The movie, which also topped the box office 40 years ago, is a big hit with the drive-in crowd. “Empire’s dominance follows Ghostbusters’s success over the July 4 weekend and Jurassic Park and Jaws’ victories the weekend before. Black Panther and Inside Out also made this weekend’s box-office list, with drive-ins being the main venue for moviegoers to enjoy anything on a big screen during the coronavirus pandemic as big theater chains like AMC wisely keep pushing back their reopenings.” – The AV Club
Tag: 07.11.20
When A Hindu God Shows Up In A K-Pop Video
It wasn’t a great look for the massively popular K-Pop band Blackpink, and their Hindu fans let them know immediately. They weren’t “cancelled” or anything like that, but they listened, or their management did. “The swift re-editing of the Blackpink video illustrated how K-pop fans, who are deeply invested in the mythmaking of their musical idols, use the internet to spread their messages, reach the artists (and their management) almost instantly and get quick results.” – The New York Times
If Working From Home Is So Great, Why Are People Longing For Their Workplaces?
Well sure, when you’re working at the office, you think you might prefer working from home. And then a global pandemic hits. “We adjusted to being, in Laurence Scott’s phrase, ‘four-dimensional humans.’ We learned that this fourth dimension, online, bears only a deceptive resemblance to the three-dimensional world. They do things differently there. In this world of seemingly limitless connectivity, life feels both too sociable and too solitary. Online, we are constantly available to others but they remain tantalisingly unreachable to us.” – The Guardian (UK)
Surely, Skyscrapers Are Over Now
Rowan Moore: “It has been deemed acceptable – by the building regulations, by architects, by the professional media – to rip untold tonnes of matter from the earth and to pump similar tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, in order to produce magical architectural devices that might, if all their wizardry were to function as promised, pay back some of their carbon debt some time in the next century. By when it might be too late.” – The Observer (UK)
Will Movie Theatres Survive The Pandemic – At All?
Without new movies, it will be hard – but without any trust in safety, it will be much harder. “The vast majority of the country’s nearly 5,550 indoor theaters remain shuttered, and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in multiple states has postponed what was already expected to be a slow recovery.” – Los Angeles Times
Advertisers Need To Follow Through On Their Facebook Ad Boycott
And here’s why: “Pulling Facebook ads in July, as they slash their ad budgets anyway, was for many a win-win of saved money and boosted image. But now? Given the response from civil rights leaders and the results of the two-year audit, how can a brand return to the platform until real, measurable change is actually made?” (Also, Zuckerberg thinks the boycott means nothing – and advertisers could change that.) – Fast Company
The Met Is Going To Livestream Star Singer Recitals
Since the Covid-19 numbers are looking worse, not better (not by a long shot) in the US, Peter Gelb says that the Met has to push the envelope with new content, even if it mostly employs those who are already stars. “If there’s no Met to come back to, the jobs of our furloughed artists will be lost. … I have to ensure that the Met can earn revenue.” – The New York Times
Explaining That Eliza Hamilton Gasp
Thomas Kail, Hamilton director (both on stage and screen): “I remember it was important for me to have a moment at the end of the show where the music and lyrics are resolving that extended past, that reached somewhere else. Pippa is so thorough and so intelligent and so precise, that it was a really fun conversation to have.” – Los Angeles Times