“For too long, we have watched the detrimental impact of Amazon’s business on our communities and the independent bookselling world,” Powell wrote. “We understand that in many communities, Amazon — and big box retail chains — have become the only option. And yet when it comes to our local community and the community of independent bookstores around the U.S., we must take a stand.” – Geekwire
Author: Douglas McLennan
Hundreds Of Canadian Radio And TV Stations Warn They’ll Have To Close
As many as 40 local television outlets and 200 Canadian radio stations could be forced to close in the next three years as the financial pressures faced by media companies intensify under the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests a new study from an industry advocacy group. – CBC
Much-Lauded Black-Run Jazz Label Faces Up To A Complicated History
The campaign that was intended to celebrate the partnership of Gene Russell, a Black pianist and producer who died in relative anonymity in 1981, and Dick Schory, a White percussionist and arranger who earned millions during RCA’s golden era, has instead revived a debate over the romantic mythology surrounding the label’s history. It has also brought to the surface the complicated, decades-old web of business dysfunction that kept these albums from being properly released over the years. – Washington Post
Ani DiFranco’s Plan To Give Prisoners A Voice
The Prison Music Project, which is a political and creative effort, is focused on centering the voices [and] stories of people who get entangled in the justice system, people who experience racial oppression and poverty and class oppression. – Shondaland
Three Arrested In Elite International Movie Piracy Ring
“The group allegedly circumvented copyright protections on nearly every movie released by major production studios, as well as television shows, and distributed them by way of a worldwide network of servers.” – The New York Times
Germany Begins Big Experiment Studying Universal Income
For three years, 120 people are to receive 1,200 euros per month, and throughout the study period, they will be closely observed and frequently interviewed, as will the 1,380 members of the control group, who will receive no money. – Der Spiegel
TV Misses Movie Ads. But Do The Movies Need TV Any More?
TV needs the movies. But as the pandemic has forced the closure of countless movie theaters, new questions have surfaced about how much the movies will need TV. – Variety
A Cultural History Of Chairs
In the centuries prior to western industrialisation, stools or benches were common household furnishings, but chairs were special-occasion objects, usually the exclusive property of the wealthy and powerful. The era of mass manufacturing in the 19th century, and the rapid social and economic changes that came with it, brought chairs into daily life for the first time. Industrial jobs, with their repetitive tasks, required a seated posture, and the high demand for chairs that this created in turn made them available and affordable to middle-class people in Europe and the US. – The Guardian
What If Museums Aren’t Up For Reform?
What if adaptation is not what is needed? What if we are asking the wrong questions? We are asking how to integrate our structures: staff, collections, exhibition schedules, board membership. What if the most important questions cannot be asked of others, but only of ourselves? – Hyperallergic
A Need For Boldness In Rethinking The Arts
We should be deeply skeptical of Trumpian fantasies of business-as-usual on the horizon. There is evidence that the pandemic, when it comes to attending live entertainment events, is changing consumer habits. The lockdown is strengthening two old choke holds on live theater’s existence — convenience and price point. – ArtsFuse