Todd VanDerWerff: “We need cultural criticism not just to tell us which movies to go see and which ones to avoid, but to tell us things we already knew but didn’t know how to express. If reporting can explain the world to us, cultural criticism can explain us to us.” — Vox
Tag: 12.31.18
Harpsichordist Blandine Verlet Dead At 76
Regarded as one of the best harpsichordists of her generation, with a repertoire covering four centuries, from William Byrd through Francis Poulenc, Verlet was especially known for her performances and recordings of Bach, Scarlatti, Rameau, and, above all, Couperin. (in French; for Google Translate version, click here) — Le Figaro
Pioneering Animator Don Lusk, 105
“Lusk’s passing is not just the death of a great animator, but the closing of an era in American animation history. He was the last living Disney animator who had made significant contributions to the original animated features produced by Walt Disney, starting with the company’s very first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. ” – CartoonBrew
The Real Louis C.K. And Kevin Spacey Have Finally Emerged
Matt Zoller Seitz: “These types of guys thrive on attention, and if they can’t get the positive kind, they’ll settle for the negative. ‘Oh, sure, they’ve tried to separate us,’ Spaceywood said, inadvertently speaking for Louis C.K. as he emerged from his alt-right chrysalis and flapped his moth wings in Levittown. ‘But what we have is too strong. It’s too powerful.'” — Vulture
To Understand The Future Of Post-Advertising Media, Look To The 19th Century
Derek Thompson points us back to the age of the “party press,” when newspapers were funded by political organizations that “treated readers as a group to engage and galvanize. … It was advertising that led to the demise of the party press … [and to] the modern standards of ‘objective’ journalism.” (Mustn’t make the advertisers nervous.) “As the news business shifts back from advertisers to patrons and readers (that is to say, subscribers), journalism might escape that ‘view from nowhere’ purgatory.” — The Atlantic
Opera Star David Daniels Countersues Student Who Alleges Daniels Molested Him
“The [countertenor] filed the suit earlier this month against Andrew Lipian, who accused Daniels of groping him in 2017 in a federal lawsuit which also alleges that the University of Michigan turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual impropriety.” — New York Daily News
Venice To Charge Day-Trippers Entry Fee
Of the city’s 30 million visitors each year, fewer than a third stay overnight (and pay hotel tax). Now the other 20 million, mostly cruise-ship passengers, will also contribute to covering Venice’s ever-soaring costs for serving and cleaning up after all that tourist traffic. — The Daily Beast
Back To The Future? American News Media’s Post-Ad Model
“As the news business shifts back from advertisers to patrons and readers (that is to say, subscribers), journalism might escape that “view from nowhere” purgatory and speak straightforwardly about the world in a way that might have seemed presumptuous in a mid-century newspaper. Journalism could be more political again, but also more engaging again.” – The Atlantic
There’s No Free Will? You Can’t Possibly Believe That
Philosopher Tim Sommers makes the case that, “in general, it’s very hard to not involve yourself in some kind of ‘performative contradiction’ – where what you do contradicts what you say – when you try to disavow free will.” — 3 Quarks Daily
How Americans’ Attitudes About Life Have Changed (As Chronicled By 80 Years Of Polling)
“We looked in those archives to find a range of questions, dating as far back as 1938, that explored how earlier generations felt about everything from fashion to faith in Congress to fear of technological change. Then, in conjunction with YouGov, we asked 1,000 Americans today to respond to those same queries. – Huffington Post