Elizabeth Crane, Lauren Groff, Peter Orner, Kate Milliken, Matthew Specktor and 29 other writers offer sad, amusing, paradoxical, wicked, very brief tales of the season.
Tag: 12.25.13
Live Theatre Versus Our On-Demand Culture
“What’s gone wrong with theater? It isn’t a matter of quality control. I’ve been reviewing performances from coast to coast since 2004, and I continue to be impressed by what I see. Instead, what I’m hearing from regional artistic directors is that they’re being slammed by the on-demand mentality.”
Detroit’s Morality Play Pits City Against Art
“I think it’s immoral to play off art and culture against a person’s basic income,” says Michael Mulholland, vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 207, which represents about 950 city employees.
Wanna Be A Pop Star? Now (More Than Ever) You Gotta Have A Gimmick
“Even as publications such as Billboard lamented the lowest weekly music sales recorded since the dawn of Soundscan tracking technology in 1991 this past summer, a barrage of high-concept marketing campaigns unleashed in support of some of the year’s biggest albums demonstrated that people are still willing to invest a great deal of time, energy, creativity and (in some cases) money in the increasingly futile pursuit of huge chart returns.”
Is Economic Inequality The Next Fertile Ground For Artists’ Work?
“As wealth inequality becomes a pressing issue in the Western world – particularly the growing gap between generations – it seems like artists are increasingly interested in talking actual numbers.”
Netflix-izing Reading (Data On What/How/When You Read)
“The move to exploit reading data is one aspect of how consumer analytics is making its way into every corner of the culture. Amazon and Barnes & Noble already collect vast amounts of information from their e-readers but keep it proprietary. Now the start-ups — which also include Entitle, a North Carolina-based company — are hoping to profit by telling all.”
Philanthropist Robert W. Wilson, 86, Dies In Suicide
Wilson served as chairman of the New York City Opera and on the boards of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Opera. He donated more than $500 million to charities.