“Our relationship with the icons of culture has changed, refracted through our politics. At the Oscars, the people who made those movies look out of touch in their Harry Winston jewelry and blue velvet dinner jackets. When they declaim a wall on the Mexican border, or quote the Koran, it sounds naïve, even insulting, to a good-sized number of people. Somehow not even movies about the emotional pain of working class Massachusetts townies or tough modern Texan cowboys shooting it out against the backdrop of economic disaster could get over that hump.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Small Record Store Chain Steps Up To Buy 70 HMV Canada Music Stores
HMV said it was closing the stores across Canada because it was losing tons of money. But upstart music retailer Sunrise Records is making a major bet it can expand quickly to make the stores profitable. “A lot of the younger consumers still love having something tangible,” argues the company’s enterprising young CEO
Why Technology Is Making Us Feel Less Secure
“The more technology multiplies, the more it amplifies instability. Things already don’t quite do what they claim. The fixes just make things worse. And so, ordinary devices aren’t likely to feel more workable and functional as technology marches forward. If anything, they are likely to become even less so. Technology is becoming a force that surrounds humans—but not necessarily in the service of human ends. Technology’s role has begun to shift, from serving human users to pushing them out of the way so that the technologized world can service its own ends.”
Oxford Dictionary Adds New Words (And Boy Are They Ugly)
“Additions including “clicktivism” (a pejorative word for armchair activists on social media), “haterade” (excessive negativity, criticism, or resentment), “otherize” (view or treat – a person or group of people – as intrinsically different from and alien to oneself) and “herd mentality” (the tendency for people’s behaviour or beliefs to conform to those of the group to which they belong) all emerged during the 2016 battle for the White House.”
Claim: The Oscars Are More Important Than Ever This Year
“Ever since 2015, when the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag called out the industry’s woeful inclusivity, the show has been transformed—possibly against its will—from a sporadically #woke statuette dispensary to something bigger. The entire show is now political: The nominees, the winners, and the things they say (or don’t say) on stage. And at time when everyone’s mad as hell, and deservedly so, this year’s Oscars offer a rare chance for everybody to make a statement—even the viewers playing along at home.”
Toronto International Film Festival Downsizes
“The Toronto International Film Festival is reducing the overall number of films it will screen for this year’s edition by 20 per cent and getting rid of two programs.”
Mayor Of London: Cutting Arts Education Is False Savings
“When you speak to successful people in science or tech, they say one of the things that leads to lateral thinking is people doing arts. Not only does it lead to future artists, people in the cultural and creative sectors, but it helps people in different sectors.”
Arts Council England Will Spend £2.7 Million Implementing “Quality” Standards For Arts
Arts Council England is “pressing ahead with the system despite serious concerns raised following a pilot project last year to test such a system among 150 NPOs. An independent review of the pilot found that arts organisations wanted a more flexible system that would align with their individual artistic objectives, and ACE’s announcement that the system was going to be rolled out provoked anger and disbelief on social media. Using the system will be mandatory for around 300 of ACE’s largest NPOs, and a further 600 will be encouraged to use it.”
Here’s Why Standard Measures Of Arts Experiences Are A Bad Idea
“Setting aside the insurmountable logistical challenges that will face some of the organisations having to conduct the fieldwork for the Quality Metrics scheme, there are two fatal flaws with the research framework that will render the findings meaningless.”
Interesting? How Meaningless Is That?
“Calling something interesting is the height of sloppy thinking. Interesting is not descriptive, not objective, and not even meaningful. Interesting is a kind of linguistic connective tissue.”