Tag: 12.01.20

Did Orwell’s Early Death Save His Reputation?

Had Orwell lived even a few more years he would have been drawn into public discussions of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four and their meaning. And had he equalled his friend Cyril Connolly’s longevity and lived into the 1970s, he would have become embroiled in controversies like the Cold War, nuclear disarmament, feminism, decolonisation, Vietnam, immigration and, who knows, Northern Ireland. – Dublin Review of Books

The Hidden Radio Stations All Over The FM Dial

“Subcarriers are, essentially, hangers on, areas of frequency that weren’t being used for the primary signal, but could find secondary uses in more specialized contexts.” Some FM subcarriers were used to provide a second channel for stereo, but “with secondary signals that may not be directly accessible at all by the primary receiver, completely unrelated, niche services were offered.” Those services have ranged from the original Muzak to specialized radio for doctors’ offices to services that read newspapers and books aloud for the blind to foreign-language broadcasts to GPS. (And there was one ill-fated Microsoft endeavor). – Tedium

Maybe The Right Concert Piece For The Age Of COVID Is Cage’s 4’33”

When Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic learned, on short notice, that their Oct. 31 concert would be the last for some time with a live audience, they chose Cage’s score-without-notes as their encore — and their rendition has racked up more than 50,000 views on YouTube so far. David Patrick Stearns considers the meaning of this notorious musical landmark, both in general and in this particular performance, which (despite Petrenko’s much-too-fast tempos) “seemed to achieve maximum eloquence.” Seriously. – Classical Voice North America

A COVID-Safe Drive-In Theatre For Stage Plays Will Open Next Spring

The DriveINSIDE theatre, which is approved for operating even under Britain’s Tier 3 pandemic restrictions, will have a four-week run in Manchester in March before touring the rest of the UK. Cars will be directed to a designated parking spot, the equivalent of an assigned seat, and passenger-viewers will be able to sit outside on the driver’s side. – Manchester Evening News

Finding Love (And Community) In Gaming

For many of us, virtual worlds are fertile ground for growing new friendships and romance. In online role-playing platforms, gamers may feel more confident in their social interactions than in real life because they can be seen exactly as they want to be seen, says Anthony Bean, a clinical psychologist in Fort Worth, Texas, and founder of Geek Therapeutics. – Wired

The Arts’ COVID Losses By The Latest Numbers

How have things changed since the pandemic? A recent Brookings Institution report shows America’s arts and creative industries lost $150 billion in sales and 2.7 million jobs through July. The “fine and performing arts” alone (commercial and nonprofit) incurred losses of $42.5 billion and a whopping 50% of its workforce (-1.4 million jobs). – Americans for the Arts