Fundamentally, whether you’re convinced that instant communication heralds the death of the literary letter depends on how you define a letter. – Times Literary Supplement
The Relationship Between Writing And Drinking
“Nothing slows the flywheel, nothing treats the node of unease on the ribs, like a drink—you don’t have to be an alcoholic to know that. And for writers, there might even be a fragile biochemical moment when the drinking helps.” – The Atlantic
Bollywood Depended Even More On Ticket Income Than Hollywood Did. Here’s How India’s Finally Embracing Direct-To-Streaming.
The fallout from the pandemic reduced box office grosses by about 75%, “making it easier for streaming services to land new movies, even with some theaters reopened. … The investments by streaming services in Bollywood content have also led to a surge of creativity. Instead of the usual romantic or action-hero films with all-star casts, more shows and movies are now centered on women, war and other topics.” – The New York Times
How TV Fundamentally Changed in 2020
2020 wasn’t just about bigger numbers for the streaming industry. We also got to see an acceleration of cord cutting as viewers migrated by the millions from legacy cable; a shift in power as device-makers emerged as the new gatekeepers; and the erosion of long-established theatrical release windows. – Protocol
Why A Charlie Brown Christmas Is So Enduring
“Charles Schulz had what Maurice Sendak had: respect for children. He understood the way they think and feel, not the way adults want them to think and feel. He understood that there’s a point in children’s growing up when Christmas doesn’t work its magic as reliably as it once did. Schulz let them explore a taboo subject, Christmastime unhappiness, while still reassuring them that Christmas is a good and fun and wonderful thing.” – The Atlantic
Look, Warner Bros. Believes Movie Theatres Will Still Be Around In 2023
Question is, which theatres will still be around by then? (And is Warner Bros. 2021 slate of movies to HBO Max plan going to devastate those same theatres?) – The Verge
The Year In Reading Of A Writer Who Died Far Too Young
Anthony Veasna So’s Year in Reading is a heartbreaker. The 28-year-old died suddenly at the beginning of December, but his essay for The Millions was nearly finished. “I did love Girl, Woman,Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Or maybe I loved knowing the characters of this kaleidoscopic novel. Maybe I need to record the lives of as many archetypal Khmer queers I can imagine.” – The Millions
As Museums Remain Closed, The Work Goes On Inside
Or, in the case of the Gardner, also in the Museum’s gardens. Just before the museum was shut down again to help prevent gatherings of people from different households, “horticulturists at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum were putting the final touches on one of the city’s most anticipated floral displays: The Holiday Garden, a vivid infusion of more than 400 flowering plants, ferns, and shrubs that each year transform the Fenway museum’s courtyard into a lush bouquet brimming with poinsettias, cyclamen, amaryllis, and orchids.” – Boston Globe
Inventing The Solo Waltz
No, we can’t all have random dance partners this year, so let’s go with a throwback to 1908. “The waltz may have a reputation as the ultimate social dance for partners — the way it is traditionally performed at the balls — but there is another interpretation, one that resonates in this pandemic year of physical distancing. More than a century ago, the Viennese dancer Grete Wiesenthal transformed the waltz into a powerful form of solo movement.” – The New York Times
The Weird Case Of The Hallmark Channel’s Jewish Christmas Movies
There’s the 23andMe email telling a Christmas-obsessed woman that she’s 50 percent Jewish; there’s the central character who is an outsider to Judaism; there is the “We’re just like you!” theme, and then there are the many, many, many, many, MANY Hanukkah decorations. “The trend is an assimilationist project which tests the meaning of the increasingly buzzword-y, amorphous concepts of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion.’ Do Jews really want or need to see themselves in Christmas Movie World?” – HuffPost
Will Publishers Continue To Benefit From The Trump Bump?
More than a thousand books have been published about the 45th president during his ruinous four years in office. Now, “publishers are racing to acquire news-breaking works about his final days in office, as well as comprehensive historical accounts of the Trump era, sober expositions examining how he has changed the Republican Party and the country, and gossipy insider accounts of what really went on in the White House.” – The New York Times
Some British Viewers Did Not Appreciate A Beloved White Character’s Appreciation Of Black Lives Matter
In her Christmas Day sermon, the Vicar of Dibley – on the long-running, eponymous show – took a knee and discussed racism. The character “is shown being filmed by parishioner and farmer Owen Newitt as she tells the audience she has been preoccupied with the ‘horror show’ of the death of George Floyd, who died while in US police custody.” – BBC
A New Movement To Champion The Arts?
“Ironically, the arts has a story problem in this country. We are here to become a legislative priority, and part of doing that is reframing the paradigm that we are labor,” he said. “Whether you’re an usher, a milliner, a museum docent, an administrator or a publicist, you’re an arts and cultural worker. ” – The New York Times
Artists We Lost In 2020
In 2020, a year of crisis upon crisis, some of those losses were especially painful, brought on by a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone. – The New York Times
Violinist Ivry Gitlis, 98
Born in mandate-era Palestine in 1922, he started playing violin at 6, entered the Paris Conservatory at 11 and won the school’s top prize at 13, and toured the world as a soloist into his 90s. (He also had a small sideline in movie acting.) – France 24 (AFP)