Had Orwell lived even a few more years he would have been drawn into public discussions of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four and their meaning. And had he equalled his friend Cyril Connolly’s longevity and lived into the 1970s, he would have become embroiled in controversies like the Cold War, nuclear disarmament, feminism, decolonisation, Vietnam, immigration and, who knows, Northern Ireland. – Dublin Review of Books
The Hidden Radio Stations All Over The FM Dial
“Subcarriers are, essentially, hangers on, areas of frequency that weren’t being used for the primary signal, but could find secondary uses in more specialized contexts.” Some FM subcarriers were used to provide a second channel for stereo, but “with secondary signals that may not be directly accessible at all by the primary receiver, completely unrelated, niche services were offered.” Those services have ranged from the original Muzak to specialized radio for doctors’ offices to services that read newspapers and books aloud for the blind to foreign-language broadcasts to GPS. (And there was one ill-fated Microsoft endeavor). – Tedium
Maybe The Right Concert Piece For The Age Of COVID Is Cage’s 4’33”
When Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic learned, on short notice, that their Oct. 31 concert would be the last for some time with a live audience, they chose Cage’s score-without-notes as their encore — and their rendition has racked up more than 50,000 views on YouTube so far. David Patrick Stearns considers the meaning of this notorious musical landmark, both in general and in this particular performance, which (despite Petrenko’s much-too-fast tempos) “seemed to achieve maximum eloquence.” Seriously. – Classical Voice North America
A COVID-Safe Drive-In Theatre For Stage Plays Will Open Next Spring
The DriveINSIDE theatre, which is approved for operating even under Britain’s Tier 3 pandemic restrictions, will have a four-week run in Manchester in March before touring the rest of the UK. Cars will be directed to a designated parking spot, the equivalent of an assigned seat, and passenger-viewers will be able to sit outside on the driver’s side. – Manchester Evening News
Finding Love (And Community) In Gaming
For many of us, virtual worlds are fertile ground for growing new friendships and romance. In online role-playing platforms, gamers may feel more confident in their social interactions than in real life because they can be seen exactly as they want to be seen, says Anthony Bean, a clinical psychologist in Fort Worth, Texas, and founder of Geek Therapeutics. – Wired
How UK Theatres Are Changing During COVID
Theatres that normally function as places of gathering, storytelling and entertainment have found themselves playing a very different role in the age of coronavirus. – The Stage
The Arts’ COVID Losses By The Latest Numbers
How have things changed since the pandemic? A recent Brookings Institution report shows America’s arts and creative industries lost $150 billion in sales and 2.7 million jobs through July. The “fine and performing arts” alone (commercial and nonprofit) incurred losses of $42.5 billion and a whopping 50% of its workforce (-1.4 million jobs). – Americans for the Arts
Spotify’s Most Streamed Tracks Of 2020
Bad Bunny was the biggest artist globally, amassing 8.3bn streams. The Puerto Rican star’s second album YHLQMDLG notched up 3.3 billion streams, followed by The Weeknd’s After Hours and Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. – BBC
How Your Brain’s Built In Biases Let You Believe Untrue Things
There are several well-known mechanisms in human psychology that enable people to continue to hold tight to beliefs even in the face of contradictory information. – The Conversation
Dolly Parton Funded A COVID Vaccine. It’s Not The First Time She’s Come To Our Rescue.
Jessa Crispin: “In the past month, Dolly Parton has saved us both from the pandemic and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, if you’ve been paying attention. Dolly Parton has been saving us her entire career.” – The Guardian
BookExpo And BookCon Are No More
“The pandemic arrived at a time in the life cycle of BookExpo and BookCon where we were already examining the restructure of our events to best meet our community’s needs.” – Publishers Weekly
Mixed-Race Ballerina Tells Of Discrimination And Harassment At Berlin State Ballet
Chloé Lopes Gomes, a Frenchwoman whose father came from Cape Verde, joined the corps of Staatsballett Berlin in 2017 after studying at the Bolshoi and dancing in companies in Nice and Lausanne. She says that she suffered harsh and repeated racial harassment from the ballet mistress in charge of the corps; when she reported the issue to top management, she was told that nothing could be done because that ballet mistress had a lifetime contract. – Pointe Magazine
Work Made For Disabled Dancers Gets More Widespread And More Sophisticated
Brian Seibert looks at two projects, Heidi Latsky Dance’s On Display and Kinetic Light’s Descent, that are indicative of the variety and diversity found in the field of disability dance today. – The New York Times
Boy Thrown From Tate Modern’s Deck Can Now Walk, Says Family
The victim, visiting London with his family from France, was 6 when he was hurled from the museum’s viewing deck by a deranged 17-year-old (now imprisoned) in August of 2019. The boy’s family says that he can now walk with a cane and breathe well enough to speak in words rather than syllables, though he still suffers from chronic pain and memory loss. – CNN