Lindsay Ellis has recently emerged as one of the medium’s breakout stars. She earns more than $10,000 a month on Patreon, the crowdfunding site that’s her primary source of revenue. It helps pay for a small staff of mostly part-time employees and allows her to turn out video series like last year’s three-part deep-dive into the Hobbit trilogy, which cost nearly $20,000. Ellis and some of her team went to New Zealand as part of the production, which she feared her supporters would find excessive; instead, the videos gave her the biggest Patreon boost ever. And in the last year, the number of her YouTube subscribers and Twitter followers has doubled. – Wired
Tag: 03.09.19
Conductor Michael Gielen Dead At 91
“As a symphonic conductor, he held posts with the Belgian National Orchestra (1969-73), Cincinnati SO (1980-86) and SWR Symphony Baden-Baden and Freiburg (1986-89). He also served as a Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1978-81). He retired from conducting 2014. His service to contemporary music was immense and he championed works by György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Hans Werner Henze, Betsy Jolas, Isang Yun and Henri Pousseur, as well as earlier 20th-century masters.” – Gramophone
Parfumerie Tries To Bottle The Scent Of A Museum
The first scent is said to include notes of, among other things, “neon light effect,” “green,” and “animalic”; the other scent is said to include notes of “damp concrete,” “paper,” and “cold.” I was, I admit, won over by the perfumery’s endeavor; there’s something charming about attempting to translate between senses—forging ahead while recognizing the impossibility of the task. – Artsy
Why Is Alex Trebek – Host Of A Game Show, For Goodness Sakes – So Special?
Let one of his most famous contestants explain. Ken Jennings, owner of the longest win streak on Jeopardy, writes, “When the cameras stop rolling, Alex is a looser, even goofy presence. He takes studio audience questions at every break, sometimes slipping into funny accents or even bits of soft-shoe.” Maybe keep those cameras rolling next time, Jeopardy? – The New York Times
Author Elizabeth McCracken On Candlepin Bowling, And On Being An Ambitious Woman
McCracken, author of the new novel The Bowlaways (and quite a few other novels and short stories), explains her character Bertha: “I was thinking about the ways in which women give up things in order to exist in the world. And you have to have delusions of grandeur in order to be grand, but women are not expected to be grand.” – The Guardian (UK)
Why Would Writers Give Two Book Characters The Same Name?
Why, to amplify meaning, of course. Or because you’re writing about Tudor England. In Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, for instance, “all the leading male characters apart from Henry VIII are named Thomas (it was the second-most-popular name in Tudor England). There is Thomas Cromwell, the ruthless hero. Thomas Wolsey, the Catholic cardinal. Thomas More, the Catholic zealot. Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury. And Thomas Boleyn, the depraved father of Anne Boleyn.” – The Atlantic
Senator Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Big Tech Companies, Including Apple
Wow. Senator Warren is dropping antitrust ideas as fast as, well, Facebook and Google and Amazon and Apple gobble up our time and privacy. After her Medium post didn’t mention Apple, Warren said she meant Apple as well, and she explained: “What was applied to railroad companies more than a hundred years ago, we need to now look at those tech platforms the same way.” – The Verge
Twenty-Five Years After Daughters Of Africa Changed The Game, A New Generation Arises
It’s been 25 years, but not much time at all. “In many ways 1992 seems much longer ago than a quarter century; yet, while much has changed, many challenges remain to the publication of work by women of African descent.” – The Guardian (UK)
As A Chaotic Brexit Approaches, Britons Buy Record Numbers Of Self-Help Books
The owner of City Books in Hove says the record-breaking £30 million self-help book business is new, but not confusing. “In 25 years of business, [Paul] Sweetman says he’s never known customers more in need of uplifting reading than they are now – a result, he believes, of the political climate both here and abroad.” – The Observer (UK)
The Saga Of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Adds A New Chapter As Publisher Of Older Play Sues Harper Lee’s Estate
The older production, familiar to millions, is the one threatened by the Broadway play and planned national tour. The problem? Too many agreements. “The latest dispute, over whether and when the Sergel adaptation can be staged now that the Sorkin adaptation exists, pits an agreement Ms. Lee signed with Dramatic Publishing in 1969 against one she signed with Mr. Rudin in 2015.” – The New York Times