“At stake is whether the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) can use state money for travel costs and continue to provide grants for individual artists — longtime recipients of the agency’s past investments.” – WBUR (Boston)
Tag: 05.22.19
Out Of Debt And With A CEO Who’s Sticking Around, Orlando Ballet’s Terrible 2010s Are Over
This decade has been pretty rough for the company, which lost its home to mold, cycled through executive directors at an alarming rate, and nearly closed for good in 2015. Now Orlando Ballet’s in the black, audiences are up 40% in two years, its shows are hits, and its new HQ is being built. – Orlando Sentinel
How ‘The View’ Became A Genuinely Important Political Television Show
When Barbara Walters launched the show in 1997, it was seen as mildly scandalous that someone with her journalistic prestige would go to daytime TV; when President Barack Obama appeared on it in 2010, there were sniffs about the “dignity [of] the presidency.” Now ambitious politicians see The View as a must-do. Why? Because “it offers the tantalizing promise of reaching the unconverted.” – The New York Times Magazine
The Prado Is Developing An Emergency Evacuation Plan For Its Art
“[The expert engaged for the project] has 22 months to identify potential risks to the world-famous museum, such as fires, theft or terrorist attacks, and to come up with ‘a massive evacuation plan’ for the artwork” — including a list of the 250 “most important” items to be secured first. – El País (Spain)
New York’s Signature Theatre Company Sells Its One-Millionth $35 Ticket (Here’s How Its Audience Has Changed)
The off-Broadway theater company is celebrating its one millionth ticket sold through the initiative, and the company says its audience demographics speak to the program’s success. Almost 60% of Signature’s audience members had a two-person household that makes under $100,000 a year. Contrast that to a typical Broadway-goer who comes from a two-person household that makes more than twice that, according to stats from the Broadway League. – Fast Company
Paris Announces A Major New Park At The Eiffel Tower
Anchored by the Eiffel Tower, the park will connect the Place du Trocadéro, the Palais de Chaillot, the Pont d’Iéna, the Champ-de-Mars, and the École Militaire. – Architectural Digest
Researchers Can Now Take A Single Image Of A Person And Make Video Of It Saying What They Want
The new paper by Samsung’s Moscow-based researchers shows that using only a single image of a person’s face, a video can be generated of that face turning, speaking and making ordinary expressions — with convincing, though far from flawless, fidelity. – TechCrunch
Our Frontal Cortex Is The Sensible Part Of The Brain. So Why Is It So Late Developing?
The frontal cortex is the most recently evolved part of the human brain. It’s where the sensible mature stuff happens: long-term planning, executive function, impulse control, and emotional regulation. It’s what makes you do the right thing when it’s the harder thing to do. But its neurons are not fully wired up until your mid-20s. Why? – Nautilus
Home Concert Presenter Makes Millions While Musicians Play For Pennies
Sofar Sounds puts on concerts in people’s living rooms where fans pay $15 to $30 to sit silently on the floor and truly listen. Nearly 1 million guests have attended Sofar’s more than 20,000 gigs. In some cases, Sofar pays just $100 per band for a 25 minute set, which can work out to just $8 per musician per hour or less. Hosts get nothing, and Sofar keeps the rest, which can range from $1,100 to $1,600 or more per gig. – TechCrunch
How Did One Of The Best Documentarians Around Get Caught Up In The Theranos Fiasco?
Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War, Standard Operating Procedure, American Dharma) actually directed a few commercials for Theranos several years ago, before the company’s fraud was discovered. Morris now refuses to acknowledge any responsibility for having promoted fraudulent goods and services (as is the case with the AIG ads he directed in the years before the 2008 financial crisis). – Hyperallergic