In 1999, a small college in Kilgore, TX — in an area where, at the time, gay men were routinely beaten and sometimes murdered — staged Angels in America, angry protests from local fundamentalists led to a showdown that attracted national media attention. Wes Ferguson, who edited the college paper at the time and whose sensationalist headline on a preview story ignited the fury, recounts how it went down and talks to some of the key participants about how they, and the town, were changed by the furor 20 years ago. – Texas Monthly
Tag: 10.14.19
36 Pieces Of Computer Code That Changed The World
“We construct top-10 lists for movies, games, TV — pieces of work that shape our souls. But we don’t sit around compiling lists of the world’s most consequential bits of code, even though they arguably inform the zeitgeist just as much. So Slate decided to do precisely that. … The editors polled computer scientists, software developers, historians, policymakers, and journalists. They were asked to pick: Which pieces of code had a huge influence? Which ones warped our lives?” – Slate
What The Wild Success Of Silicon Valley Says About The American Success Story
The question of fixing Silicon Valley is inseparable from the question of fixing the system of postwar American capitalism, of which it is perhaps the purest expression. Some believe that the problems we see are bugs that might be fixed with a patch. Others think the code is so bad at its core that a radical rewrite is the only answer. – The Nation
Jane Austen Lovers Are Furious At The New Ending To Her Unfinished Novel
“Andrew Davies’ TV adaptation of Sanditon, which aired on Sunday, ended with Charlotte and Sidney bidding each other a tearful farewell – in love, but not together. … The ending has enraged and upset viewers, but most of all, I think, surprised them. This is Austen, and we know what we’re entitled to: there’s even a book about it, for goodness’ sake – The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After.” – The Guardian
Netflix And Director Ava DuVernay Sued For Defamation By — Wait, Who?
In the 1940s, John E. Reid and Associates developed a commonly-used, and now-controversial police interrogation method called the Reid Technique. That method is mentioned once, briefly, in When They See Us, DuVernay’s recent Netflix series about the Central Park Five; based on that mention, Reid and Associates argues in its court filing that its reputation has been damaged by the script’s mischaracterization and false assertions. – Variety
World’s Biggest Movie-Theater Chain Moves Into Streaming Video
“[AMC Entertainment’s new] service, AMC Theaters On Demand, will offer about 2,000 films for sale or rent after their theatrical runs, just as iTunes, Amazon and other video-on-demand retailers do.” – The New York Times
Museums Are Finally Paying Real Attention To The Needs Of Visitors With Disabilities
Well, some of them are. Reporter Claire Voon looks at some museums who are doing well in this area (the new MoMA) and some that have a way to go. – Artsy
Harold Bloom, Bestselling And Controversial Literary Critic, Dead At 89
“From a vaunted perch at Yale, he flew in the face of almost every trend in the literary criticism of his day. Chiefly he argued for the literary superiority of the Western giants like Shakespeare, Chaucer and Kafka — all of them white and male, his own critics pointed out — over writers favored by what he called ‘the School of Resentment,’ by which he meant multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, neoconservatives and others whom he saw as betraying literature’s essential purpose.” – The New York Times
Musician John Cohen Of New Lost City Ramblers Dead At 87
“[He] was distinguished in at least three fields. As a photographer in the 1950s and ’60s he made memorable images of contemporary American writers and painters, and of the young Bob Dylan soon after the singer’s arrival in New York. As a film-making musicologist he documented traditional arts in the American South and in Peru. And as a musician, particularly as a founder member of the New Lost City Ramblers, he had an incalculable influence on the American folk revival and all that followed.” – The Guardian
For First Time In 27 Years, And Despite The Rules, Booker Prize Is Shared By Two Titles
Yes, one of them is Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments; the other is Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. Over more than five hours of debate, the judges were told repeatedly that splitting the prize was not permitted, so the panel unanimously made the decision “to flout the rules.” – The Guardian