XO Music Festival was slated to take place this weekend, July 12th to 15th, in Antioch, California. It promised seven stages, performances by 100 artists including Ludacris, Vanilla Ice and T.I., and a litany of Instagram-minded perks such as a foam pit, a color arena, an indoor skating rink and something billed only as an “interactive bounce arena.” Days before the start of the show, however, several artists dropped out of the lineup citing incomplete or missing payment, and Bay Area news outlets reported that other musicians were increasingly worried about whether the show was still taking place. On Wednesday, Contra Costa Event Park, the festival’s venue, suddenly released a statement canceling the festival entirely, “due to the promoters’ lack of fulfilling contractual obligations.”
Month: July 2018
A National Review Intern Goes To The Whitney Museum And Decides… (Surprise) It’s Not Really A Museum
“One gets the feeling the patrons of this museum visit to prove how progressive they are. They do not care that the so-called art is the quintessence of bilge. They care only that it advances the ideology de rigueur. The March for Life has been going on since 1974, yet we find no “Abortion Is Murder” sign in the quite incomplete history of protest. That would get the museum shunned by high society. Indeed, there is no reason the Whitney should go on calling itself an art museum now that it has forgone artistic merit as its selection criterion. Let it call itself the Protest Shrine — at least then the unwoke will save their money.
Despite Efforts, Lack Of Diversity Is Still A Big Problem In America’s Orchestras
African-Americans make up 1.8 percent of orchestras nationwide while Hispanics make up 2.5 percent, according to an industry-wide study. Those statistics inspired several performing arts organizations to form the National Alliance for Audition Support, which prepares talented musicians of color for auditions. Making it past that first hurdle is crucial as one opening in a top-tier orchestra can easily attract as much as a thousand candidates.
Enormous Casino Going Up In The Shadow Of Santa Fe Opera Has Fans Worried
The casino, a multimillion-dollar project by Tesuque Pueblo, is being built on land that housed a flea market for many years. Construction has been moving rapidly since it started in earnest earlier this year, and the casino is expected to open this fall. Exactly what the finished product will look like — or how it will affect people’s experience at the opera — is a big unknown because the project is still in the works.
Scientists Turn To AI To Design Bike To Break Speed Record
Currently the record is held by Sebastiaan Bowier, who in 2012 set a record of 133.78 km/h, or just over 83 mph. It’s hard to imagine how his bike, which looked more like a tiny landbound rocket than any kind of bicycle, could be significantly improved on. But every little bit counts when records are measured down a hundredth of a unit, and anyway, who knows but that some strange new shape might totally change the game?
Archaeologists Discover Temple Below Another Aztec Temple After Earthquake In Mexico
While checking for structural damage inflicted by the 2017 earthquake, archaeologists with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) made a remarkable discovery: a temple located about six feet (two meters) below the top of the Teopanzolco pyramid, a structure the Aztecs dedicated to Tláloc, the Aztec rain god. It was not uncommon for ancient cultures to build upon older structures, but in this case, the archaeologists had no idea a temple was located within.
Legendary Editor Robert Gottlieb At 87
As industrious a writer as he was an editor (John McPhee marveled that Gottlieb once read an 80,000-word article of his overnight, with cogent suggestions for improvements), Gottlieb has published biographical treatments of Sarah Bernhardt, Charles Dickens’s children and the choreographer George Balanchine. Given that he turned 87 in April, the title of his new book, “Near-Death Experiences … and Others,” might suggest a meditation on impending mortality, a midnight reflection on the exit sign hanging at the end of the hall. Nothing of the sort.
Students Shocked: 18 Art Institutes Around America Will Close
The parent nonprofit Dream Center Education Holdings, based in Los Angeles, cited declining enrollment as the reason for its decision. Dream Center purchased 31 Art Institute schools in early 2017 from Education Management Corp., a for-profit school operator in Pittsburgh, with the intention of converting all of the schools into nonprofits.
Will Artificial Intelligence Be Our New Therapists?
Some people might be more comfortable disclosing their innermost feelings to an AI. A study conducted by the Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles in 2014 suggests that people display their sadness more intensely, and are less scared about self-disclosure, when they believe they’re interacting with a virtual person, instead of a real one. As when we write a diary, screens can serve as a kind of shield from outside judgment.
The Great Cup-Holder Debate: Philadelphia’s Academy Of Music Makes The Call
The Kimmel had considered installing cup holders as part of the new-seating project, a feature which, presumably, would have encouraged beverage consumption — not to mention boosted concession sales figures — at Broadway shows. But after much discussion, that aspect of the new seat design was nixed. Cup holders would have cost more money, a Kimmel spokeswoman said, and since Opera Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Ballet were not interested in having cup holders (they don’t allow drinks in performances), the orchestra and Kimmel decided to apply that money to other aspects of the project.