Ernie Smith gives a brief history of the very American phenomenon, from its 1949 birth (pitching Vitamix blenders, actually a legit product) through the Psychic Friends Network and Miss Cleo. “In a lot of ways, the modern app-store ecosystem shares much in common with the televised grift that many vintage infomercials specialized in. The difference, of course, is scale and intent.” — Tedium
Tag: 12.11.18
Miami’s City Theatre – America’s Master Of Short-Form Plays?
With Kentucky’s Actors Theatre of Louisville ending its short-play contests and festivals in 2017, City Theatre has emerged as the professional company most committed to championing an art form as formidable as any other. After all, short stories are recognized as a literary form of comparable value to novels; why not short plays? – American Theatre
How To Present ‘Problematic’ Plays — And How To Handle The Fraught Talkbacks Afterward
Maddie Gaw, who was part of the selection panel for the first-ever Problematic Play Festival this past fall, writes about what makes plays “problematic” (i.e., subject matter violent or controversial enough to make most theatres and funders flee) and about how the festival altered the standard post-play talkback to make it safe for audience members to process what they had seen. — HowlRound
Our “Algorithmic Music Culture” Is Making Music Poorer
On the consumer side, streaming and social-media platforms have transformed the nature of music discovery, which was previously more proactive by necessity—requiring manual effort to open up a newspaper, dig through crates at a record store, or attend a live show. Nowadays, “discovery” can be as easy and passive as scrolling mindlessly through a personalized feed or shuffling an algorithmically -curated playlist in the background of a holiday party, without help from a critic or other human guide. Because of its inherently passive nature, algorithmic curation has also made one core function of criticism defunct. – Columbia Journalism Review
They Tried Once To Save Atlantic City With Art, And It Flopped. Can It Work This Time Around?
Last time, in 2012, it was the “multimillion-dollar, casino-tax funded Art Park conceived — but indifferently received and later returned to its roots as a vacant lot — by Lance Fung, a world-renowned curator. This time, an Atlantic City art scene is being birthed by less renowned people: longtime community activists, returned locals, old high school friends, and artist/entrepreneurs.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Why Beauty Pageants Still Have A Hold On The Popular Imagination
Pageants still tend to fascinate. The very word suggests why: The ceremony and accoutrements of beauty contests play a powerful role in the national imagination, with their sashes and their tiaras and their inevitable rows of machine-stitched sequins. The ratings for Miss America have fallen consistently since its heyday, but 4.3 million viewers still tuned in to ABC to watch Nia Franklin triumph at this year’s ceremony in September. The pageant, despite everything, still catches the eye, a shiny, contoured, rose-clutching cultural behemoth. – The Atlantic
How The Lost Short Stories Of Naguib Mahfouz Were Rediscovered And Published (And Lost In The First Place)
The Nobel laureate had evidently intended to publish them sometime in 1994. Then he lost track of them after a very, very bad day. Two decades on, a critic in Cairo came upon them while searching for something else entirely. — Literary Hub
NPR’s ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me’ To Be Adapted For TV
The hour-long program, being developed by NBCUniversal’s Wilshire Studios, “will stay true to the original while delivering bigger, visual and variety-themed games that can’t be captured on the radio.” — Deadline
University Group Asked Comedians To Sign ‘Behavioural Agreement’ Before Benefit Performance
A student group supporting UNICEF at the School of Oriental and African Studies, a prominent research institution in London, booked five comedians for a benefit performance. Then it sent them a contract “agreeing to our no tolerance policy with regards to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia or anti-religion or anti-atheism. … All topics must be presented in a way that is respectful and kind.” — The Guardian
Alvin Epstein, One Of America’s Great Classical Stage Actors, Dead At 93
He was Marcel Marceau’s assistant in his U.S. debut tour, played the Fool to Orson Welles’s Lear, was a founding member of both Yale Rep and American Rep Theatre, and acted in everything from the Greeks to Shakespeare to Brecht and Weill. But he made his biggest mark in the plays of Samuel Beckett. — The New York Times