Tag: 05.22.20

Italian Book Buying Habits Have Changed. Will They Change Back?

In a shift of consumer patterns, in the first 16 weeks of the year, 47 percent of Italy’s trade book sales, both in fiction and nonfiction, took place online. In the same period of 2019, only 26.7 percent of those sales were made online. Like France, Italy is a market that buys its books in normal times primarily through physical stores, and some observers wonder if the move to online commerce during the pandemic will permanently change consumer behavior. – Publishing Perspectives

Philadelphia Museum Of Art Staffers Make Official Request To Unionize

At least two-thirds of eligible employees have signed authorization cards to request that the National Labor Relations Board oversee a union election, according to organizers. The union at the museum would be affiliated with AFSCME District Council 47, which “currently represents most white-collar employees of the city, including workers at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Zoo, [as well as] workers at several museums around the country.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Post-Virus Prognosticators – We Just Don’t Know

“The public square is thick today with augurs and prophets claiming to foresee the post-Covid world to come. I, myself, who find sundown something of a surprise every evening, have been pursued by foreign journalists asking what the pandemic will mean for the American presidential election, populism, the prospects of socialism, race relations, economic growth, higher education, New York City politics and more. And they seem awfully put out when I say I have no idea. – The New York Times

Italian Museums Reopen: A Survey Of How They’re Doing It

As museums begin to reopen, many are requiring visitors to book tickets in advance, wear masks, use hand sanitizer upon entering or undergo temperature checks, according to Fortune. In Munich, the Bavarian State Painting Collections’ museums are limiting the number of visitors to one person per roughly 215 square feet, reports CNN’s Karina Tsui. At the Giacometti Institute in Paris, meanwhile, just ten people are allowed in every ten minutes, and public bathrooms remain closed. – Smithsonian

Philip Glass’s Lost ‘Music In Eight Parts’ Has Been Recovered

“For decades, [the piece] seemed, to Mr. Glass’s circle, to exist only as fragments in his archive. Then the final manuscript for Music in Eight Parts resurfaced near the end of 2017. … Now in the hands of Mr. Glass’s publisher, it has been realized anew for his ensemble and, 50 years after its premiere, released on a recording by Orange Mountain Music this week.” – The New York Times

Interracial Romance Gets A Little More Real In Recent Shows And Movies

And that’s partly because of who’s controlling the narrative. There’s a small, but perhaps growing, “cultural trend in which black women, especially those of medium-to-dark-brown complexions — long positioned at the bottom of the aesthetic and social hierarchy in the United States because of racist standards — are increasingly appearing as leading ladies and romantic ideals in interracial relationships onscreen. In some cases, these are works created by black women themselves.” – The New York Times

A Song Criticizing A Politician Tops The Charts In Poland – And Moments Later, It’s Completely Disappeared

Kazik Staszewski is a rock legend in Poland, and his song, “Your Pain Is Better than Mine,” hit a chord last week – or perhaps too many chords when it hit number 1 on a popular show. “Within minutes of the show ending, the results disappeared from the website of the show’s state-run broadcaster. Mr. Staszewski’s anthem had vanished, along with the rest of the chart.” One of the radio station’s many now-resigned hosts says, “even the Communist regime had more respect for the freedom of speech at Trojka than the current government has.” – The New York Times