“Even as networks and streaming services slaver over intellectual property with prearranged fan bases, few mass-market romance novels have found their way to screens. Character-driven and story rich, they would seem to have a lot of what television wants. But showrunners have played hard to get.” Alexis Soloski explores why. – The New York Times
Blog
Nudged By COVID, Six Philadelphia Museums Move Toward Forming A Consortium
“What began as practical fund-raising talk in the midst of unprecedented disruption has now become a full-blown exploration of the possibilities to cooperate and even collaborate on everything from programming to technology to health insurance.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Arts Institutions Lost Their Box Office Income This Year. Now They’re Struggling For Contributions, Too.
“Despite an outpouring of contributions when the virus first struck, individual giving to arts organizations fell by 14 percent in North America during the first nine months of the year, [and the] average size of gifts from the most active, loyal patrons fell by 38 percent. … [The arts] are facing competition from pressing causes including hunger, health care and social justice.” – The New York Times
Tony Rice, Virtuoso Guitarist Who Brought Jazz Stylings To Bluegrass, Dead At 69
“[He] collaborated with Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Garcia and Béla Fleck, and, with mandolinist David Grisman, defined the synthesis of bluegrass, jazz and chamber music known as ‘dawg music.'” As one critic put it, “If you play bluegrass guitar, you have to come to terms with Rice the way portrait photographers have to come to terms with [Richard] Avedon.” – The Washington Post
The Riverside Bookstalls Of Paris Have Been There For 400 Years. Can They Survive 2020’s Parade Of Catastrophes?
“Despite frequent bans by assorted French kings, bouquinistes – the first dictionary entry for the term was in 1752 – have been hawking their wares along the Seine since the 16th century, originally from handcarts, voluminous pockets and trestle tables. … 227 franchises were operating at the beginning of the year; 221 are open now – at least, in theory. In practice, except on sunny weekends, as many as 80% of the railway-green boxes are more or less permanently closed, and most bouquinistes‘ incomes have plunged by a similar percentage.” – The Guardian
The Masked Dancer? Seriously? Here’s How It Came To Be
Enter “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which had also capitalized on the popularity of “Masked Singer” to create its own “Masked Dancer” stunt. After those segments became viral hits and the “Masked Singer” team saw how well they played, Fox alternative entertainment and specials president Rob Wade said he was finally convinced. – Variety
How Online “Superfans” Made Pop Music A Scary Place
While music has long been intertwined with internet communities and the rise of social networks, a growing faction of the most vocal and dedicated pop enthusiasts have embraced the term “stan” — taken from the 20-year-old Eminem song about a superfan turned homicidal stalker — and are redefining what it means to love an artist. – The New York Times
Learning To Hear Beethoven
James Wood: “It took me some time to listen properly to Beethoven, to get past the heroic glower of his portrait, the worldwide canonicity. (Surely it didn’t help that our entire generation, like those before us, had to trudge through Für Elise and what we could manage of the Pathétique on the piano. I used to go to sleep to the broken sounds of those pieces, as my brother, five years older, toiled downstairs at his ‘homework’.) It wasn’t till my early twenties that I started listening to the piano sonatas as they demand to be heard: evenly, carefully.” – London Review of Books
How Consolidation Is Killing Good Art
“The lack of options marketed to consumers has created a missing middle: the zone between mass market and niche market where experimentation is supposed to proliferate and engender variety. Worse, the consolidation of the country’s vast creative sector into fewer, more powerful production and publishing companies has come at the direct expense of the quality of their product.” – The New Republic
How Rich Corporate Publishers Are Gouging Public Schools
Over the past decade, Silicon Valley’s tech behemoths have discreetly and methodically tightened their grip on American schools, and the pandemic has given them license to squeeze even tighter. – The New Republic