In these sprawling but welcoming communities, readers have found one another, banding together in a global, aesthetically pleasing book club that’s open for discussion 24/7. More than 33 million Instagram posts are tagged “#bookstagram,” and BookTube videos can amass millions of views — luring publishers and authors who actively court the most popular accounts. – Washington Post
Tag: 08.08.19
UK Theatre Leaders Warn Of Crisis In Arts Education
Leaders from 13 of England’s biggest theatres have collectively cautioned that their ability to work with schools is being significantly impacted by a narrowing curriculum and cuts to arts subjects, following the introduction of the English Baccalaureate. – The Stage
Who Was Ira Glass’s Biggest Influence? Roland Barthes (Yes, The Semiotician)
“At college, we were assigned Barthes’s S/Z , which made me understand what I could do in radio. … In S/Z, Barthes takes apart a short story by Balzac, line by line. He asks: How does this story pull you in, engage, and give you pleasure? He … explains: here’s how to structure a narrative by creating a sequence of events that will create forward motion that will create narrative suspense, planting questions along the way that can be answered. That turned out to be an enormously useful way to think about how to do an interview.” – The New York Review of Books
Rotten Tomatoes’ Critic Problem
The movie review aggregation site is only as good as the critics it aggregates. But are the critics representative of the real movie audience? Assuredly not. So there’s a problem. How to fix it? – Columbia Journalism Review
Study: Here Are The Conditions Under Which People Lie
It seems there’s a moral spectrum in play: Scientists found that people would probably lie if they thought a big corporation, like say, Starbucks or Walmart, would foot the bill for the deceit. They told the truth if they felt like an individual proprietor of a business or a specific employee would have to pay for their dishonesty. – Mic
What Artists Studios Tell Us
There are two questions surrounding artists and their archives. Why do artists keep them? And what is worth keeping? – The New York Times
As Plantation Museums Turn Their Focus To Enslaved People, Certain Tourists Are Not Happy
“‘It was just not what we expected.’ ‘I was depressed by the time I left.’ ‘… the tour was more of a scolding of the old South.’ ‘The brief mentions of the former owners were defamatory.’ ‘Would not recommend.’ These are a few of the apparently negative reviews posted online about guided tours of Southern plantations.” – The Washington Post
The Rise Of The ‘Catalyst-Conductor’
Lidiya Yankovskaya (a fine example of the phenomenon herself): “In addition to their traditional duties within established institutions, an increasing number of conductors run independent organizations, launch musical and civic initiatives, serve as catalysts for the development of new work, and use their positions to cross disciplinary boundaries. In bypassing institutional gatekeepers, these conductors have brought relevance, vitality, and an expanding number of previously unrepresented voices into the field. Indeed, the dynamic new ‘catalyst-conductor’ could help bring the revitalization that the classical music industry so desperately seeks.” – NewMusicBox
You Think Venice And Barcelona Have Too Many Tourists? Pity This Poor Austrian Village
Hallstatt, a pretty lakeside hamlet of 800 people, got 19,344 tour buses last year (that’s an average of 53 a day, year-round) and more than a million visitors. Residents have encountered strangers in their bathrooms and camera drones by their bedroom windows. The flood began after Chinese developers, unbeknownst to Hallstatters, built a life-size replica of the village in Guangdong and Asian tourists came flocking to see the real thing. – The Washington Post
Woodstock May Have Been An Amazing Event, But It Derailed American Rock Festivals For Decades
“In almost all the ways that concert promoters measure the success and smooth operation of their events, Woodstock was a failure.” Crowd control. Sanitation. Traffic. Profit. (The producers ended up more than $1 million in debt.) What’s more, “what young fans saw as groovy gatherings, with clothing optional, were viewed by local governments around the country as dangerous and disruptive events that they did not want in their backyards, and they passed laws accordingly.” – The New York Times