Author: Douglas McLennan

Future V. Past: The Stakes In The Netflix V. Cannes Battle

By putting its movies online immediately, the streaming service represents an existential threat to the French theater industry’s business; the Cannes rule change is just the latter’s mode of resistance (as the festival director, Fremaux is under tremendous pressure from French exhibitors). In announcing his decision to pull the company from Cannes, which is widely viewed as the world’s most prestigious film festival, Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, framed it to Variety as a battle between cinema’s past and future.

Did We Just See The First Cracks In The Big Data Bust?

The disorienting and thoroughly unsatisfying Cambridge Analytica saga is a preview of what trailing indicators of the collapse of the data boom might look like: revealing signs, evident years later, that something was rotten with these arrangements, arriving too late to be actionable but soon enough to foster resentment against companies and services on which we’ve come to depend.

Historic: Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer

The Pulitzer for music, which was first awarded in 1943, generally goes to contemporary classical music; a quick scan through the list of previous winners reveals a lot of operas and symphonies. Lamar, however, is a hip-hop artist, and DAMN. is a hip-hop album. Lamar is now not only the first person to win a Pulitzer for a hip-hop album but the first person to win a Pulitzer for any music that’s not classical or jazz.

So Doing Math Doesn’t Make You Smarter?

Various studies point to the conclusion that subjecting the mind to formal discipline — as when studying geometry or Latin — does not, in general, engender a broad transfer of learning. There is no sweeping increase of a general capacity for tasks like writing a speech or balancing a checkbook. But surely a narrower claim is true: that mathematics, so systematically built as it is on inference, must develop logical thinking. Right?

Is Comics Master Stan Lee Being Held Prisoner?

Few creators have left as profound a mark on popular culture. According to The-Numbers, a box office data site, films featuring Mr. Lee’s superheroes have grossed more than $24 billion worldwide.  “Stan is right up there with Walt Disney as one of the great creators of not just one character, but a whole galaxy of characters that have become part of our lives. Right now, I think he’s probably bigger than Disney.” Yet at the summit of Mr. Lee’s career, storm clouds have gathered.

In Praise Of The Traditional Concert Hall

Yes, the physical manifestations of music worship, structures so Romantic that they wouldn’t be foreign to Richard Wagner. Though some argue that the etiquette for concert halls is outdated, elitist, and partly responsible for classical music’s struggle to find new audiences, concert halls actually provide unique experiences that have become all too rare.

Netflix Spending $8 Billion On Content This Year

The company is competing against a range of traditional entertainment companies around the globe, and of course, against the need to work, sleep and do other things. Speaking at TED in Vancouver, CEO Reed Hastings noted that $8 billion is about what Disney spends. “That’s spread globally,” he said. “It’s not as much as it sounds.”

Julia Bullock On Inventing The New Young American Musician

“I’m leery of any musician who doesn’t admit to going through a period of trying to emulate their musical idols, or their favorite performance of a piece, or even just trying to match what you’re hearing. Jazzers do it all of the time, and aren’t ashamed to admit it. I think it’s part of how you learn what it is that so struck you about the music or performance in the first place, it’s a path to discovering your aesthetic.”