Author: Matthew Westphal

UK’s Broadcasting Authority Gets Responsibility For Policing Web And Social Media

It will be the job of Ofcom to “ensur[e] that firms such as Twitter and Facebook comply with a new legal ‘duty of care’ requiring them to protect their users from illegal material. … Under the government’s original proposals, outlined in last year’s online harms white paper, a website that does not fulfil that duty of care would face a fine, its senior managers could be held criminally liable or the regulator could demand access to the site be blocked entirely.” – The Guardian

Coronavirus Is Devastating The Arts In China

“Movie releases have been canceled in China and symphony tours suspended because of quarantines and fears of contagion. A major art fair [and a performing arts festival] in Hong Kong [were] called off, and important spring art auctions half a world away in New York have been postponed because well-heeled Chinese buyers may find it difficult to travel to them.” – The New York Times

Scrotum-Nailing, Bank-Burning Artist Interferes With Paris Mayoral Campaign

Pyotr Pavlensky — who gained notoriety in Russia for sewing his lips shut in solidarity with Pussy Riot and nailing his scrotum to Red Square, and who, having received political asylum from the French government, proceeded to set fire to the Bank of France — obtained, posted online, and gave to the newspaper Libération sexting messages and images sent to a woman by President Macron’s former spokesman, who is — make that was — running for mayor of Paris. – Yahoo! (AP)

Wayne McGregor Is Choreographing A Margaret Atwood Ballet

In a joint project for the Royal Ballet of Great Britain and the National Ballet of Canada, McGregor will create MaddAddam, a three-act work based on Atwood’s trilogy Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam with a new score by Max Richter. The world premiere will be this coming November in Toronto, with London performances in 2022. – The Guardian

The Obama Portraits Have Become, In Essence, Pilgrimage Sites

“Stories of visitors praying or breaking down in tears before the portraits circulated on social media.” (Not unlike Jerusalem or Lourdes.) Says the director of the National Portrait Gallery in D.C., “It’s a form of what I call secular pilgrimage. Much like people go to Graceland or John Lennon’s grave — the response has that quality to it.” – Artnet

Denied Visas, Siberian State Symphony Cancels U.S. Tour

The 81-musician orchestra, based in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk (a few hundred miles northeast of where the borders of Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, and Russia meet), was to have made a two-week tour in February and March of regional cities in California, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services gave no reason for the denial of the visas. – Orange County Register (California)

38 Years After It Won A Pulitzer, Charles Fuller’s ‘A Soldier’s Play’ Makes It To Broadway

The script was first produced by the Negro Ensemble Company (Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, and David Alan Grier were in the cast) back in 1982, and Fuller never did anything like it again. Almost everything he wrote since was aimed at Black audiences, and, as he tells Salamishah Tillet, he’d never expected to be having a Broadway premiere at age 80. – The New York Times

Actor-Singer-Dancer Paula Kelly Dead At 77

“[She] began her career in the 1960s performing with the Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and Donald McKayle dance companies … [and] became a leading black performer on Broadway … and later turned to supporting roles on film and television, playing one of TV’s first black lesbian characters.” (And no less than Bob Fosse called her “the best dancer I’ve ever seen.”) – The Washington Post