Kiley Reid, the author of Such a Fun Age, published a year ago to strong sales and a spot on the Booker longlist, is helping change publishing’s mind, she believes. Talking to another writer, she found out that “she was saying that she’s used my novel to point out to editors that if this person is doing humour that is literary fiction, why can’t I do it too? The premise that literary fiction has to be a drag – it’s just so silly.” – The Observer (UK)
Author: ArtsJournal2
Please Keep Your Hands, Feet, And Breath Inside The Car While At The Museum
That’s 2020 for you, and it’s also a clever way to deal with distancing. In Mexico City, “Objects In the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (Los objetos en el espejo están más cerca de lo que parece, in Spanish) … brings together over 30 works by more than 20 contemporary artists, from sculpture to video works and LED installations, across three floors of a commercial parking garage in the city’s Polanco neighborhood.” – Hyperallergic
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
Look, Buildings Of Any Tradition Can Be Beautiful
Seriously. We’re having this discussion because the U.S. president is determined to damage as much as possible before he’s forced to leave, but: “America has beautiful and popular non-traditional structures – the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles – and it has crude and soulless classical buildings.” – The Guardian (UK)
Oh, What The Heck, Let’s Rank The Streaming Services
It’s not like there’s much else to do here at the tail end of the year but try to cram in Oscar bait or kids’ Christmas movie or soul-enhancing shows that lead us down internet rabbit holes or terrible superhero movies that lead to massive excellent live-tweeting sessions. So: What’s the best streaming service out there? Our lives, after all, depend on it. – Fast Company
What Drives Some Writers To Drink?
Hmmm. “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
The Look Of The Sounds Of Jazz
When animators were trying to illustrate the sounds of the new Pixar film Soul, they needed some non-traditional ideas, like … watch a jazz pianist play. “Along with video, they were able to digitally save the notes that were being played. That digital stream could be reverse-programmed into the animation in a way that worked almost like a player piano signaling to the animators which key was being played with each note. So when you see Joe at the piano, he’s playing exactly the notes you’re hearing.” – 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
Why Is An American-Written, Directed, And Acted Movie About The American Dream Only Eligible For A Foreign Film Golden Globe?
Could it be – is it possible – that Korean Americans aren’t seen as American? (And that last year The Farewell, another Asian American written and directed movie, dealt with similar anti-Asian racism?) “It’s a multilingual film that reflects the reality of Americans that are multilingual. So it’s authentic to have that dialog in the language that would have been spoken growing up in a family like this growing up in rural Arkansas. What could be more American than that?” – The Guardian (UK)