“The decision has been widely panned online, news organizations including Vox Media and BuzzFeed have threatened to not attend, and the situation has been cast as a win for the angry and misogynistic teratoma of trolls that identify themselves as part of the Gamergate movement. Meanwhile, SXSW’s official explanation for the cancellations is a misdirected mess.”
Month: October 2015
I Was On One Of Those Canceled SXSW Panels – Here Is What Went Down
User-experience designer and researcher Caroline Sinders explains the planned focus of the panel (titled “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games”), the abuse she and family members had previously suffered from GamerGate types, the strange dynamic that developed around her panel proposal, and the even stranger responses of SXSW staff.
‘Boulez Is Napoleon, Stockhausen Is Just Bismarck’: A 1967 Interview With Morton Feldman, In English For The First Time
This interview … was conducted in 1967 by composer and musicologist Jean-Yves Bosseur, then aged twenty. … [It] was conducted in English originally, but the audiotapes have been lost. Therefore until now this interview has only been available in French translation.”
London’s Handel House Museum Opens A Hendrix Half
“In the mid-18th century, George Frideric Handel wrote his epic oratorio Messiah in a Georgian town house here. Around 230 years later, Jimi Hendrix moved in next door. Now, a revamped museum dedicated to both musical pioneers is set to open Feb. 10 on Brook Street in the Mayfair district, in the adjacent apartments where they lived.”
Nobody Does Haunted Houses Better Than The Japanese
“I screamed more in that tiny haunt than I did walking through some of the top haunts in the United States with every high-priced animatronic and 20-foot-tall monster available. I believe the key difference was how immersed I was in the story and the personal connection I felt with the girl and the ghost.”
London’s West End Theatres Are Not ‘Fit For The 21st Century,’ Says Former National Theatre Chief
“Nick Starr has claimed the West End’s current ‘old and ageing’ playhouses are unable to accommodate [any] contemporary theatremaking … that is more innovative in form than revivals of old plays, and said new venues were needed to provide homes for theatremakers who want to create for spaces that are non-proscenium arch.”
Los Angeles Is Hiring An Artist – To Help Reduce Traffic Deaths
“The artist will be embedded in the city’s Department of Transportation, to focus on how to save bike riders and pedestrians from being maimed or killed by automobiles.” Says the department’s general manager, “I want somebody who can understand the issues and think of them in different ways.”
A ‘Moth’ Champion Shares The Tricks For Telling Riveting Stories
Matthew Dicks, a former teacher who became a professional storyteller after winning The Moth’s StorySLAM 18 times, says that the secret is in the stakes. (podcast)
Now *Here’s* How A Cop Should Deal With A Defiant Teen – Dance With Her
Perhaps the (ex-)policeman in Columbia, SC who threw a high school student across the classroom should have followed the example of this officer in D.C. (video)
Plan For Ground Zero Arts Center Has Changed Again
“The performing-arts center planned for the World Trade Center complex is shifting shape yet again, as its leaders work to deliver a slimmed-down project that can be built for roughly half the cost.”