Today’s meritocrats still claim to get ahead through talent and effort, using means open to anyone. In practice, however, meritocracy now excludes everyone outside of a narrow elite. – The Atlantic
Takis, Sculptor Known For ‘Kinetic Art’, Dead At 93
“A self-described ‘instinctive scholar,’ Takis” — né Panayiotis Vassilakis — “worked primarily in plaster and wrought iron before becoming fascinated by magnetism, electricity and sound — and how those unseen forces animate the physical world and how they might also breathe life into his artistic creations.” – The Washington Post
Literary Festivals Are Finally Making Their Mark In Africa
“In Sub-Saharan Africa, … ‘book fairs’ have been publishing industry affairs where players meet to do deals … away from the reading public. Until recently. In the last decade and a half, there has been a rise of a new kind of literary festival where writers and readers interact over their text and how it affects their lives.” – Quartz
”Apocalypse Now’ Is Not An Anti-War Film’, Says Its Director
Francis Ford Coppola: “No one wants to make a pro-war film, everyone wants to make an anti-war film. But an anti-war film, I always thought, should be … something filled with love and peace and tranquility and happiness. It shouldn’t have sequences of violence that inspire a lust for violence. Apocalypse Now has stirring scenes of helicopters attacking innocent people. That’s not anti-war.” – The Guardian
Netflix Buys A Historic Theatre In LA
Netflix prides itself on a digital-first strategy, but insiders say the multimillion-dollar deal for the streamer to buy the brick-and-mortar Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood is nearly complete, just in time to potentially showcase its films during awards season. – The Hollywood Reporter
A Reader Revitalizes Classic Books And Invents A New Publishing Company
“I got kind of tired seeing classics just for scholarly use or school use,” says the inveterate reader who became frustrated, she says, with clunky, boring or dated designs of books, which were not intended to appeal to new readers. “It’s not many publishers that have set up a classics backlist like this. It’s usually the big multinationals … they can print huge quantities of these books and warehouse them across the world. I’m just starting small.” – Toronto Star
Study: Political Values Influence Food Choices
“New research suggests that the divergent moral values underlying our polarized politics can influence our judgments even in a presumably non-partisan arena such as diet. The study finds that both liberals and conservatives perceive a food product as less healthy if the advertising pitch fails to align with their values.” – Pacific Standard
Is There A Market For Classical Music Streaming?
Anyone who’s tried to stream classical on Spotify or iTunes knows that it’s not easy. Now two new streaming services, created specifically for classical hope they’ve solved the problems. – Musical America
The Voices That Read Books To You
In New York City and Los Angeles, the country’s two capitals for audiobook work, narrators annually earn around $40,000 on average, according to Voices.com. A large publisher might pay as much as $350 per hour, but smaller publishers might pay $50 or less per hour, with the rate tied to how long they say it should take to read a certain number of pages. To make a decent return on your labor, you have to be good. – Washington Post
ASCAP And BMI Propose New Music Licensing Rules
“To help facilitate that orderly transition, and to protect both music creators and licensees alike, ASCAP and BMI are recommending four key provisions that would encompass newly formed decrees.” – Variety
18,000 Cultural Objects Seized In Massive International Sweep
The grand-scale operation, code-named Pandora III, was coordinated by the Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) and supported by The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), Interpol, and the World Customs Organization (WCO). Since October 2018, these authorities assigned thousands of Police and Customs officers to the investigation, which included a special focus on illicit online trafficking of cultural goods. – Hyperallergic
A Wave Of Closings On Broadway
What’s unusual is that instead of hanging on until Labor Day to cash in on tourist dollars, five musicals are closing in the next two weekends: King Kong (which bumped up the losses significantly because it cost a staggering $36.5 million), The Prom, Pretty Woman, The Cher Show and Be More Chill. – NPR
Why Netflix Is Throwing In With Hollywood Over Silicon Valley
Netflix has been evolving its public policy strategies in recent months to align itself more with Hollywood and less with Silicon Valley, a shift driven by the streamer’s maturation into a full-fledged film and TV studio, by its international expansion and by the intense scrutiny Washington is now applying to the tech companies. – The Hollywood Reporter
Five Takeaways From The Baltimore Symphony Meltdown
On some future day, the solution for what now seems like an insurmountable problem might in hindsight seem as obvious as mounting a motor on four wheels seems in 2019. – Baltimore Sun
Netflix At An Inflection Point
After a half-decade of near unchecked dominance in the premium streaming video space that allowed it to aggressively poach entertainment’s top executives and A-list creative talent, the company now finds itself under attack. – The Hollywood Reporter
When Actors Play Roles Of Another Race – Pressure’s On
Peter Marks: “I was curious about how an actor of color might approach entering a world not written for someone who looked like them, but I realized the question was riddled with absurdity. Isn’t musical theater intrinsically make-believe? Why do we sometimes persist in applying the strictures of realism to a platform on which characters interrupt conversations to break out in show tunes? Whose expectations are being served?” – Washington Post
Sara Mearns, Star Of New York City Ballet, Explores Dance Without Point Shoes
“To find another ballet dancer who expanded his or her range with such fortitude and ferocity, you’d have to go back to Mikhail Baryshnikov. But he transitioned into modern dance after his ballet career ended. Ms. Mearns is still going strong as a classical dancer.” – The New York Times
Tolkien Estate Throws Large Monkey Wrench Into Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series: Report
“Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, who is supervising the show’s development, told German fansite Deutsche Tolkien that the estate has refused to allow the series to be set during any period other than the Second Age of Middle-earth. This means Amazon’s adaptation will not cross over at all with events from the Third Age, which were dramatised in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy and sees hobbit Frodo Baggins destroy the One Ring.” – The Guardian
Can Theatre Really Help Fight Climate Change? Yes
Lyn Gardner: “Science … can give us the facts or the knowledge. But as a species we don’t always respond to facts because they make us feel guilty and paralysed. What we respond to as human beings are stories.” – The Stage