“One reason we define ourselves and others on the basis of class, religion, race, and nationality, or even childhood influences and subconscious drives, is to gain control over the contingencies of the world and insert ourselves in the myriad ways people have failed and succeeded in human history. But this control is illusory and deceptive, existentialists insisted. It might be an alluring distraction from our own fragility but it eventually yields a pseudo-power that corrodes our ability to live well.” – Boston Review
A Visit With Oracle Jaron Lanier
Lanier finds many things fundamental to living in a society hard, like adhering to concepts relating to time, or receiving or sending mail; one ride in his amusement park brain is “a hamster wheel of pain,” as he mentally repeats to himself whatever menial tasks he needs to do until he does them. He is a voluminous talker prone to distraction; interrupt him mid-thought and prepare to find yourself hundreds of years forward or backward in time, talking about factories or Thomas Pynchon or the origins of the word meme. – GQ
Bolsonaro Gov’t Is Dismantling South America’s Largest Film And TV Archive
The Cinemateca Brasileira in São Paulo houses more than 250,000 rolls of film and employed some of the continent’s best film-restoration technicians. Over the 19 months since Bolsonaro abolished Brazil’s Ministry of Culture, his government has fired the technical staff, stopped paying other employees and then fired them as well, terminated the contract with the foundation that managed the archive, and left it without security, air conditioning, or fire protection. – Artforum
Major Indian Publisher Withdraws Book About 2020 Riots In Delhi
“The book, titled Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story [and now dropped by Bloomsbury India], claims that the riots were the result of a conspiracy by Muslim jihadists and so-called ‘urban naxals’, a derogatory term used to describe left-wing activists, who had a role to play in the riots. The claim contravenes reports by organisations such as Amnesty International and the Delhi Minorities Commission that Muslims bore the brunt of the violence.” – The Guardian
How Good Teachers Cultivate Wonder
While it is certainly not inevitable that children lose their sense of wonder as they grow up, and while adults are in principle as capable of experiencing wonder as children, it is to be expected that, as the world becomes more and more familiar to children as they age, they will experience wonder less readily. It increasingly requires effort to see how extraordinary the world and everything in it is. Familiarity – even if it implies no real understanding at all – can dull the sense of mystery. – Psyche
Kuwait Changes Its Book Censorship Law
With the amendment now in place, book importers and international publishers have to provide only book titles and author lists to the Ministry of Information, with the understanding that they bear legal responsibility if a book’s subject matter contravenes Kuwaiti law. Legal action against a particular book will now only be triggered by an official complaint from the public. – The National (UAE)
Why Wearing A Mask Is A Matter Of Identity For Some
Someone’s social dignity can be damaged whether or not she accepts her society’s standards. One way this can happen is if she is a member of different social groups with conflicting standards. – The Conversation
Could Open Source Help Hollywood With Diversity?
Some of the people who make visual effects for Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters believe they have found a way to help: By embracing open source, they want to open up doors for traditionally underrepresented communities. – Protocol
The Underappreciated Brilliance Of Radio Sketch Comedy
Some of the most influential modern comedy in any medium was created for radio: “Who’s on First?“, Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life, The Jack Benny Program, BBC’s The Goon Show and I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again, The Firesign Theatre. And it has always been a fertile format for experimentation (because it’s cheap). Sam Corbin explores why audio sketch comedy lands like nothing else — and wonders why, in the podcast boom, we aren’t getting more of it. – Vulture
What Should A Museum Be In 2020?
