Tag: 08.25.20

Should Critics Be Reviewing Movies Showing In Theaters While COVID Is Still Rampant?

Richard Lawson: “If the reason for my hesitancy to go to a restaurant or, when New York theaters are open, go see a movie is safety, then is it a bit, I don’t know, morally compromised to review a movie that is coming out, thus offering a tacit encouragement for people to go watch the thing, out where it’s still dangerous?” – Vanity Fair

Sales Of America’s All-Time Bestselling Book Are Down, But Reading Of That Book Is Up

“More Americans are buying Bibles they read less — if ever — and reading Bibles they didn’t buy because they’re dipping into verses here and there online …, according to the findings in the 10th annual State of the Bible study from the American Bible Society and the Barna Group. And the report’s co-author … points optimistically to soaring use of digital apps and audio Bibles.” – Publishers Weekly

A Cultural History Of Chairs

In the centuries prior to western industrialisation, stools or benches were common household furnishings, but chairs were special-occasion objects, usually the exclusive property of the wealthy and powerful. The era of mass manufacturing in the 19th century, and the rapid social and economic changes that came with it, brought chairs into daily life for the first time. Industrial jobs, with their repetitive tasks, required a seated posture, and the high demand for chairs that this created in turn made them available and affordable to middle-class people in Europe and the US. – The Guardian

Drop Local Content Quotas For Australian TV Networks And Industry Will Be Wrecked, Say Producers

Current licensing rules for free-to-air commercial TV broadcasters in Australia require a set number of hours of original, locally produced drama, nonfiction/news and children’s programming each year. Those broadcasters are lobbying the conservative national government to eliminate those rules entirely, but even their “fallback” position, accepting a “simplified” quota system, would see spending on Australian programming fall by half and the loss of up to 4,600 jobs, says Screen Producers Australia. – The Guardian

Actors With Disabilities Are Finally Starting To Break Through

“If a successful cultural transformation can be defined as the moment when you can finally stop counting heads, the first sign of that may be when you realize that at least there are heads to count.” Reporter Mark Harris meets with a crop of young performers landing roles and awards — but who still, always, find they have to educate producers, colleagues, and audiences. – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Sean Connery At 90 (Yes, 90)

Connery nonetheless celebrates his advance on a tenth decade as an avatar of old-fashioned masculinity. His role as James Bond — hating the Beatles at the height of the their success — helped position those attitudes within inverted commas. He went from playing grumpy young men to grumpy old men. He became the most famous Scot in the world. Peter Jackson tried to lure him into the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Fans have wondered if he might return to Indiana Jones. But Connery isn’t playing. – Irish Times