Day after day during the recording sessions, he did take after take, hour after hour. It was Marty Krystall who finally starting insisting on regular breaks. Death hovered over the sessions in more ways than one. – The New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
Songwriters, Self-Employed Musicians To Get Aid In Bailout Bill
Most industry creative and support occupations are not eligible for unemployment. The bill now covers self-employed small-business owners, a category that in music ranges from songwriters to roadies. Under the new bill, self-employed individuals could begin receiving financial aid, through grants and loans, as soon as next month. – Variety
How Do You Teach Performing Arts When You Can’t Be Together?
For teachers of the performing arts, seemingly insuperable challenges complicate the task: how does one teach dance and acting—quintessentially embodied forms dependent on human-to-human observation and whole-body involvement—when no one is in a room together? – Howlround
While The People Are Away, The Art Inside Plays
The Louvre, like museums all around the world, is closed. The humor of the meme about art like the Mona Lisa putting its feet up is its suggestion that the great, iconic works shuttered therein are letting us know how exhausted they were with our usual attention. – Washington Post
Radio Listenership Soars, Streaming Less So…
Global, which owns Capital FM and talk station LBC, said online radio listening had risen by 15%. The BBC said streaming of its radio stations had risen 18% since last week. Meanwhile, data from two US analytics companies suggested use of music-streaming apps such as Spotify had dipped by about 8%. – BBC
As Broadway Falls Silent, A Virtual Tour Of Theatres
In the coming weeks, virtual walks may become a thing. Meanwhile, the architect David Rockwell is first onstage, having elected to look at Broadway’s hibernating theaters. – The New York Times
How I Became A Dance Critic
“So am I a dancer? The short answer is no. And people find this answer surprising. Many expect a dance writer to dance, despite not having the same expectations of other fields. For instance, most food critics are not chefs, and most film critics are not actors or directors.” – Broad Street Review
A Peripatetic Global Art World Deals With Suddenly Staying In Place
We knew, as the climate crisis deepened, that this global art world constantly on the move was coming under necessary pressure. Now the prophylactic stasis demanded by this pandemic has violently accelerated the art world’s reassessment of what all this travel was good for. The task of artists in this new plague year will be to reestablish painting, photography, performance and the rest as something that can still be charged with meaning, and still have global impact, even when we’re not in motion. – The New York Times
Of Oedipus And Trump – Some Lessons
Insulted and incensed, Oedipus responds as intemperately as Trump when crossed by a politician or held to account by a member of the press. To salve his injured pride, Oedipus harks back to the equivalent of his electoral coup. It was through the sharpness of his wit that he, an outsider not in the royal line of succession, solved the riddle of the Sphinx and won the throne. – Los Angeles Times
The Musician Class Is Being Wiped Out
“Roughly 90% of our members are affected,” said Horace Trubridge, general secretary of the Musicians’ Union. “This will force musicians out of the profession. Our members also do a lot of event work – weddings and conferences – that has also fallen off a cliff, coupled with the fact that most of our members subsidise their income from live performance by teaching and studio recording work which of course they can’t do now either.” The idea that universal credit is going to keep these people’s heads above water is a nonsense. – The Guardian