Some see it as the year before the end of the innocence in the U.S. – the year before JFK was assassinated. For others, that “innocence” was built on an entire system that kept Black people down, that wielded sexism openly, and that was focused on the Cold War. – Los Angeles Times
Tag: 12.23.18
The Israeli Government Asks That The German Government De-Fund Berlin’s Jewish Museum
Why? It’s one on a list of German institutions that, the conservative Israeli government says, are promoting anti-Israeli activity or sentiment. But “Tamar Zandberg, leader of the left-wing Meretz party, which sits in the opposition, decried what she called Mr. Netanyahu’s ‘obsession’ with pursuing and censoring ideological opponents all the way to the Jewish Museum in Berlin.” – The New York Times
When Childhood ‘Kitchen Yiddish’ Comes In Really Handy
That time is when you get to play Yente in the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof. “People are so taken by the communication of the story and hearing it in this language.” – NPR
How Can Theatres Deal With Generational Changes, Take Risks, And Work With Failure?
Two artistic directors try to figure it out. Joanna Pfaelzer is the soon-to-be incoming AD of the Berkeley Rep: “When we look at the twenty-year-olds and the thirty-year-olds in our field, they’re thinking about collaboration, about the process of how and why and you make work together, in a much broader way. They’re going to demand that of the institutions, and the structures are going to have to adapt to their vision, and they should.” – HowlRound
‘Silent Night’ Is Turning 200 [VIDEO]
Yes, there is a Stille Nacht Museum in the town in Austria where the carol was first sung in 1818. (And it does have the original guitar on which it was played.) – BBC
A Christmas Without Enough Paper Books As Printers Run Into A Bottleneck
Turns out a banner year for publishing (which is what 2018, improbably, turned into) means that printers are running as fast as they can, and it’s not fast enough. That’s “creating a backlog that has led to stock shortages of popular titles.” (They do have these things called ebooks and audiobooks? But … anyway.) – The New York Times
How Does An Art Museum’s Conservation Scientist Do His Job? [AUDIO]
A great way to end the podcast year: MoMA senior conservation scientist Chris McGlinchey talks “about all the complex machines he uses, the extremely tiny scale conservators work on, and figuring out how to fill the museum with sugar cane that won’t rot.” – Slate