Humans are given to hierarchy—we measure ourselves against those around us and strive to better our relative position—but we are, at the same time, unhappy that this is true of ourselves. This predicament is the product of two drives. – Boston Review
Blog
How The Choir Of King’s College, Cambridge Prepared Its Lessons And Carols Service For This Year Of Pestilence
Just as the boy chorister who sings the opening solo never knows that he’ll be the one to do it until immediately before the service (and its worldwide broadcast) begins, so — with a new strain of coronavirus raging around England — the choir and its director didn’t know until a week before Christmas Eve whether they’d be able to to the worldwide broadcast live. Here’s how they prepared for either eventuality. – The New York Times
Why Was Longtime Oregon Children’s Theatre Director Suddenly Fired?
“The departure of McKeen, one of the city’s most prominent arts leaders, comes as something of a shock. He’d been OCT’s managing director since 2008. Before that he spent several years as a grant writer and fundraising consultant for several Portland arts organizations, served a year as the first manager of the Oregon Cultural Trust, and spent three years as general manager of Portland Center Stage.” – Oregon Arts Watch
Why Just ‘Adding Context’ To Controversial Monuments May Not Change Minds
In two words, confirmation bias. If the text about slavery added to a statue of a Confederate general at a battleground or to the displays at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello conflict with visitors’ pre-existing beliefs, those people will dismiss the new information as irrelevant (if they even notice that it’s there). This is particularly true at historical monuments because, research has shown, most people who visit them don’t go there to learn. – Smithsonian Magazine
More Details On Congress’ COVID Funding For Performing Arts Venues
“We secured the Save Our Stages Act for indie music venues, Broadway, comedy clubs, indie movie theaters, and more,” Senator Chuck Schumer wrote on Twitter Sunday night. “These are people’s jobs and livelihoods, and they need this help now. I won’t stop fighting for them.” – Rolling Stone
Fanny Waterman, Co-Founder Of Leeds International Piano Competition, Dead At 100
“Somewhat embarrassingly, it was one of her own pupils, Michael Roll, who won the first competition, … but, despite the controversy, the event gradually grew from what she herself described as a ‘cottage industry’ into one of the most important of its type in the world.” She remained chairman and artistic director of “the Leeds” until just five years ago. – The Guardian
Trump’s Executive Order Targets Modernist Buildings
Retitled “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” it begins with a paean to “beautiful public architecture,” before moving on to a litany of disapproval aimed at modernist federal buildings. – NPR
Dances With Death: In Russia, Ballet Continues, Pandemic Be Damned
As colleagues and fans in other countries look on with either envy or incredulity, ballet dancers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities keep coming to the theater, rehearsing, and performing. Outbreaks happen regularly within companies and dancers have to quarantine, but onward they go. – Gramilano (Milan)
Can Dudamel’s New Virtual Reality Film Make The Young’uns Think Orchestral Music Is Cool?
“The film” — titled Symphony in Madrid — “is split into two, 12-minute sections. The first, shown on a giant screen, follows three young musicians in Spain, the US and Colombia as they practise their instruments and move through landscapes and soundscapes that range from the Mediterranean coast to the streets of New York and a coffee farm on a tropical mountainside. For the second, visitors are invited into the other trailer, given a virtual reality headset and headphones, and urged to take leave of their senses.” – The Guardian
A Terrible New Copyright Law Got Inserted Into The COVID Relief Bill That Just Passed
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued that it could mean huge fines for individuals sharing copyrighted material on social media. ‘The CASE Act could mean internet users facing $30,000 penalties for sharing a meme or making a video,’ it wrote earlier. ‘It has no place in must pass legislation.’ It noted that if an individual is hit with a CASE claim, they would need to reply to the Copyright Office ‘in a very specific way, within a limited time’ to avoid a steep fine.” – Engadget