Happy endings don’t happen often during a novel coronavirus pandemic. Marsalis, eighty-five, died in New Orleans of complications from the virus on April 1. But when the crying is over and Marsalis gets the jazz funeral he deserves, even the most sober study of his contributions to music might begin with a celebratory cork popping from a bottle of champagne. Jazz spoke to him early, in a way that no music had before, and in its service, his character was revealed. – Oxford American
Have A Look Inside The Italian Police’s Vault For Stolen Art
A modest three-story building on the edge of Rome’s Trastevere district is where the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale keep thousands of artworks for as long as they are considered evidence in legal cases. Says one officer at the facility, “Usually, we give back the pieces a few days after seizing them. But some cases take longer, there are several counterclaims, and the objects stay here for years.” – Atlas Obscura
The New Realities Of Live Music In Clubs
“It’s a new normal for these concerts, and yet another uncanny valley of the post-Covid world: a social experience where we can’t socialise; a show where dancing, hugging and head-banging are essentially illegal. Sweaty dance floors and beer queues are out, replaced by parlour-style seating and severely reduced capacities, often resulting in artists performing multiple shows a night. Dinner and a show has, against all odds, become the norm again.” – The Guardian
UK Culture Minister Questions The Value Of Public Broadcasting
The BBC is just one piece of a bigger puzzle. The world has changed, and every broadcaster needs to change with it. So I’m taking a close look at the future of our entire public service broadcasting system. That includes ITV and Channels 4 and 5 – and S4C in Wales and STV in Scotland, both of which are important to those nations. – The Telegraph (UK)
Covid Fan Tutti: Opera In Exotic Places
LA’s Pacific Opera Project’s unconventional, often playful productions have included a bilingual “Madama Butterfly” performed in the Aratani Theatre in L.A.’s Little Tokyo; a “Magic Flute” that took its cue from 1990s video games; and at the outdoor Ford Theatres, a version of Mozart’s “Abduction From the Seraglio” staged as an episode of “Star Trek.” Still, the company has done nothing quite like what it is attempting in the parking lot of Camarillo United Methodist Church in Ventura County, about an hour’s drive northwest of downtown L.A. – Los Angeles Times
How A Biden Celebration Ad Borrowed From An Iconic Work By Artist Lorraine O’Grady
“The video shows Americans from various backgrounds and hailing from different parts of the country holding empty golden picture frames to the tune of “America the Beautiful.” The video is a reference to O’Grady’s iconic 1983 performance “Art Is…” in Harlem, New York. In the performance, 15 performers, dressed all in white, carried empty gold picture frames during the annual African American Day Parade, inviting members of the community to pose as the subject of the artwork.” – Hyperallergic
An Architecture Critic Considers The Four Seasons Total Landscaping Venue
Four Seasons Total Landscaping joins the slabs of forlorn border wall and the graffiti-encrusted bathroom in Lafayette Square as the real monuments of an administration intent on ugliness and pathetic façades. Maybe the choice of venue was a not-at-all understandable mix-up. – Curbed
A Dance Critic On The Dancing In The Streets When The Election Was Called
Gia Kourlas: “Last weekend, the explosion of dance — which overtook social media, making it seem like it was happening everywhere — was a celebration of community. But for those of us in the dance world it emphasized another point: While the pandemic will continue to prevent public performances for what now looks to be another year or so, dance is still alive in the world. … Dancing is not just about moving your body, but reclaiming it — and with that, your faith in the world.” – The New York Times
The Dance World Is Making Peace With This Online Class Business
“In the time between COVID-19’s first worrisome appearance in the U.S. and, for many, months of shelter-in-place orders, dancers and teachers alike found their opinions of online learning shifting: from outright resistance, initially, to begrudging acceptance, to — for some — actual enthusiasm.” – Dance Magazine
Research: How Coronavirus Changed TV Viewing Habits
Coronavirus fundamentally changed people’s reasons for watching TV. Whereas before it was often associated with distraction and unwinding, the people we spoke to were rife with anxiety and turned to TV to relieve the stress of COVID-19. Television provided a sanctuary during lockdown for those seeking familiar and “safe” content which offered an escape from the worrying realities of the pandemic. – The Conversation
What Is The Great Art That Will Come Out Of This Pandemic?
