Author: Matthew Westphal

Hollywood Finally Starts Trying To Get Nonwhite Accents Right

“Over the past five months, major film and television studios have signaled renewed efforts to depict people of color thoughtfully and authentically. It isn’t really possible to verify the sincerity of these efforts, but the changing role of dialect coaches — and how they’re allowed to work — may offer a way to judge their success.” A reporter talks with three dialect coaches, one Black and two Latina, about the new demand for their work. – The New York Times

Wole Soyinka To Publish His First Novel In 47 Years

“The Nigerian playwright and poet, who became the first African to win the Nobel prize for literature in 1986, published his widely celebrated debut novel, The Interpreters, in 1965. His second and most recent novel, Season of Anomy, was released in 1973. Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth, which will be published in Nigeria before the end of the year [and internationally in 2021], will be his third.” – The Guardian

At Last Minute, Baltimore Museum Of Art ‘Pauses’ Controversial Sale Of Three Paintings

“The decision” — made just a few hours before the gavel was to fall at Sotheby’s — “not to move forward with the offloading of paintings by Clyfford Still and Brice Marden, plus an Andy Warhol canvas through a private sale, follows weeks of controversy, which culminated in indirect censure from the Association of Art Museum Directors.” – Artnet

Postponed Philip Guston Exhibition Moved Up To 2022 After Heavy Criticism

“The National Gallery and three other major museums” — Tate Modern in London and the Museums of Fine Arts In Houston and Boston — “had announced that they were delaying the retrospective, which was originally intended to begin its tour last June, after taking into account the surging racial justice protests across the country. … Some critics said the decision to delay the retrospective amounted to self-censorship fueled by fear of controversy.” – The New York Times

Nico Muhly’s New Piece For San Francisco Symphony Would Be Impossible To Perform Live

With no live concerts since March and no prospect of restarting them soon, the orchestra commissioned Muhly to write a work specifically for virtual performance. The result is Throughline, “a piece of big-girl music that has big-girl stuff in it” (as Muhly put it) that involves the orchestra and all eight of the creative partners Esa-Pekka Salonen engaged when he was appointed SFS music director. – The New York Times

‘Unmitigated Disaster’: Why Vice Media Appears Headed Toward A Bad End

“After being perceived as the red-hot center of Millennial-based media culture for the past decade or so, Vice’s place is harder to pinpoint now. Some of it is still edgy and provocative. But increasingly the impact of its work feels more like the proverbial trees falling in the forest. … Top executives at Vice tell you the present is pretty damn fabulous, while the best is yet to come. Former employees — or at least those willing to speak out despite confidentiality provisions in their contracts — say Vice is an unmitigated disaster.” – Air Mail