The world power that is 21st-century China likely wouldn’t exist as we know it if an ingenious and tenacious computer programmer named Wang Yongmin hadn’t solved that very basic, very complicated problem. Here’s a deep dive into how he did it. (audio plus transcript) – Radiolab
Seattle’s Protest Art In Augmented Reality
The artwork is entirely digital. It’s part of a new, citywide augmented reality art show called Amp’Up Seattle. By downloading a free app with the same name, anyone can access eight virtual artworks that appear layered over the existing cityscape — like Pokémon Go for art. But you won’t be catching Pikachus or other fantasy critters. Instead, you’ll be viewing a different perspective of Seattle, one inspired by the recent protests for racial justice. – Crosscut
Why Erdoğan Reclassified Hagia Sophia As A Mosque
It is a gesture aimed at the Christian world, Europe and all international institutions categorically opposed to this act. Everyone is perfectly clear that this is not merely the transformation of a museum into active sacral space. What we are seeing is Erdoğan and the Turkish Republic demonstratively rejecting the direction set by the ‘father of the nation’, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, nearly a century ago. – Eurozine
Royal Ballet Star Edward Watson Retires From Stage
“He has stunned Covent Garden audiences as the doomed Prince Mayerling, a tormented Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, Lewis Carroll’s bewigged White Rabbit and a gloop-smeared Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis. But after 15 years as a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, Edward Watson is to retire and join its team of coaches.” – The Guardian
Why Did I Arrange Bach’s ‘Goldberg’ Variations For Harp? Because It Works!
“I’m the first to admit that my project can sound outré or precious. … When it came to Bach, I was unhappy about the piano’s awkwardness with hand crossings, the harpsichord’s lack of dynamic vitality and the tootiness of organ pipes. … I kept struggling with what my ideal ‘Goldbergs’ might sound like. I wanted the raw pluckiness of the harpsichord, but with the expressive qualities of the piano.” Parker Ramsay, who plays harpsichord and organ as well as Baroque and modern harp, makes his case. – The New York Times
New York Museums Cleared To Reopen As Of Aug. 24
“The announcement came as the state has seen less than 1 percent of all coronavirus tests return positive for seven straight days, [Gov.] Cuomo said in a news conference. … Institutions will be required to keep the buildings at 25 percent occupancy and to use a timed ticketing system, … to control the flow of traffic through their buildings, and face coverings will be compulsory.” – The New York Times
Consciousness Raised, Budgets Cut: Irreconcilable Imperatives at Metropolitan (& other museums)
I have to hand it to Holland Cotter: For better or worse, the NY Times‘ co-chief art critic was right. I was wrong. – Lee Rosenbaum
The Radical Favors Of Dave Brubeck
Before Miles Davis went electric and Ornette Coleman bloomed, Brubeck was the surest name to start an argument. A cynical section of the jazz audience perceived his experimental nature as a search for a catchy idiom that might eventually bring him the triumph of a hit. And of course, this line of argument claimed a win when “Take Five” propelled the world onto the dance floor in 5/4 time. – Times Literary Supplement
How You Translate The Madcap Edinburgh Fringe Online
The festival’s cancellation has been a big blow to long-term fans — and to the 30,000 performers who travel to the Scottish city each August to show their work. To fill the gap, some artists have gone online to try to capture the anarchic, diverse and somewhat overwhelming experience of being at the Fringe. – The New York Times
Through Fiction, Humans Can Become Animals
Yes, obviously, humans are animals, and also obviously, we don’t truly know how to get into the mind of a hyena or a fox or a dog, but still: In these books, readers can “expand their taxonomies of personhood: who and what we are willing to grant subjectivity and why.” – LitHub
A Lockdown Q&A With Yo-Yo Ma
How he feels playing to an online audience: “You can’t touch, you can’t hug, you can’t shake hands. But what music does, its sound moves air molecules. So when air floats across your skin and touches the hairs of your skin, that’s touch. That’s the closest thing to someone actually touching you. It’s as if you were miniaturized and you’re in the middle of a lake. But that lake is a bowl, and that vessel is holding you. That’s what music can do.” – Washington Post
Career Moves In 2020: Storming TikTok, Freaking Out The President, Hosting Late-Night, Getting A Netflix Special
Sarah Cooper is a UX engineer who, during lockdown, decided to take advantage of TikTok and the United States president’s, er, unique response to the pandemic, earning her a huge response and putting her career as a comedian into a unique space. “The world now has more avenues for #content than ever before. Traditional television shows and films have been massively sidelined by Covid-19 lockdowns—and while we all miss shows like Euphoria and the usual summer blockbusters, a lot of other forms of entertainment, like Cooper’s videos on social media, have emerged to fill the void.” – Wired
The Robert E. Lee Statue At The U.S. Capitol May Move To A Virginia Museum
Sure, one might wonder why one of the United States’s greatest traitors has a statue in the United States Capitol Building, but that’s a long (racist) story. In any case, it’s time for the statue to leave. “The recommendation to move the Confederate general’s monument to the [Virginia Museum of History and Culture] was made unanimously by the Commission for Historical Statues in the United States Capitol during a meeting on August 7.” – Hyperallergic
What In The Heck Is AMC Thinking With The 15 Cent Movies?