“What, I wonder, is the fate of so many of these projects and events, some of them topical and inordinately perishable? With arts groups across the country deprived of ticket revenue and focused myopically on survival, where goes the impetus for the sorts of ambitious dramas, operas and other productions that put a stamp on an era?” – Washington Post
With Hollywood Idled By The Virus, East Asia’s Film Industries Are Stepping Up
China has now overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest movie market. South Koreans watch more films per capita than any other nation (and they made Parasite). Vietnam has more than 100 million people, a growing industry, and (with COVID-19 largely contained) open theaters. Japan, of course, has had a vibrant cinema for decades and is a world leader in animation. Says one well-placed observer, “I don’t think [these] countries … even need to think about America now. They’re like the Bollywood film industry in India, in that they want to reach their own first. Any other success elsewhere is just gravy to them.” – BBC
Jazz Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield Pleads Guilty To Fraud Charge
“Irvin Mayfield and Ronald Markham, a pair of musicians-turned-impresarios who had worked to put New Orleans’s jazz scene back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit fraud, capping a precipitous fall from grace that now leaves them each facing up to five years in prison.” – The New York Times
Long-Awaited Statue Honoring ‘Mother Of Feminism’ Unveiled In London, And Feminists Are Livid
Sculptor Maggi Hambling argues that her statue is for Mary Wollstonecraft — who published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 — not of Mary Wollstonecraft. The latter it is certainly not: it is a small, silvered figure of a generic naked woman arising out of an abstract mass incorporating vague images of breasts. As writer Caitlin Moran put it, “Imagine if there was a statue of a hot young naked guy ‘in tribute’ to eg Churchill. It would look mad. This, also, looks mad.” – The Guardian
$4.4 Million Deficit At Chicago Symphony
“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association announced a $4.4 million operating deficit for the fiscal year 2020 at its annual meeting, held online Nov. 10. That period – which ran from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020 – included the pandemic, which forced the cancellation of all CSOA-presented concerts since March 12.” – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
Another Art Restoration In Spain Goes Very, Very Wrong
“In the footsteps of the unintentionally iconic Monkey Christ, the Tintin St George, the near-fluorescent Virgin and Child – not to mention the less than sinlessly executed Immaculate Conception – comes … well, it’ s hard to say. The latest Spanish restoration effort to provoke anguished headlines and much social media snarking is, or rather, was, a carved figure adorning an ornate, early 20th-century building in the north-western city of Palencia.” – The Guardian
Poet Souvankham Thammavongsa Wins 2020 Giller Prize
Born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and raised in Toronto, Thammavongsa has earned acclaim for her four poetry books and her writing has been featured in publications including Harper’s Magazine, the Paris Review and The Atlantic. – CBC
Critic Tries To Review Streamed Concert While Life Keeps Happening
Zachary Woolfe: “I wanted to try, for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic largely closed down live performing arts worldwide, to review a concert taken in the way I have most music since March: while running in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, ducking into the bodega for milk, walking [the dog], living life.” Did it work? “Well, sort of.” – The New York Times
The Late Joseph Rishel, 80: Witty, Erudite Curator Extraordinaire
The brilliant, resourceful Philly-based curator of memorable exhibitions including Cézanne and Beyond, has left us for the Great Beyond. – Lee Rosenbaum
The First Of The Dictionaries’ Words Of The Year Is Here, And It Totally Fits 2020
Collins Dictionary has declared lockdown the word of 2020. “The 4.5bn-word Collins Corpus, which contains written material from websites, books and newspapers, as well as spoken material from radio, television and conversations, registered a 6,000% increase in its usage [this year over 2019].” – The Guardian
UK’s Culture Secretary Questions Continued Existence Of BBC And Other Public Channels
In an essay for The Telegraph, Oliver Dowden asks, “Is [the BBC] keeping the British public’s confidence when it comes to its impartiality, and does it truly represent the nation?” and writes that a panel he is convening will be “asking really profound questions about the role these broadcasters have to play in the digital age – and indeed whether we need them at all.” – The Telegraph (UK)