One partial solution to the decline of media that often gets ignored—yet has the potential to both alleviate the deepening crisis and also help restore public trust in the media as a whole—is for the government to create and finance a truly public media system. The idea of public media is often conflated with state-run media in the eyes of skittish libertarians, but public media systems in other democracies have proven entirely capable of retaining editorial independence despite being government-funded. – The New Republic
These Women Published Under Men’s Names – Is It Misguided Feminism To Republish Them Under Their Own?
The Women’s Prize for Fiction recently debuted an upcoming project which will mark the 25th anniversary of the prize: an initiative called “Reclaim Her Name” (#ReclaimHerName) which republishes famous works by twenty-five female authors who published under male nom-de-plumes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including George Eliot, George Sand, Vernon Lee, and Arnold Petri. The thing is, the initiative is republishing these books using the authors’ given, female names, rather than their male pseudonyms. Many have applauded this initiative. No. Stop applauding. Stop applauding now. – LitHub
Stand-Up Comedy Outdoors Just Doesn’t Work The Same Way
Several outfits in New York are trying it, and Jesse David Fox checked one out. “Comedy clubs are agreed-upon spaces where we allow comedians to say whatever they want. But now we have, as [Sean] Patton called it, ‘filthy hoo-ha talk’ floating into the air for anyone to hear. … Also, you don’t think about how important ceilings are until there aren’t any. Comedy benefits from trapping the laughs in, allowing one joke to ride off the momentum of the previous one. When that’s not possible, laughs float away into the air.” – New York Magazine
No Flipping: Christie’s Add Clause To Contract Of Sale For Works By Black Artists
The market for Black artists’ work is hot right now, and some re-sellers are pocketing enormous profits — none of which are going to the actual creators of the now-high-value asset. So the curator of the Christie’s exhibition “Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud)” and the house’s management, after consulting the artists, came up with a remedy. – Artnet
The School Of American Ballet Finally Hires A Permanent Faculty Member Who Is Black
When Aesha Ash got hired as a City Ballet dancer, she felt the weight of her people on her back. “I wasn’t just dancing for myself, and I wasn’t just dancing to rise through the ranks and be seen by a director to promote me,. … It was so much bigger than that. I was trying to battle stereotypes and biases on that stage every single night. And I succeeded in some and I failed in others.” Now she’s teaching, but she’s still trying to clear a path for other Black dancers. – The New York Times
Will Britain’s First Live Show To Return Actually Make It Back To The Stage?
Actors rehearsing for the musical Sleepless get test results within 45 minutes on an app. One of the actors says, “It does actually feel amazing to just be hearing people sing again. It’s made me realize the escapism of theatre and how much people will love to see it again.” (Especially if the audience can also get those speedy tests?) – BBC
The Theatre Of Giving Convention Speeches When There’s No In-Person Audience
The impresarios of the Democratic and Republican national conventions are facing the same theatrical problem that playwrights, stand-up comics and concert singers have been grappling with since the pandemic darkened our stages: how to simulate the look, sound and feel of live performance. – Los Angeles Times
New VR Experience Takes You Inside Notre Dame Before And After The Fire
Rebuilding Notre-Dame begins by recounting the history of the gothic cathedral with close-ups of its gargoyles, bells and sacristy alongside the rector Patrick Chauvet talking about his sense of vocation. This footage was made three months prior to the fire for a Targo documentary on Chauvet. The ensuing scenes include drone images of the cathedral’s blazing fire, of crowds of shocked onlookers and of firemen struggling to extinguish the flames, followed by interviews with Chauvet, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who is charge of the cathedral’s reconstruction, and Paris’s mayor Anne Hidalgo. – The Art Newspaper
The Memorabilia King Vs. The Studio Detective: The Never-Before-Told Account Of An Epic Battle Over Stolen Movie Props
“Today, the pop-culture collectibles market grabs headlines and brings in between $200 million and $400 million in annual sales. … But back [in the ’90s], entertainment memorabilia was still a small-time game, with studios only starting to think about their productions’ physical assets as valuable brand-building artifacts rather than garbage fetishized by marginal eccentrics. [David] Elkouby’s strange saga — untold until now — marked a key turning point in that industry evolution.” – The Hollywood Reporter
