According to the annual Global Trends Report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, released on June 19, nearly 70.8 million people worldwide had been displaced as of the end of last year. Add to that approximately 13.6 million individuals displaced so far in 2019. “We are now witnessing the highest level of displaced persons on record,” says the UNHCR, a fact that affects all aspects of modern society and social progress, including the arts. – Clyde Fitch Report
Tag: 08.04.19
Tutankhamun’s Coffin, Which Is In God-Awful Shape, Is Undergoing Restoration
“Restorers at the laboratory for wooden objects at the Grand Egyptian Museum have begun fumigating the gilded coffin” — the outer one, largest of three (the two inner coffins are the ones that have always been on display) — “after it was carefully moved from Tutankhamen’s tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt amid tight security last month.” – Los Angeles Times
How The Toronto International Film Festival Needs To Evolve In The Streaming Era
The same challenges apply: What are the films that can work theatrically, that can compel people to come? How can we make that collective experience really rewarding and transformative so that people will still want to come here? I think that’s an ongoing challenge for everyone. – Toronto Star
Blame Video Games For Violence? First, The Evidence Doesn’t Support It…
Games have shifted from a broad cultural enemy—a gory medium that all types of people might hold responsible for social disgrace—to a political tool. Video-game violence was once a bipartisan worry. Now it’s a largely Republican talking point, deployed for tactical political gain to great effect. – The Atlantic
The Digital Revolution That’s Hitting School Textbooks
As more and more coursework winds up online, the Balkanization of teaching resources cuts ever deeper. – Wired
Renée Fleming To Redesign And Co-Lead Aspen
Fleming and conductor Patrick Summers of the Houston Grand Opera will be co-artistic directors of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s opera program, redesigning it. “Fleming, who will continue to perform, said she was drawn to the opportunity to reimagine the program to better prepare young singers for today’s intensely competitive, rapidly changing opera environment.” – The New York Times
Television Critics Love, And Award, ‘Fleabag’
Everyone loved the first season of Fleabag just fine, but then the second season went and added a hot priest to the mixture. The TCA Awards responded. (The entire list of other winners – yes, there were some – is at the link as well.) – Vulture
A Broadway Musical Gets A Very Broadway Post-Curtain Call Event
Though no one gets married in The Prom, the musical celebrates same-sex prom-going even as it lampoons celebrity culture, with a glitzy finale set (obviously) at the prom. “But all that glittered was rivaled after Saturday evening’s performance when two brides, gleaming in rose-gold sequins, exchanged marriage vows onstage.” – The New York Times
Listen To Cate Blanchett, And Don’t Let Your Creativity Lapse After Having Kids
Well, not Cate, actually, but her character in Where’d You Go, Bernadette? That character hasn’t been able to create anything for years. The movie’s director, Richard Linklater: “Creativity thwarted is probably the most toxic thing in the world. You know, the artist thwarted is lethal.” – NPR
Some Ideology Can Kill, But How To Alter, Or Preferably Squelch, Those Ideas?
It’s a mess. “In political violence, as in so many other parts of modern life, inspiration comes from an ever more bizarre range of origins. Portions of the [alleged El Paso shooter’s] manifesto read like an eco-terrorist rant from the 1980s. Others read like Timothy McVeigh.” – The Atlantic