s to the ’60s — the likes of Walter Piston, Roy Harris, Elliott Carter, George Perle, Harold Shapero, Roger Sessions, and others neglected for decades by America’s musical institutions — have been experiencing an uptick in interest of late, particularly at summer festivals and in recording projects.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Notre-Dame In Paris Needs More Millions To Rebuild After Fire
In the months after the catastrophic 2019 blaze, more than €800 million was raised to reconstruct the 13th-century cathedral. Why is the Diocese of Paris now seeking €6 million more? Not long after the disaster, the French parliament passed a law that the first round of money raised may be used only for structural work and conservation; these new funds will be for new furniture, lighting and sound fixtures, as well as for facilities for the millions of tourists who visit the church. – Yahoo! (AFP)
Copyright Board Changes Streaming Fees
CRB hiked the current rate 17% from the current $0.18 for every 100 songs streamed on on-subscription advertising-supported webcasts to $0.21. – Inside Radio
Tech Was About Disruption. Now It’s “Build Better”?
Taken seriously, the essay seemed to be suggesting an entirely new version of Silicon Valley: a movement away from making software to support existing institutions, and toward creating the institutions themselves. – The New Yorker
Relaxed COVID Restriction? That’s Still A Problem For Venues
While venues try to maintain pre-pandemic ticket prices and the availability of shows by offering multiple gigs on the same day, their economic viability is massively diminished by the drop in capacity. – The Conversation
Why Was No Pulitzer For Cartooning Awarded This Year?
The five-person jury for the category picked the finalists but the larger Pulitzer Prize Board, which selects the winners for all the prizes in journalism and the arts, did not do so for cartooning because no consensus pick emerged. – Washington Post
Josquin Desprez Was Europe’s First Superstar Composer — But We’re Still Not Sure Which Pieces Were Really His
The problem is that, as one wag put it a few years after the composer’s demise, “Now that Josquin is dead, he is putting out more works than when he was still alive” — the height of his fame, in the decades after 1500, coincided with the birth of music printing and the utter lack of copyright law, and many publishers found they could juice sales by slapping the great man’s name on other people’s music. Alex Ross spent much of this spring sitting in on Zoom seminars with two of the world’s top Josquin scholars, Joshua Rifkin and Jesse Rodin, watching students wrestle with determining whether a given work was genuine Josquin or not. – The New Yorker
Hello, Toscanini. And Hello, Doris Day — Hiding out from 2021 in the 1950s
On many days lately, the last places I’ve wanted to be are 2020 and 2021. I’ve been retreating to the 1950s, creating in my apartment a musical time capsule. That’s thanks to Brooklynites who have been clearing out their closets while stuck at home, finding all manner of LP records and depositing them in second-hand stores, where I’ve stumbled upon them at giveaway prices. Those neighbors have allowed their past to be my present. – David Patrick Stearns
A Critic Watches The RSC Rehearse
Despite some trepidation from the actors, the Royal Shakespeare Company is live-streaming for the public select rehearsals for the upcoming production of Henry VI Part One. “I’m intrigued by how much I’ve learned,” writes Michael Billington — who wasn’t more impressed than anyone else ever is by watching actors warm up but was fascinated by seeing the actors work closely with RSC specialists on Shakespearean verse. – The Guardian
Inquest: John Le Carré Died After Fall In Bathroom
The author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, fractured his ribs in the fall. – BBC
Richard Baron, Daring Publisher Of Dial Press, Dead At 98
Among the unconventional books that he took on when other publishers wouldn’t were The Armies of the Night, the first of Norman Mailer’s “nonfiction novels”; James Baldwin’s Another Country (Baron let Baldwin stay in his country house while he finished it); and Report from Iron Mountain, an antiwar satire which he and editor E.L. Doctorow marketed as a secret, leaked government study detailing the necessity of constant war to maintain power. As Doctorow later said, “If anyone was the perfect publisher for the 1960s, it was Richard Baron. He was totally fearless, and he backed us in every crazy thing we wanted to do.” – The New York Times
Boris Johnson Delays Full Reopening Of Performing Arts For Another Four Weeks
“England was due to move to stage four of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown on 21 June, when venues and events would be allowed to operate without capacity limits and the cap on guests at weddings would be lifted.” But, as the country is seeing a new surge of COVID cases, many of the virus’s Delta variant, reopening measures have been postponed to at least July 19. – BBC
Banned Or Not, The Cruise Ships Are Back, And Venetians Are Fighting About It
“The return of cruise ships, which caught many by surprise after the Italian government announced in March that they would be banned from the historic centre, has reawakened old divisions in Venice. … The argument has pitted the economy against the environment in a city where the pandemic has served as a sharp reminder for residents of just how much their livelihoods have come to depend on tourism.” – The Guardian
Who Stole $30 Million Worth Of Art From Italy’s State Broadcaster?
“The Italian press has dubbed it the ‘sack of RAI.’ Investigators believe disgruntled former staff members stole a trove of artworks worth an estimated $30 million from the Italian public broadcasting company Rai over a period of decades.” – Artnet
The Modest New York Apartment That’s Home To An Amazing Art Collection
It belongs to Alvin Hall, 68, a broadcaster, financial educator and author, who, through good timing, taste and a bit of luck, began collecting in the 1980s and has been able to buy masterpieces by artists whose work is now worth much more. – The New York Times
Grappling With The Ethics Of Regulating Artificial Intelligence
“Scientists have to deal with this uneasy balance between being free to do what they like and needing to face the consequences of their unplanned actions, but if science is to thrive that’s the way it has to be.” – 3 Quarks Daily
Boston Merges Ballet And Virtual Reality
It’s impressively intimate: “As you stand in the middle of an undulating semi-circle of bodies, each moving with snakelike ports de bras, you discover how eye contact can change the tenor of a performance. By its very design, VR dance is meant to be this visceral. The audience is but a hair away from the action, and occasional trips and slides, and the intricacies of choreography and gesture. Pickett describes the experience as akin to ‘having the movement land on your skin’.” – Financial Times