Despite the fact that American pop culture and the ability to speak English are considered very cool in Japan, multinational companies want their employees to know the language, and the Japanese government stresses the importance of learning English and constantly rejiggers the curriculum in the subject (which is required), well under a third of the population there speaks any English at all, with the percentage of people who are fluent in the single digits. An American journalist and translator in Nagoya looks at the structural and cultural reasons for this conundrum. – Foreign Policy
Author: Matthew Westphal
Sculptor Peter Alexander Dead At 81
“[He] is most commonly associated with the Light and Space movement, which was pioneered by a group of artists working in California during the 1960s. … Alexander wound up producing understated, sleek objects that seemed at times to reinterpret Minimalism with a less chilly aesthetic. Often, the resin works take on semi-translucent cuboidal shapes, with colors that appear to fade depending on where the viewer stands with respect to the object.” – ARTnews
Philadelphia Orchestra Creates Special In-House Music Channel For UPenn Hospitals
“Patients and health-care workers at Penn Medicine’s six sites can now access a service that brings them archived performance videos of the Philadelphia Orchestra. … New performances will be added each week, and orchestra leaders hope to expand the pilot program to other health systems.” Says one hospital’s CEO, “Patients have given us feedback that they are utilizing it, that they find it helpful, and that they find it comforting.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Michael Kaiser Has Become Therapist/Life Coach For Pandemic-Panicked Arts Orgs
The former CEO of the Kennedy Center and his colleagues at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management are giving pro bono consultations to more than 400 organizations. “In phone calls with groups as varied as Mosaic Theater Company in [D.C.] and the Women’s Museum of California in San Diego, Kaiser tosses out suggestions as each outlet lays out its predicament.” – The Washington Post
Walt Disney World In Orlando Sets July Reopening Dates
“[The] Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom plan to open again on July 11, while Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will resume business on July 15. SeaWorld, meanwhile, will reopen to the public on June 11. … New requirements include temperature checks upon arrival, physical distancing, enhanced cleaning, hand-washing and sanitizing stations and ‘limited-contact enhancements,’ such as contactless payments and mobile orders at restaurants.” – Variety
Movie Theaters May Be Reopening In Some States, But Audiences Aren’t Flocking Back
In places such as Georgia (the first state to reopen), Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah, independent cinemas are operating again. (The chains are staying closed for now.) Yet attendance is generally around a quarter of what it would be this time of a normal year. Even so, say owners, it’s important to get used to running with new safety procedures in place before customers start arriving in larger numbers. – Variety
‘Perfectly Preserved’ Roman Mosaic Floor Uncovered Near Verona
“Archaeologists were astonished by the find as it came almost a century after the remains of a villa, believed to date to the 3rd century AD, were unearthed in a hilly area above the town of Negrar di Valpolicella.” – The Guardian
BBC Proms Plans For This Summer Finally Settled
Well, mostly settled. “A virtual first night in July will see more than 350 musicians play together in a Beethoven ‘mash-up’ [of the nine symphonies] having each recorded their part from home. … The Royal Albert Hall will be home to live performances in the final fortnight of the season, starting from August 28,” with audience numbers to be determined by the social-distancing guidelines in place at the time. Meanwhile, the BBC will air specially selected archive recordings of previous Proms each night for the first six weeks of the festival. – London Evening Standard
The Pandemic Has Shown Us The True Realist Among Playwrights: Samuel Beckett
Charles McNulty: “Stuck indoors with little to distract us from the bewilderment of our metaphysical predicament, we are like one of his immobilized characters, not scrunched into trash cans like Hamm’s elderly parents in Endgame but confined all the same to a narrow loop of existence.” – Los Angeles Times
Philip Larkin’s Love(r’s) Letters
“A cache of 2,400 letters between the poet and his long-time lover and muse, Monica Jones, … reveal[s] the full extent of her fury, fears and frustrations over a painful four-decade-long partnership with the man who wrote some of the most cherished verse in the English language.” – The Observer (UK)