Or are the so-called gangs – groups of families and friends, with vests and patches, who go to Disneyland together – just harmless fun, as they claim? “A lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court has revealed a dark undercurrent to the pastime. The head of one club has accused another of using gangster-like tactics to try to collect ‘protection’ money for a charity fundraiser at the park.”
Tag: 02.09.18
The Township That Ended Library Fines – And What That Might Mean
Why would the politicians who make those decisions think this was a good one? “The council said in a statement that fines can be ‘off-putting for customers,’ and it hopes the change, which will see library fines eliminated across Trafford for all ages from April, will lead to ‘a further increase in usage of libraries across the borough.'”
Yes, MoviePass Is Growing Fast, But If It Doesn’t Grow Faster, It May Be Headed For A Fall
Will this happen? “To get well beyond the 2 million [subscribers] it already has, MoviePass needs to convince people that they really want to go to movies more often. In most cities, a subscriber needs to watch 13 movies a year to break even. In big cities, it’s eight.”
In The Original Content Fight, Here Comes A Huge Contender: Facebook
A new 10-episode dramedy series is just the newest in a lineup of original content with which Facebook is trying to bust in on the Amazon Prime/Netflix/Hulu/HBO Now game (and it’s even got on of the Avengers in it).
Florence Price Is A Composer Who Always Should Have Been In The Canon
Musicologist Douglas Shadle: “Everything she was doing was musically mainstream but at the same time idiosyncratic. … Her music has kind of a luminous quality that strikes me as her own. Our understanding of American modernism of the 1930s and 1940s is not complete without Price’s contribution.”
A Dance – And Performance Art – Made Of What We Leave Behind
Choreographer and dancer Alexandra Pirici created her performance piece for the New Museum for five dancers, and a hologram. “‘The biological body wants toilet breaks,’ she said, ‘it gets tired, it decays.’ A hologram, though, makes no demands.”
The Biotic Portal Is What Happens When Two Poets Take Over The Garden
Poets Denise Newman and Hazel White won a grant to collaborate with the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley. Then they created a massive collaboration. “Poetry is often so nearly silent, floating on the page, unseen and unheard by the vast majority of people, even those who read. I sense in Newman and White the desire to break down the barriers between poetry and the world, to get out there and chat, even as they undertake brainy inquiries about the nature of beauty and how a seemingly innocent activity, like collecting plants, can conceal human power dynamics.”
Abstract Expressionist Sonia Gechtoff Has Died At 91
The artist made a splash when she was a young painter in San Francisco, but she and her artist husband (James Kelly) left for New York and the Abstract Expressionist life. Using a palette knife instead of a brush, her technique “made Ms. Gechtoff stand out in a genre that was largely male.”
Massachusetts Bows To Berkshire Museum, And The Rockwell Can Be Sold
To be clear: The state attorney’s office says that the non-Rockwell pieces up for sale can go anywhere, but the Rockwell must be sold to another museum and remain on public view. “The agreement, which requires court approval, could end a contentious chapter in the history of the museum.”
Santa Fe Opera Restrutures And Appoints New General Director
Robert Meya proposed to the search committee that he be considered as part of a management “troika” that would divide administrative, artistic, and musical responsibilities among three people. This differs fundamentally from the company’s historic model, in which the general director has assumed lead responsibility for all of those areas. The Opera’s board is authorized to appoint only the general director and, as a matter of policy, does not act directly in other staffing decisions. Meya is accordingly being hired as general director with the understanding that his first act of business is to name Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company’s general director Alexander Neef to the newly created position of artistic director and Santa Fe Opera’s chief conductor Harry Bicket to be the company’s music director. The three members of the management team have all been acquainted with each other for years.