For the last century, the advertising industry has been centered around this cardinal principle: Find the consumer’s problem and fix it with your product. When the problem is practical and tactical, the solution is “as seen on TV” and available at Home Depot. But when the problem is emotional, the fix becomes a new staple in your life, and you become a lifelong loyalist. Coca-Cola makes you happy. A Mercedes makes you successful. Taking your family on a Royal Caribbean cruise makes you special. – WBUR
Tag: 04.16.20
An Indie Bookstore Apocalypse? (Maybe Skip This Story)
What’s clear to everyone is that the much celebrated “independent bookstore renaissance,” which coincided with the post–Great Recession economic expansion, is over. Hundreds of stores may never reopen again. The future of independent bookselling, a tenuous, low-margin business in the best of times, has never been gloomier. – The New Republic
French Intellectuals Recommend George Sand, Nabokov, And Other Classics For The Duration
Says Claude Romano, a French philosopher, “One can be tempted to read in order to escape, but one can also read to fully inhabit the present moment and make it the space of a meditation.” That’s why he recommends a Japanese work called The Interminable Rain. – Le Monde
Why Would An Oxford Professor Steal Ancient Papyrus?
Dr Dirk Obbink, an associate professor in papyrology and Greek literature at the university, was detained by officers from Thames Valley police. The force had received a report claiming the papyrus fragments that had been housed at the renowned Sackler Library in Oxford, which ended up in a biblical museum in the US, had been stolen. – The Guardian
Deborah Borda: How The NY Phil Is Thinking About Rethinking Its Future
A new virtual music platform, cancellation of tours and rethinking the renovation of the orchestra’s home. First – keep musicians employed and make sure they have health care – WQXR
Art? Or ‘A Pre-Raphaelite Wet T-Shirt Competition’? ArtActivistBarbie Hits The Museums And Calls Out The Male Gaze
“Posing in her most glamorous handmade outfits, ArtActivistBarbie has been calling into question the representation of women on gallery walls” — the blonde doll is photographed in front of an artwork, generally one of a nude or topless woman such as Charles Mengin’s Sappho (1877), holding a sign saying, for instance, “Yet another painting where the male gaze is legitimised by fine painting & brushwork & a scholarly reference to Classical history.” – The Guardian
A New York Times And Guardian Critic Tries Out ‘Remote Immersive Theater’ At Home
Alexis Soloski got texts from Romeo (who’s a bit of a jerk), helped someone held hostage in Venezuela undo handcuffs, failed to help a pilot land a 747, told an inspector for the Misplaced Keepsakes Division about her long-lost Piaget watch, and (“because I am a terrible props mistress”) scalded herself while attempting Play in a Bathtub. – The New York Times
In For The Long Haul: Post-Virus World Will Be Very Different For The Arts
There is a growing realization that the binary nature of open versus closed is not the right way to think. “It’s not going to be a light switch,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, last Sunday. So what does that mean for live entertainment? – Chicago Tribune
What’s All This Fuss We Hear About Marina Abramović Being A Satanist?
“In one of the strangest art controversies in recent memory, a group of right-wing internet users and blogs have begun targeting Marina Abramović, accusing her of being involved in a Satanist cult. She has previously denied the allegations, but the claims have continued to be levied against her, and yesterday brought news that Microsoft deleted a YouTube advertisement for a new work by her after users had targeted it. But where did the claims come from in the first place? [Here’s] a guide to the controversy’s background.” – ARTnews
‘Reflective Nostalgia’: Alex Ross On Grieving For His Mother With Brahms
“Bach is undoubtedly music’s supreme companion of extreme distress. … But, on the plane to D.C. that night, Bach would have been too raw, too dire. With Brahms, everything passes through layers of reflection. He is the great poet of the ambiguous, in-between, nameless emotions: ambient unease, pervasive wistfulness, bemused resignation, contained rage, ironic merriment, smiling through tears, the almost pleasurable fatigue of deep depression. In a repertory full of arrested adolescents, he is the most adult of composers.” – The New Yorker