A 78-episode adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana, broadcast every Sunday morning for 18 months in 1987-88 on what was then India’s only TV channel, was seen by up to 100 million people. Life in much of the country would come to a standstill while it was on, and many viewers treated watching it as an actual religious ritual. (Some even put garlands of flowers on the TV set.) It was the first religious program the national network aired (previous governments had held the subject taboo), and reporter Rahul Verma explains why its broadcast is seen to have ignited the now-powerful forces of Hindu chauvinism. – BBC
Tag: 10.22.19
How India’s Only Professional Symphony Orchestra Has Kept Itself Going For 13 Years
Founding music director Marat Bisangaliev says that launching the Symphony Orchestra of India back in 2006 was a serious challenge: with the country’s own art music traditions dominant, the few fully trained Western classical musicians from India had all gone abroad. “We zeroed in on a bunch of talented adults who were self-taught and put them through an intensive crash course designed specially to elevate their standard … They had to become worthy of a place in a symphony orchestra, and the move paid off.” And with no existing conservatory to train future orchestral musicians, the SOI has since founded its own. – The National (Abu Dhabi)
The Hero Of This ‘Hamilton’ Is The One Who Wrangles 200 Women In And Out Of 16 Bathroom Stalls At Intermission
Head usher Tanya Heath at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia begins working her miracle with a talk like this: “May I have your attention, please. We are at minute five out of a 20-minute intermission, which means I have 15 minutes to get you into this bathroom. I’ve formed a serpentine line. And it works. It only takes about six minutes from that door to get you in this bathroom. All I need you to do is trust me and trust your sisters.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Sentenced To Art: NYC Diverts Misdemeanor Cases To Art Classes
Seventy-four percent of prosecuted cases in New York are for misdemeanors, according to a 2017 report from NYC Criminal Justice Agency. Instead of clogging up the courts Project Reset tries to change behaviors and hope that will be more effective in reducing recidivism. – CityLab
Artists Meet With Instagram Over Nudity Policies
“Artists that are working with the nude, who censor their own works on Instagram in order to meet their community standards, can be deleted with no recourse because of a lack of a proper appeals system. The deletion of an artist’s account is like throwing someone’s address book and portfolio into a fire.” – Hyperallergic
The Early American Temples To Democracy Were Only Possible Because Of… Slave Labor
The uplifting symbolic content of civic buildings such as the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond or the University of Virginia in Charlottesville came at the expense of human freedom, as slave labor was responsible for both. How could Jefferson countenance the use of slaves in the construction of a democratic architecture? The obvious answer: money. Much could be saved with enslaved labor, and more could be made by owners who rented slaves out. – Metropolis
Saudi Arabia To Build Its First Museum Of Modern Art
Not to be left behind in such matters by Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Oman, the Kingdom announced that the Saudi Museum of Modern Art — to be “designed according to a modern creative concept influenced by the traditional local architectural style” — will be built near a historic site on the outskirts of Riyadh. No other details, such as an architect, the nature of the collection, or an opening date, were given. – Forbes
Patti LuPone Will Have You Know She’s Been Bullied
From the kindergarten kid who threw a snowball with a rock in it at her, to her father (the school principal), to Hal Prince humiliating her in front of the entire company of Evita, to John Houseman, who “literally strangled me.” But, she says in a Q&A, “I’ve been made tough by this business in order to survive, in order to continue to perform, which is what I was born to do.” (Oh, and Andrew Lloyd Webber “is the definition of sad sack.”) – The New York Times Magazine
Is There Really Such A Thing As Video Game Addiction? Yes.
As of this year, the World Health Organization thinks so, and the American Psychiatric Association has included “internet gaming disorder” in the DSM. More than a few people are skeptical, including some researchers (one says “this whole thing is an epistemic dumpster fire”). “[Yet] a substantial body of evidence now demonstrates that although video-game addiction is by no means an epidemic, it is a real phenomenon afflicting a small percentage of gamers.” – The New York Times Magazine
World’s Only Museum Of LGBTQ Art Removes ‘Gay And Lesbian’ From Its Name
As it begins a $7 million capital campaign to fund a new Learning Center for Arts and Intersectionality that will host workshops and after-school programs, upgrades its archives and library (which are seeing increased use by researchers), and launches an endowment, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, located in lower Manhattan, has renamed itself the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. – ARTnews