“The British Library has launched a preservation and access project which will save almost half a million rare and unique recordings which are threatened by physical degradation or stored on formats which can no longer be played. … Recordings include oral histories from WWI and WWII, Cornish brass bands, local dialect from the UK regions, drama and literature readings, regional radio, traditional music, pirate radio recordings, music from around the world and the sounds of rare and extinct species.”
Tag: 04.12.17
Why So Many Women Are Drawn To True-Crime Murder Television
Over the past couple of years, print pundits have wondered at the sizable female audience for new true-crime TV series such as The Jinx and Making a Murderer (not to mention the audio phenomenon that was Serial). American Studies scholar Melinda Lewis argues that the pundits shouldn’t have been surprised and unpacks the attraction to the genre.
Deborah Borda Talks To Tavis Smiley About The Los Angeles And New York Philharmonics
America’s favorite orchestra CEO talks about arts funding, what she achieved in her 17 years in L.A., and what she hopes to achieve in New York. And Tavis (based in L.A.) literally gets on his knees and begs her not to go. (video)
Two Iranian-American Gallerists Charged With Trying To Overthrow Iranian Government
Karan Vafadari and Afarin Nayssari, founders of the Aun Gallery in Tehran, were arrested last summer after Revolutionary Guards stormed the exhibition space, destroyed some art and carried away other pieces. “The couple has been incarcerated at [the] notorious Evin Prison … and has been denied access to legal counsel, interrogated extensively, and frequently placed in solitary confinement over a series of charges that human rights organizations have denounced as baseless.”
Museum Struggle To Conserve “New” Media Art That’s No Longer So New
Conservation of art that was made with technology like old TVs, VCR tapes and floppy disks is breaking down and getting more and more difficult to conserve. How do you “restore” a cassette tape when it has started to decay? Museum conservators are resorting to buying up old technology on services like EBay to repair the materials.
Is High Quality Prestige TV Preparing A New Generation To Love Stage Plays?
“Where there’s truth to the idea of a television ‘golden age’ (ask me over a cup of coffee or a whiskey ginger someday), it’s in the fact that cable and streaming outlets have allowed shows to flourish when they appeal to more deeply invested but smaller audiences. This is what I have called in the past The Age Of Enthusiasm. It has also encouraged the proliferation of shows that are more idiosyncratic, personal, and experimental than television was before. Now, drama and comedy enthusiasts have daily exposure to stuff that’s weird and complicated and formally experimental. They are a good, prepared audience for interesting plays in a way that I, as a teenager in the late 1980s, was not.”
Okay, Cue The Viola Jokes – But These Instruments Are Ergonomically Superior
“The instrument sports a number of unusual features, like a banked fingerboard that fights strain by reducing supination in a player’s left arm. But what truly draws the eye—and drops the jaw—is the viola’s off-kilter layout: It has been stretched on the diagonal to some 20 inches to maximize the vibrating surface area. Because it has also been shortened from top to bottom, it feels like a ¾-size viola to the player’s left hand.”
Christopher Morahan, Director Of ‘The Jewel In The Crown’, Dead At 87
“The successful completion of the [difficult and troubled] project was due in no small part to Morahan’s tenacity and dedication. Tall and commanding, on set his directorial cry of ‘why wasn’t this done earlier?’ could make the most hardened crew member tremble.”
Patricia McKissack, Who Righted A Literary Wrong With More Than 100 Books, Has Died At 72
McKissack and her husband wrote, “she said, ‘to tell a different story — one that has been marginalized by mainstream history; one that has been distorted, misrepresented or just plain forgotten,’ and she urged other blacks to write more, too.”
Should The Oscars And Emmys Do Away With Gender Categories For Their Acting Awards?
“What would be the impact if the Emmys, or the Academy Awards, totally did away with gender distinctions for its acting prizes (which, in both cases, have existed since their inception)? The Grammys long ago dropped this distinction (in 2011), but are helped by the fact that they hand out trophies to performers in 84 different categories. The Oscars only have four acting awards (lead and supporting, male and female), with five nominees for each category. In an industry still rife with institutional sexism, where male stars still dominate the amount of lead roles available, it’s easy to imagine wild gender imbalances from year to year, even if the lead and supporting categories were expanded to 10 nominees.”