“William Shakespeare was fined repeatedly for illegally hoarding grain, malt and barley for resale during a time of food shortages. He also was threatened with jail for avoiding taxes, according to the study of court and tax archives by researchers at Aberystwyth University in Wales.”
Tag: 04.01.13
A History Of Applause – The First “Like” Button?
“Applause, participatory and observational at the same time, was an early form of mass media, connecting people to each other and to their leaders, instantly and visually and, of course, audibly. It was public sentiment analysis, revealing the affinities and desires of networked people. It was the qualified self giving way to the quantified crowd.”
Cable TV Providers Lose In Court In Attempt To Shut Down Streaming Service
“A divided federal appeals court, ruling 2-1 Monday, declined to block a unique, antenna-based subscription service that enables the streaming of broadcast television to any internet-enabled device.”
Bristol Old Vic Is ‘On The Margins Of Viability’
“Ask Tom Morris, artistic director of Bristol Old Vic, about his theatre or the city of Bristol, and he is all joie de vivre and enthusiasm. But if the conversation turns to the arts cuts or the future of regional theatre, though, his concerns are obvious.”
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Musicians Reject Latest Offer
“Saying they have fulfilled a promise made to Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra this evening voted to reject management’s latest contract offer.”
Word Aversion: When The Mere Sight Of ‘Moist’ Or ‘Slacks’ Makes A Person Cringe
“Word aversion is marked by strong reactions triggered by the sound, sight, and sometimes even the thought of certain words … ‘Not to the things that they refer to, but to the word itself. The feelings involved seem to be something like disgust’.”
With A New Play, How Much Does The Title Matter?
“With a new play, audiences never quite know what they’re getting, but early ticket-buyers for Anthony Neilson’s latest piece at the Royal Court were taking an exceptionally wild shot in the dark. Originally advertised several months ago as ‘Untitled New Play by Anthony Neilson’, it was only revealed to be called Narrative on 15 March, three weeks before opening.”
The Cut-And-Paste Gospel That Caught King Charles’s Eye
“Cutting apart printed Bibles with painstaking care, the Ferrar family and their co-religionists selected parts of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each of which talk about Christ’s life from different perspectives. Pasted together in chronological order, the bits made a ‘Harmony’ – a complete story, split into 150 chapters.”
Watching Crepe Paper Horses Dance Through Grand Central
The most recent of artist Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits” are big, brightly colored, puppet-like horses made out of raffia. Twice a day for a week, dancers got inside the horse-suits and performed a twenty-minute work by choreographer William Gill at the Manhattan transit hub.
No, Miss Thing, Camp Is Not Dead
“[The] whole project of the assimilation-directed gay civil rights movement of the past few decades is largely predicated on the suppression of queer quirks like camp. By that logic, old, mildewy camp should have burned off the moment the closet door swung open; yet, curiously, we’re still wading through its seductive musk 40 years later.”