“A slyly subversive look at the reclusive state by the Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, [Under the Sun] had been scheduled to be shown at the museum’s 2016 Doc Fortnight festival” in February. But assistant curator Sally Berger, spooked by the Sony Pictures hack allegedly associated with the 2014 satire The Interview, decided to drop Under the Sun from the schedule.
Tag: 06.11.16
Another Music Critic Has His Job Eliminated: Timothy Mangan At The Orange County Register
“I was on my way to Gustavo Dudamel’s debut at L.A. Opera on Friday when I was laid off. I could have still gone and reviewed it here (for free) but as you will understand I didn’t feel up to it. … I was not fired for cause (as the lawyers say) or for the quality of my work. In fact, I was told the quality of my work had nothing to do with it. Just need to make that clear.”
Fans Are Telling Movie Studios How To Make Movies (Danger, Will Robinson!)
“Studios are now stuck. They can’t be seen as completely capitulating to the whims of fans, but they also can’t purposefully dampen the enthusiasm of their paying audience. Prepare, then, for a world of creative compromises.”
New Technologies Allow Researchers To Look Inside Ancient Manuscripts Without Damaging Them
“Until now, the knowledge that ancient manuscripts were used to make cartonnage has presented an ethical quandary to scholars. Books and other artifacts have been destroyed in the hopes of discovering something more precious hidden inside. The stakes are even higher when it comes to Egyptian mummy masks because there are comparably few ancient manuscripts, and certain texts—Plato, the Bible, and Homer—are culturally and financially viable to Westerners.”
How To Make Percent For Art A Little More Political
“Most rationales for public art programs emphasize civic-minded virtue. On this view, public art — fiber in the salty diet of the polis — is considered an inherent good for the citizenry, believed to promote a robust sense of community and place.”
Newly Discovered 100-Year-Old Graffiti By The U.S.’s Most Famous Hobo
“What we found is very understated compared to today’s graffiti. We’re used to thinking of it as in spray paint, really colorful. What we found was the underside of a bridge with completely undisturbed writing from 1914 to 1921 and it was the graffiti of hobos written in things like charcoal from their fires or chalk.”
On Demand, Improvised And Fully Scannable New Shakespeare(-Like) Plays
“After the title is picked, one actor steps up to recite a prologue, all in unrehearsed rhyme. Recent shows ranged from ‘Straight Outta Venice,’ which featured some terribly fantastic rapping, to ‘Survivor: Globe Edition,’ which turned into a ‘Tempest’-like romp of romance and murder, along with a monster that beggars description.”
Where Would Writers Be Without Muhammed Ali?
“David Hirshey, the senior vice president and executive editor of HarperCollins, called Ali ‘the perfect prism through which to view sports, race, religion, politics, celebrity, comedy, tragedy.'”
Now *This* Is How You Create An Arts Festival
“In just three and a half weeks, workers here built one of the world’s largest cultural performance spaces inside an abandoned power plant. There are stages for theater, dance and music, as well as multiple art galleries and a high-end French restaurant. And after 17 days, they’re going to tear it all down.”
How You Kill The Free Press – Hint: Money
“That’s a death blow that will generate plenty of schadenfreude, not least among some glib members of the Fourth Estate who don’t think Gawker’s brand of journalism deserves the name. But it won’t last long: the Peter Thiels of the world are coming for you next. Ask not for whom the oligarchy tolls; it tolls for thee.”