This is, on the surface, about a game. But it’s about so much more, including “scores” in reviews, the authority of “major” sites, gatekeeping, industry PR, and loud voices screaming on YouTube. – Kotaku
Author: ArtsJournal2
Black Booksellers Question Tattered Cover’s Self-Anointing Media Coverage
Having a Black venture capitalist in your ownership group isn’t exactly the win Tattered Cover’s PR claimed. Danielle Mullen of Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago: “It’s hurtful to Black booksellers who have been doing the hard work—and then they take the same credit without real Black representation. It’s disappointing and almost unbelievable. Especially with the history they have around the BLM protests and why they lost so many customers. It’s ridiculous. … It’s like if Jeff Bezos partnered with a Black person and then said, ‘Amazon is the biggest Black-owned business in the world.'” – Publishers Weekly
While 2020 Fell Off A Cliff, TV Stayed Suspended In Midair
Or so says one of Slate‘s TV critics. Read the whole series of posts if you can – you can start here and work your way back – but there’s a serious discussion to be had about TV in 2020. “For so much of this year, watching TV felt like watching these weird remnants of another world. They would resonate or fail to connect just like TV always does, but they’d be reaching out to a completely other world than the one they originally intended to reach.” – Slate
Church As Theatre
Everything is locked down in Paris, except for Mass. “The ritualistic nature of the event, the dramatic buildup from scene to scene — even the slightly labored monologues — are all part and parcel of regular theater attendance.” – The New York Times
That Time Italian Futurists Declared War On Pasta
You see, pasta wasn’t “virile” enough for these guys, the poets and artists of Italian Futurism. That’s right, “a heavy, bloated stomach does not encourage physical enthusiasm for a woman, nor favour the possibility of possessing her at any time.” – Open Culture
Noah Creshevsky, Composer Of ‘Hyperreal’ Work, 75
Creshevsky studied composition with some modern legends, but he “found his calling in the studio-bound world of electronic music. Using the prevailing technologies of the day — at first cutting and splicing magnetic tape, later using samplers and digital audio workstations — he made music that was dizzyingly complex in its conception and construction. But because he built his works from everyday sounds as well as voices and instruments, his compositions felt accessible, engaging and witty.” – The New York Times
A Glimpse Inside Hanukkah Related Medieval Manuscripts
Illuminated manuscripts are, well, filled with light. For instance: “A full-page rendering of a menorah surrounded by Temple implements, in color and gold.” – LitHub
Sure, There Are Zillions Onscreen, But Nutcracker Season Doesn’t Feel Real This Year
And that’s a problem for the future. The Nutcracker is “the production that helps make a lot of others possible. That holiday ballet can account for 20% of many companies’ ticket sales, and, in the case of a major company like Chicago’s Joffrey, about half of its annual earned revenue. Ashley Wheater, the artistic director of The Joffrey, told us the company has lost more than $12 million in earnings during the pandemic and has had to cancel newer works they had planned.” – NPR
The Movie Theatre Is Dead; Long Live The Movie Theatre
Sorry, multiplexes: It’s the indies that will survive. “To put it bluntly, people who just want to gobble popcorn while gaping at the latest special-effects extravaganza … will be happy enough doing so in their basements and living rooms, whereas folks who appreciate the theatrical experience as the communal, quasi-religious ceremony that it is will be back.” – Oregon ArtsWatch
Barcelona Gives Same-Day Testing For Concertgoers A Try
More than 1000 people gathered for the experiment: Take a same-day, 15-minute antigen test, and then enjoy a concert. In this case, the concert was a free, indoor, rock and roll experiment wherein 500 people got to enjoy the music while the other 500 are serving as a control group. “The crowd reveled in the newfound freedom, dancing closely together and jostling one another for a bit of fun.” – Seattle Times (AP)