Tag: 12.22.17

Christmas Movies Are Really Propaganda For Capitalism

“In Christmas movies, audiences can bank on heartwarming plots where grouches become kind and misers become charitable. But Christmas movies also tend to reinforce the myth of the “good capitalist,” favoring stories about individual virtue over any real social change. The way Christmas movies tell it, the generosity of individuals is sufficient to mitigate the harms of class inequality.”

Artsy’s 25 People Who Defined Visual Culture In 2017

This year’s list runs from Maria Balshaw (the first woman to head the Tate gallery system); through Dana Schutz and the artists who led the attack on her painting of Emmett Till, the creators of the “pussy hat” and of the Fearless Girl sculpture on Wall Street; down to the photographer who created the pregnant-Beyoncé image – not to mention Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles.

WNYC Firings: What Went Wrong At America’s Biggest Public Radio Station?

Over the past two decades, under CEO Laura Walker and deputy Dean Cappello, New York Public Radio has become known (even more than before) as a programming and podcasting powerhouse. How did things get to the point that three of the station’s best-known hosts were fired within four months? And why only now, when management was aware of the relevant problems for years? A reporter looks into how, as Walker puts it, concerns about growth and content crowded out concern with the people producing the content.

Here’s What Hollywood Should Learn About The Bad Movies It Made This Year

The takeaway? Audiences seem to have grown cynical of the whole Marvel-inspired interlocking universe trope. And in an era when summer moviegoing (the studios’ most reliable money-making time frame) hit a 25-year low, with revenues tumbling more than 14 percent and tying with 2014 for the worst year-over-year decline in modern history, that emphasis on spectacle, formulaic filmmaking, and empire-building (at the expense of creating relatable characters or even coherent story lines) proved to be bad for business.

The Uffizzi Had A Huge Collection Of Pre-19th-Century Work By Women Hidden Away – But Now It’s Coming Out

It’s almost mind-blowing that what the Guerilla Girls have been saying for years is finally filtering to the places it needs to be: “Eike Schmidt, who became the Uffizi’s director in 2015 after a stint at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, says he drew inspiration from the Guerilla Girls, a group of feminist art activists, who told him that many museums have the works of women artists, but they’re kept in storage.”

Playwriting Her Way Out Of Despair

Lucy Kirkwood, playwright of The Children (now playing on Broadway), says she was trying for a long time to figure out how to write plays about climate change. “Then the events of Fukushima happened, the terrible disaster there. There was a retired work force that volunteered to go back to clear up the plant there. And apparently the entire country sort of voluntarily monitored their own energy usage. They managed to bring down their national energy usage just because everyone was diligent and considerate and thought about themselves as part of something bigger.”