The FBI’s focus on black musicians has its roots in the agency’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which led to the surveillance of several of the most important black jazz musicians of the mid-20th century.
Author: Douglas McLennan
Apple Could Spend $4.2 Billion On Original Streaming Content By 2022
“Apple won’t catch up to either by 2022 in terms of spend, projecting that Amazon will eclipse Netflix, $8.3 billion to $6.8 billion. Earlier this year, Apple signaled its intent to invest as much as $1 billion into original programming. That’s still well short of Netflix, which announced previously an $8 billion budget toward original and licensed content in 2018, and Amazon, which is expected to spend more than the $4.5 billion that went into premium video entertainment this year.”
The British Pride Themselves On Their Choirs. But How Good Are They?
“Are Britain’s leading choirs actually the best? We wouldn’t know, because as a concert-going public we take almost no interest in foreign ensembles. Attracting an audience in the UK is one of the most difficult challenges an overseas choral group can face.”
A boom In Inventing New Musical Instruments
“You would be forgiven for thinking instrument-making reached its endpoint long ago. The orchestra has largely been fixed since the Belgian Adolphe Sax patented his eponymous instrument in the 1840s. And these days, a standard laptop can make so many sounds, why would we need anything new? But there are hundreds, even thousands, of instrument inventors beavering away.”
More Studies Say Using Laptops In Class Leads To Less Learning
“A growing body of evidence shows that over all, college students learn less when they use computers or tablets during lectures. They also tend to earn worse grades. The research is unequivocal: Laptops distract from learning, both for users and for those around them. It’s not much of a leap to expect that electronics also undermine learning in high school classrooms or that they hurt productivity in meetings in all kinds of workplaces.”
Machines Are Learning In New Ways. But What If We Can’t Understand Them?
“In many arenas, A.I. methods have advanced with startling speed; deep neural networks can now detect certain kinds of cancer as accurately as a human. But human doctors still have to make the decisions — and they won’t trust an A.I. unless it can explain itself. This isn’t merely a theoretical concern.”
Will The $450 Million Leonardo Recallibrate The Art Market?
“Given the Christie’s result, there is a temptation to wonder if the art market will be recalibrated in the way that it was in 1987, when Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” sold for $39.9 million. That price also blew minds, being almost four times the previous high for any artwork at auction at the time.”
Of Art And Fallen Artists (Do We Reject The Art Now?)
“Wrestling with what to do with the product of tainted executives, artists or news figures is not that far from the eternal issue of how (or even whether) to separate our views of art from our views of the artists. Wagner was blatantly anti-Semitic. Alfred Hitchcock abused actresses who worked for him, so openly that you can see his dysfunctional psychosexual power dynamics right onscreen. Roman Polanski was convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old, but does that mean “Rosemary’s Baby” should have been pulled from circulation?”
What We Learned On a 13-Hour Immersive Theatre Performance On A Plane From London To JFK
“Our work is interactive so audiences are not passive observers but in the midst of the action, both as witnesses or participants. We had members of the press offering to write a tale for our heroine’s birthday and one passenger, who had forgotten to take his usual Valium dose, dealt with his in-flight nerves by becoming a character in the show. However, being thrust into a theatre show for 13 hours can be bit much, even for the most ardent theatre-goer.”
Britain Has Been Thrown Out Of The “European Capital Of Culture” Program
The Government has been advised to discontinue the selection process for the five bidding cities – Belfast, Dundee, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Leeds – “immediately”. The DCMS said it is “deeply disappointed” with the decision and is in “urgent discussions” with the European Commission on the matter.