Historically, museums have used themed exhibitions, acquisitions schemes, or public programs to signal a shift, but otherwise they continue with business as usual. Real shifts must be seen from the sidewalk to the boardroom. There is an urgent and long-standing need for long-term commitments to diverse hiring and executive leadership, divestment from the police, accessibility, and a zero-tolerance policy for racism from staff or visitors. – Vanity Fair
Italy Bans Public Dancing
As in other countries around the world, new cases in Italy are being driven by young people, with several clusters traced back to nightclubs crowded with maskless patrons. Yet the new rules aimed at stopping young people from gathering en masse have also swept up older Italians for whom an evening at the dance hall is a cherished part of life. – The New York Times
Alex Ross: The Entire History Of Film Music Is Saturated With Wagner
“Cinema’s integration of image, word, and music promised a fulfillment of the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or ‘total work of art,’ which Wagner propagated at one stage of his career. His informal system of assigning leitmotifs to characters and themes became a defining trait of film scores. And Hollywood has drawn repeatedly from Wagner’s gallery of mythic archetypes: his gods, heroes, sorcerers, and questers.” – The New Yorker
Are All Arts Critics Really Just Bitter Failed Artists? No. No, They Are Not.
Well, what answer did you expect to find in a newspaper column? Nevertheless: “It might be difficult to grasp that writing a magazine cover [story] could appeal more than featuring on it, but for many it truly does. … [Critics are] besotted by an art form to the point [they] feel compelled to write about it for – let’s be honest – a meagre living.” Take, for example, Pulitzer Prize winner Jerry Saltz, who freely admits to being a failed artist but isn’t exactly known for being bitter or unenthusiastic. – The Guardian
Are The Detroit Institute Of Arts And Its Director Simply Out Of Touch With Their City?
“At a time when museum leaders across the country are being challenged on whether their institutions are systemically racist, few are confronting as many thorny issues as [Salvador] Salort-Pons. Current and former staff have called for his resignation, complaining he has developed a corrosive, authoritarian manner while retaining a certain obtuseness on matters of race in a city that is predominantly Black.” – The New York Times
New York’s Public Theater Gives Money To Its Out-Of-Work Freelancers
“The theater said it has given $1,000 ‘financial relief payments’ to 368 people including technicians and crew members like carpenters, truck drivers, engineers and programmers; teaching artists, who facilitate classes, workshops and talkbacks; and members of working groups, which support artists as they develop.” – The New York Times
During The Pandemic, Small Local Bookstores Have Gotten More Love Than They Can Handle (And Customers Don’t Love That)
“As the novel coronavirus takes its toll on businesses all over the world, many well-meaning consumers have flocked to local community bookstores. However, increased demand on these small shops has put a strain on business owners. Even worse, some have received backlash from impatient and disgruntled customers for slow shipping or sold out inventories.” – The Washington Post
Boston Symphony Lays Off More Than One-Quarter Of Administrative Staff
The dismissal of 50 out of 180 full-time office employees is “the latest in a stream of cost-cutting measures designed to help the orchestra weather a prolonged hiatus from live performance, which began in mid-March and will extend through at least late November.” – The Boston Globe
In Wake Of Sexual Misconduct Accusations, Ballet School In UK Shuts Down Completely
Earlier this month, more than 60 former students at Ballet West, a boarding school in the Scottish Highlands, accused Jonathan Barton, the school’s vice-principal and son of its principal, of pressuring teenage female students at the school to have sex with him and carrying on affairs with some of them. Over the past week, Barton resigned, the police began an investigation, and the teaching accreditations of both Bartons were withdrawn; consequently, Ballet West is now beginning the process of liquidation. – The Herald (Scotland)
How Theatres In Belarus Got Politically Active
Belarusian theatres, almost all of them state-owned since Soviet times, have officially remained outside of politics for 26 years. Everyone in management positions was appointed by the Ministry of Culture, and any political activity by employees was punished severely. But this August, it seems, even the Belarusian state theatres awoke from their slumber. – American Theatre
How Roman Holiday Took Audrey Hepburn And Catapulted Her Into The Stratosphere
Hepburn wasn’t well-known in the U.S. before William Wyler cast her against Gregory Peck in the bittersweet rom-com. But “her star rose so quickly after this movie. That is crazy. This movie comes out in the summer of ’53 and by September of that year, she’s on the cover of Time as this new discovery, she wins the Academy Award for this early in ’54. And three days after she picked up that Oscar, she picked up a Tony for a different role on Broadway. … So, you know, in a very short period of time, she really is launched into this kind of princesse stratosphere of stardom.” – Slate