It’s grim for movie theatres and for production companies as they halt production. But … “A lot of analysts have been talking about how the old theatrical model is outdated and streaming is the future of Hollywood. … Now we get a chance to see how that works out.” – The Washington Post (AP)
Tag: 03.14.20
Musician, Artist And Provocateur Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Has Died At 70
This paragraph barely skims the surface of the life of P-Orridge: “Genesis led the influential British rock bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, dabbled as a dominatrix in New York, ran a soup kitchen in Kathmandu, hid out from Scotland Yard, organized a cultlike fan club that asked initiates to send in their bodily fluids, and undertook a long-running surgical project to merge identities with her wife, Jacqueline Mary Breyer, in a single nongendered being they called a ‘pandrogyne.'” – The New York Times
How Do You Teach History Without Having Kids Think It’s Boring?
If you’re historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, you ask YA superstar Jason Reynolds to collaborate on adapting a thick tome for middle schoolers. Reynolds: “I wanted to try to figure out how to make this really complex thing that has all this information that he gave the world, how do I take it and make it feel like a fresh pair of Jordans.” – NPR
Australia’s Performing Arts Say They Will Be Brought To The Brink Of Collapse
Of course, they’re not alone, but the virus has especially terrible timing in a country hit by sudden so-called austerity measures. “The Australian arts industry operates on a knife-edge at the best of times – but in recent years, the pressure has reached boiling point: local creators have faced millions in funding cuts, with draconian laws decimating once thriving scenes.” – The Guardian (UK)
Leaving The Rose Main Reading Room As The Coronavirus Looms
What it feels like to abandon communal reading and working in one of New York’s most glorious public spaces – not good. Said one retired professor: “I see we’ll have digital access for a lot. … But I’m not happy, I’m afraid.” – The New York Times
In Europe, Lockdowns Mean Neighbors Having Impromptu Singalongs From Their Windows
And then there’s the social-media-scheduled applause for hospital workers as well. In Rome, one neighborhood sang the anti-fascist anthem “Bella Ciao.” And “elsewhere in the city, pop triumphed over politics, as a neighborhood came together to perform the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest’s third-place winner ‘Nei Blu, Dipinto di Blu,’ a.k.a. ‘Volare.'” – Slate
Collecting Art Is Fun, But That’s Nothing Compared To Collecting Bits Of Outer Space
Meteorites are the hot new thing at Christy’s. The auction may (OK, probably will) be rescheduled over virus fears, but the fact remains that meteorites are becoming more popular to collectors, and the resource is finite. “Only about 60,000 meteorites are known to have landed on Earth, according to experts, but many fragmented into hundreds of pieces as they crashed through the atmosphere, or have since been cut and sliced and cut some more.” – The New York Times
Alert To The Unwary And The Fascinated: Amazon Is Flooded With Self-Published Virus Books
There are the terrible – quack “guides” to combatting the virus that causes COVID-19 – and the amusing: “Coronavirus Zombies Volume 1: The Living Dead Apocalypse by one Maximus Williams involves a vaccine for the illness turning those who catch it into a deadly threat. Running to just 20 pages, it promises ‘scenes of violence, guns, profanity and graphic scenes of zombies that may be objectionable to some.'” – The Irish Times
In Which ‘The Atlantic’ Argues That Theatre Shutdowns Could Be Good For Plays
Shakespeare apparently wrote King Lear while the Globe was shuttered because of the bubonic plague (a trope that echoed heavily on Twitter over the weekend). Then there’s the economic opportunity: “Given that the bubonic plague particularly decimated young populations, it may also have wiped out Shakespeare’s theatrical rivals—companies of boy actors who dominated the early-17th-century stage, and could often get away with more satiric, politically dicey productions than their older competitors. Shakespeare’s company took over the indoor Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 after the leading boy company collapsed, and started doing darker, edgier productions, capitalizing on a market share that was newly available.” – The Atlantic