Basically, AMC is creating a breeding ground for viral spreading (and not the good kind of viral): “Look, no one wants to get back in a movie theater more than I do — well, OK, my 13-year-old may want it a bit more — but I don’t think a marketing stunt that appears to be an attempt to lure people into theaters with financial incentives is the best decision ever made.” – Los Angeles Times
Luchita Hurtado, Influential Figurative Painter Of Women And Nature, 99
Hurtado spent eight decades “resolutely committed to documenting the interconnectedness of human beings, nature, and terrestrial life,” according to her gallery. In the past two years, she’s finally gotten some recognition for the work she did at night, after her husband and kids went to sleep. – ARTnews
In The 2016 ‘Much Ado’ On PBS, Shakespeare Conveys How Much Black Lives Matter
This is a good time for some required quarantine viewing, no? And it’s always a good time to check out how good directors, dramaturgs, and designers (not to mention actors) can turn Shakespeare’s plays into a living, breathing commentary on contemporary life. – LitHub
Billy Goldenberg, Composer For Stage, Screen, And TV, 84
You may not know you know his work, but you definitely do. A partial description: “Emmy-winning composer who worked with Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley, scored Steven Spielberg’s early work and wrote the theme music for more than a dozen television series.” – The New York Times
The Pain And Dedication Of Being A Reality Show Camera Operator
The camera operators’ job applications asked them to list their skills at things like mountain biking, river rafting, and hiking. Those aren’t on the skillsheets for a lot of camera operators, but “‘I wish every job application was like that, because that’s all the stuff I love to do,’ said camera operator Kathryn Barrows, 43. ‘I felt like this is the show I’ve been waiting my whole life to shoot.'” – Los Angeles Times
The Traditional Ice Cream Truck Song Has Racist Roots, So Good Humor Asked A Musician To Create A New Song
But will New Yorkers accept the new song? Musician RZA: “I can assure you that this one is made with love.” – Gothamist
A Wikipedia Battle Over Kamala Harris’ Entry
Once the news broke, many of the first edits to Harris’s Wikipedia page were the sort of structural maintenance done by veteran editors on the site: citing sources, attaching categories, improving captions, and adding a notice that Harris was “a person involved in a current event,” and as such, “information may change rapidly as the event progresses.” Someone clarified that, until she’s officially nominated at the Democratic convention next week, Harris is still only the “presumptive vice-presidential nominee.” Grammar was improved; typos were fixed. But then at 4:42 p.m., a user named Eee302 changed Harris’s first name from “Kamala” to “Cuntala.” – The Atlantic
Guitarist Julian Bream, 87
Interviewed in the Guardian aged 80, Bream, who retired in 2002, said he was no longer playing: “The thing I feel a little annoyed about is that I know I’m a better musician than I was at 70, but I can’t prove it.” – The Guardian
Julian Bream, One Of 20th Century’s Great Classical Guitarists And Lutenists, Dead At 87
“As performer and developer of the guitar and its repertory – and as a leading reviver of the lute’s Renaissance repertory – Bream, who has died aged 87, was one of the instrument’s towering figures of any generation.” All the more notable is that Bream was, to a great extent, self-taught on both instruments. – The Guardian