“The move comes after HMV could no longer make payments on its crippling debt to the tune of $39 million. The chain was profitable up until 2013, but after a significant decline in sales it has not made a single payment on the debt since November 2014.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Worried That We Could ‘Normalize’ Unacceptable Situations? You’re Not Wrong
Two cognitive researchers explain how people’s conceptions of what’s average or typical and what’s ideal bleed into each other and change what gets considered “normal.”
India’s Biggest Book Festival Warily Makes Room For The Hindu Radicals It Used To Conider Pariahs
The RSS (for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is a Hindu nationalist group compared by some to the Tea Party and by others to the Ku Klux Klan. The Jaipur Literature Festival is a swanky, high-minded gathering that would consider the RSS both morally repugnant and vulgar. Until this year, that is.
Jaipur Literature Festival’s Normalizing Of Hindu Radicals Just Shows That The Mask Is Off
Novelist Siddhartha Deb calls out the event and (especially) its sponsors: “One of India’s largest entertainment companies, Zee is best known for a news channel that serves as the media bludgeon of the Hindu right, its favorite term of abuse, usually flashing in extremely large font, being ‘Deshdrohi,’ or ‘Nation-hater.'”
UK Bank Backs Down On Closing Russia Today Network’s Accounts
Back in October, NatWest announced that it would no longer provide services to RT, the Russian-government-sponsored news channel. Russian officials promptly cried “Censorship!” and threatened to retaliate against the BBC’s operations in Russia. Now NatWest (which is owned largely by the British government) has announced a settlement.
India Spends Less Than 1% Of Its Annual Budget On Culture – And It Shows
“The effects of this relatively tiny allocation are clear: despite India’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, many of its national museums remain uninspiring, hardly drawing any visitors despite their incredibly affordable entry prices. And several heritage sites, including the iconic Taj Mahal, are in a bad state, suffering from the effects of poor maintenance and pollution. Some important monuments …, including prehistoric megaliths and temple ruins, have even gone missing.”
Pioneering Nigerian-British Novelist Buchi Emecheta Dead At 72
“[Her] 20 novels mined her experience as a black single mother in Britain to produce work that inspired a generation of black British writers.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.30.17
In Philadelphia: Revolutionary Art
In today’s New York Times, I wrote about the conservation and erection of George Washington’s surviving field headquarters tent – a fragile thing, as you may well imagine. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-01-30
The Composition Program of My Dreams
When I was an undergraduate student, I won a prize that got me a reading session with the school orchestra. I showed up for the session and discovered that one of the professors had decided … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-01-30
Snapshots from the Culture Crash: 1
Longtime music journalist Steve Mirkin has been, like a lot of us in the creative class, though a series ups and downs since the Internet remade journalism and the recession undercut the middle class. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-01-29
Chuck Stewart And Ed Berger, RIP
Two non-musicians prominent in the US jazz community have died in the past week. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-01-29
Monday Recommendation: A Film About Rhaasan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Case Of The Three Sided Dream (Arthaus Musik/Monoduo Films) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-01-30
Actor John Hurt Dead At 77
David Lynch, who directed him in The Elephant Man, called him “simply the greatest actor in the world.” He made a thriving, and unusual, career in theatre, film, and television playing characters from Quentin Crisp to Caligula to Raskolnikov to Winston Smith to (for Mel Brooks) Jesus.
New York’s Famous Half-Price Ticket Booth Finally Has An Indoor Location
Last summer, the Theatre Development Fund – hoping to add more New Yorkers to its largely tourist customer base – tried a pop-up of its TKTS booth at the location where Lincoln Center sells its own discounted day-of tickets. That arrangement has now been made permanent.