Anthony Lane: “Fellini is the great divider. “La Dolce Vita” was the film most loved by Roger Ebert, for whom it was transformed with every viewing, whereas Pauline Kael likened Fellini’s efforts to “poking your head into a sack of fertilizer and then becoming indignant because you’re covered with excrement.” – The New Yorker
Tag: 01.17.20
The State Of Gay Art In Beijing: Delicate And Discreet
On the third floor of Destination, a nightclub-turned-cultural center that’s one of the few such places in the country to expressly welcome queer people, is ART.Des, a (very rare) gallery that features Chinese art that addresses homosexuality. While there is censorship, says one artist, “perhaps it’s not as free as the West; but it’s not as closed as people think, either. We’re not North Korea.” – The New York Times
‘Indiana Jones Of Art World’ Locates Stolen 15th-Century Persian Manuscript Worth €1 Million
Arthur Brand has recovered one of the oldest surviving copies of the Divan of Hafez, one of the most important and beloved works in all of Persian literature. The volume was the only still-missing item from a collection of manuscripts stolen in 2007 from the estate of a collector in Munich; the rest had been found, along with their thief, in 2011. – artnet
The Quicksand Of Cultural Politics In Russia: The Case Of Kirill Serebrennikov
“Serebrennikov was a particularly Russian type of rebel: one who sought, and attained, mainstream success, often with the blessing and support of the state.” Until, that is, his sudden arrest in 2017 on charges of embezzlement widely believed to be trumped-up — and his unexpected release last year. “Just as your downfall may come with no warning or explanation, so, too, can your redemption.” An excerpt from Joshua Yaffa’s Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia. – The Guardian
Brazil’s Culture Secretary Fired After Quoting Goebbels In Video Speech
“A few minutes into the speech, secretary of culture Roberto Alvim said, ‘The Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and it will be national, it’ll be endowed with great capacity for emotional involvement and deeply committed to the urgent aspirations of our people, or it will be nothing.’ The line is a slightly modified version of a Goebbels quote … [and] the video also featured music from Lohengrin, Adolf Hitler’s favorite Wagner opera.” The subsequent outcry was huge, and Alvin was ousted within 24 hours. – artnet
Small Talk And The Jockeying For Status
Status-mongering is the mess that results from leaving some of our ethical theorizing undone. We don’t know who we think we are, and it shows. – The Point
Is Amazon About To Take Over The Bestseller Book Business?
The conventional wisdom that now governs book publishing—that things are, for the first time in a long time, not that bad—is wrong. At the very least, it overlooks the fact that Amazon has spent the last decade accumulating yet more power and leverage, and that its ambitions have since moved past simply being the world’s largest bookstore. On Tuesday evening, The Wall Street Journal surveyed one of the most important recent developments in the industry: Amazon is finally publishing work by some of America’s biggest authors. – The New Republic
Canada’s “Prairie Castles” Are Disappearing
Grain elevators were once an icon of Canada’s west: often painted a bright boxcar red, they stood in towns across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. As the tallest structures in the vast landscapes, they were visible from kilometers away and were known as “prairie castles” or “prairie cathedrals”. – The Guardian
How Ubiquitous Public Surveillance Is Changing Our Understanding Of Human Behavior
“My colleagues want to better understand how people behave in the wild and how we can capture every-day behavior without asking people to self report … [because] that’s a very unreliable way of collecting data. What I’m seeing is just a very new landscape and regulations that are not ready.” – Vice
The European Union Is Considering Banning Facial Recognition Technology For Five Years
Facial recognition tech is advanced and is everywhere from our phones to sports arenas to public spaces to, in China, everywhere. But it’s far from perfect. “One such risk of the technology is that current facial recognition methods are far from perfect, and many times the systems powering facial recognition are racially biased. Given that, the European Commission’s recommendation seems like the logical, reasonable thing to do.” – Fast Company