“The appeal of tough TV quizzes is that sometimes, we want to be taxed. The lowest common denominator doesn’t always have to win. Difficult things can be fun. That competitive element, a touch of showing off on the sofa, doesn’t hurt either.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
German People’s Theatre Community Protests Appointment Of Tate Modern’s Director Chris Dercon
In June, 90 staff members and 80 freelancers of the Volksbühne sent one to the Berlin House of Representatives expressing deep concern that Dercon will trade long-established artistic standards for “a globally extended consensus culture with uniform presentation and sales patterns.” Volksbühne means “People’s Stage” and was established in 1914 as a working-class theater committed to the experimental.
Critical Disconnect – The “Best Movies Of The 2000’s” List Shows Gulf Between Critics And Audiences
“Critics can champion as many ferociously innovative films as they like, but if the audiences who actually feed the coffers of studios continue to ignore their recommendations, then the industry will simply keep delivering substandard, heavily franchised fare.”
We Thought The Internet Would Liberate Us. Instead It Distracted Us From What Really Mattered
“By spreading a utopian view of technology, a view that defines progress as essentially technological, they’ve encouraged people to switch off their critical faculties and give Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and financiers free rein in remaking culture to fit their commercial interests.”
Why Bollywood Is The Heart Of A Nation
“There is something about a big, popular art form that dramatizes a society’s deepest tensions that I find desperately moving. In the West, this is the kind of heavy lifting that was once the preserve of the novel — think of Dickens and Balzac. But in India, Bollywood alone deals with our society’s inner tension, its fault lines and frictions.”
What’s The Solution To LA’s 99-Seat Theatre Stalemate?
Whenever I have waded into this debate, making the argument that the best solution to the stalemate would be some sort of compromise that would provide a feasible economic path for those institutions that have benefited from the old plan while paving the way for a new era in the city’s theater ecology (one more conducive to institutions being able to pay their artists, compete for new plays and widen their audiences), a few passionate theater folks write to remind me of the state of L.A. theater before there was what used to be known as the “Equity Waiver.”
Film Is Gone. So How Do We Save It As Historical Record?
“Most of its history, cinema was medium-specific — it was shot, processed and distributed on film. The movies we watch today, by contrast, are rarely made through mechanical and photochemical processes, but with computer code, with strings of zeros and ones: bits… What happens to an art when its foundational medium disappears? We don’t yet know, because it’s happening right now. If you care about movies, you should be wondering.”
The World’s Highest Paid Actors
“Combined, the top 10 men on the list earned $457 million, more than double the top 10 women’s $205 million pay. Additionally, 18 actors reeled in more than $20 million, versus four on the actresses’ side.”
Perm Was To Be A New City Of Culture. Until Russia Put A Stop To It
“We realized that we had this unique chance to make Perm into a place where people would want to live, but there is always this fear in Russia that creative freedom makes people too difficult to control.”
The Web At 25 – Lots Of Unfulfilled Promise
“Sure, you can upload your own videos to YouTube, which is owned by Google. But will they show up in anyone’s search results? You can publish your manifesto, but will anyone see the links to it you post on Facebook? It’s as though everyone now has a printing press, but there are only two stores in town that sell newspapers. If you want to find an audience, you have to go through them.”