“Their values can seem either too extreme or frighteningly bland. Or both at once: They have astoundingly authoritarian ideas about free speech, and they love bubble gum pop. They never believe exactly what we want them to believe.”
Category: AUDIENCE
Global Phenom: Festivals That Light Up Cities Are Magnets For Tourists
“Many of these free light festivals include interactive displays that turn spectators into participants who can change colors or patterns by moving or playing a game. The events are also tourism magnets, attracting locals and out-of-towners alike to waterfronts, historic districts and other neighborhoods on dark winter nights and other periods when tourist activity may be low.”
Belarus Free Theatre Shows Londoners What It’s Like To See Plays Under A Dictatorship
The company’s “Staging a Revolution” festival aimed to “introduce British audiences to some of the conditions their compatriots have to endure in order to see shows in Belarus. To achieve this, [the program] was divided into two weeks: during the first seven days, audiences attended shows held in secret, and in the second installment, got the chance to experience shows in a public venue in freer circumstances.”
Should Taxpayers Even Be Funding The Arts At All? Michael Lind Makes The Case Against
“The NEA Literature Fellowships program, for example, offers $25,000 grants in poetry and prose …Why should writers get $25,000 for ‘travel, and general career advancement’ but not janitors, or home health aides, or car mechanics, all of whom could use the money more than ‘creative writers,’ a group drawn mostly [sic] from the upper middle class and the rich?”
Why ‘Political Correctness’ Drives People Nuts – And Why It Sort Of Works
“In this episode [of Micropolis], we explore how the policing of language can cause anxiety for many of us, while also forcing us to think about race and gender and other issues. … Does ‘political correctness’ shape today’s art and expression? And if so, is that a problem or a necessity?” (audio)
The Woman Who Cracked Radio Success By Listening To Her Audience
“Those who don’t know the name almost always recognize the voice: a folksy, honeyed, sometimes firm, usually schmaltzy flow that can comfort without condescension and make you want to heed even the harshest advice. That voice is the essence of the show, and during my time in the studio, caller after caller told her how its tone alone has provided comfort at some of their lowest points.”
Reading Is Back. Yay! But Let’s Not Put Down Complicated Critiques Replaced By New Enthusiasm
That reading is now a social activity again… might seem cause for optimism. Yet D.J. Taylor regrets the passing of critical arbitration in matters of taste, and is at his most curmudgeonly when describing the “enthusiastic online amateur who protests his inability to ‘relate’ to the central character of the novel under discussion and imagines this to be the fault of the book”.
Don’t Quite Get What A Play Is ‘About’? Don’t Worry – Theatre Isn’t A Puzzle
Lyn Gardner: “It’s liberating for a theatregoer not to worry too much whether you’ve worked out exactly what it’s about. If you want to solve something, buy a Rubik’s Cube, not a theatre ticket. Not knowing exactly what it’s about doesn’t mean your response is invalid.”
Not Your Parents’ Library: Libraries Across America Have Reinvented Themselves
“There are three areas where libraries function as vibrant centers of America’s towns: technology, education, and community.”
TV (Unlike The Movies) Has Figured Out That Diversity Is Smart Business
“TV audiences for everything are smaller now, which means networks aren’t programming each show for an imagined audience of tens of millions of white people. On top of that, there are younger viewers for whom diversity — racial, religious, sexual — is their world. That audience wants authenticity; advertisers want that audience.”