New Project Wonders How Ancient Languages Sounded
The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, and the composer Edmund Hunt are to lead an effort to fuse music and historic linguistics to examine the sonic footprints of Vikings and Celts. – The Guardian
New Book Traces Europe’s Great Buildings Back To Far East
Given their prevalence in the great cathedrals of Europe, it is easy to imagine that pointed stone arches and soaring ribbed vaults are Christian in origin. But the former dates back to a seventh-century Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, while the latter began in a 10th-century mosque in Andalucia, Spain. In fact, that first known example of ribbed vaulting is still standing. – The Guardian
AMC Is Opening Movie Theatres Next Week – Admission 15 Cents
For one day only, tickets at the theaters will sell for 15 cents, roughly the equivalent of what it cost to watch a movie in 1920. That’s the year that the company’s founders, the Dubinsky Brothers, began operations with a single movie screen in Kansas City, Missouri. – Variety
‘Literally Melting’: Medieval Buildings Of Yemen’s Capital Are Collapsing In Rain And Floods
The multistory, ochre-and-white mud-brick houses in the UNESCO-listed old city of Sanaa had already been weakened by bombs and artillery during Yemen’s six-years-and-counting civil war. But this year’s monsoon season, the rainiest in recent memory, is seeing some of those buildings simply fall to pieces. – France24 (AFP)
Even Before The Blast, Beirut’s Arts Communities Were In Crisis. Some Wonder If It’s Worth Trying To Rebuild
That’s because all of Lebanon was in crisis, with daily demonstrations, the collapse of the currency, and a gridlocked, dysfunctional political class that has been clinging to control since the civil war ended inconclusively 30 years ago. “What is frightening is that we are already so exhausted, so discouraged,” said the director of the city’s leading museum. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to pick ourselves up and move on,” lamented one gallerist. “I am 55. I have reconstructed my life so many times, and this time it’s just the last straw.” – CNN
Geoffrey Nunberg, Sociopolitical Linguist Known From NPR, Dead At 75
“Dr. Nunberg’s day jobs were in academia and in a Silicon Valley think tank, but his deepest preoccupation was in understanding how human beings communicate through words, from slang and vulgar slurs to political messaging and professional jargon. … He published several books, including essay collections and The Ascent of the A-Word, about the popularity of a certain seven-letter term applied to annoying bosses or people who used to be called heels and jerks … and, for more than 30 years, provided commentaries on language for the NPR program Fresh Air.” – The Washington Post
Massachusetts Orders Two Live Plays In Berkshires To Reduce Audience Sizes
The first two theater productions in the U.S. since lockdown to be approved by Actors’ Equity for performing before an in-person audience, Godspell at Berkshire Theater Group and Harry Clarke at Barrington Stage Company, “will each allow only 50 people to be present — down from 100 — after the state of Massachusetts rolled back its reopening protocols in an effort to slow the spread of the disease.” – The New York Times
Indoor Performances In England Get Green Light To Resume This Weekend
Venues must require audience members to wear masks and maintain social distance, but if those requirements are being met, then — “despite concerns about persistently high daily infection numbers” — theatres and concert halls may reopen as of Saturday, August 15, along with bowling alleys, skating rinks and some sports events. (Of course, if recent history is any guide, this decision could be reversed Friday afternoon.) – The Guardian
Hollywood Movie Production Restarts (But Not In Hollywood)
Hollywood has been unable to restart production on its own soundstages in California because of surging infections in the state, plodding negotiations with unions over protocols and the time it takes to get test results. So big movie studios, under pressure to get their production assembly lines running again, have focused on overseas shooting. The “Avatar” sequels are filming again in New Zealand. Sony Pictures has “Uncharted,” its adaptation of a popular video game, going in Berlin. – The New York Times
First Woman To Conduct Opera At Salzburg Festival Isn’t Much Interested In Gender
Joana Mallwitz: “I’m still amazed about all the situations where it’s still possible to be ‘the first woman ever.’ … I’ve conducted Mozart operas my whole life at major houses, and I wasn’t asked to conduct at Salzburg just because I’m a woman. That’s not how it works.” – The New York Times