Author: Matthew Westphal

‘The Game’: The Game — In Which The Dangers You Dodge Are Pick-Up Artists

Artist Angela Washko spent four years studying Neil Strauss’s notorious womanizing instruction manual The Game, along with other materials of its kind, to develop The Game: The Game, a video pastime in which the player is a young woman in a dive bar being hit on by a series of men on the hunt. Each line of dialogue and “seduction technique” is taken directly from PUA (pick-up artist) books and how-to videos. – The Nation

This 19th-Century French Poet Was The Ancestor Of Today’s Goth Kids

Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) wore black, dyed his hair green, broke with his family, refused to get a regular job, did absinthe and opium, had too much illicit sex, and, of course, died young. Better, “his first collections of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857), was prosecuted for offending public morals, challenging its audiences with its startling treatments of sex, Satanism, vampirism and decay. No wonder his words would one day be set to music by The Cure.” – The Conversation

How King Tut Exhibitions Grew To Become A Multimillion-Dollar International Industry

“The first major touring exhibition of artifacts from King Tut’s tomb was a product of financial necessity. In 1961, archaeological sites in Egypt were in danger of flooding and the country needed funds to protect them. Over the next 5 years, more than 30 objects from Tut’s tomb toured 18 cities across the United States and Canada. A slightly enlarged show opened in Japan in 1965. Through 1981, Tut artifacts were nearly always on the road, touring from Moscow to London, from Paris to Berlin.” – Artsy

As Netflix Expands Into More Countries, It Has To Deal With Those Countries’ Mores — And Censors

“[The company’s] 2018 annual report lists both ‘censorship’ and ‘the need to adapt our content and users interfaces for specific cultural and language differences’ as business risks. But as its subscriber growth in the United States stalls, the firm needs to keep growing significantly overseas in order to keep investors happy and stave off the competition from services like Apple TV Plus and HBO Max.” Reporter Alex Marshall looks at how these issues are playing out so far in India and Turkey. – The New York Times

The Renovation Of Belgium’s Africa Museum Was Supposed To Address The Country’s Ugly Colonial History. It Hasn’t Made Much Of A Start.

“When the museum reopened last year, Aline Nyirahumure, who is from Rwanda and runs the African cultural center Kuumba in Brussels, was not impressed. Much of the money went into a new building that includes auditoriums for educational events as well as a gift shop and restaurant.
Much else has barely changed.” – Los Angeles Times

Extinction Rebellion’s Street Theatre, And How Climate Change Is Treated In An Actual Theatre

Before it lost public sympathy with a badly misjudged action on the London Underground, the British activist group’s agitprop had had a good deal of success, thanks to its “instinctive understanding of public theatre.” Critic Kate Maltby looks at Extinction Rebellion’s successes and missteps alongside the current Old Vic production of Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs, starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith as a couple of climate-anxious white millennials. – The New York Review of Books

New York City’s Beloved Cultural Commissioner, Tom Finkelpearl, Is Out Of His Job

In news received with consternation by many city arts organizations, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that Finkelpearl would be stepping down by what the ex-commissioner called “mutual agreement.” Finkelpearl is credited with the new plan to tie funding from the city to institutions’ diversity efforts and with the scheme that has given free access to cultural institutions to holders of IDNYC cards. – The New York Times

Leading London Arts Center Turns Down A Million Pounds From The Sacklers

In September, the trustees of The Roundhouse declined to accept a £1 million grant from the Sackler Trust, controlled by the family which owns the company that makes OxyContin. Said a Roundhouse spokesperson, “We are enormously grateful for the trust’s support over the years, but … to [accept the gift] risks distracting from our work with young people, and that’s our priority.” – The Art Newspaper

Overworked, Underpaid Young Architects In UK Start Drive To Unionise

“Unpaid overtime, precarious contracts, working hours so antisocial your only friends are people who do the same job … after a minimum of seven years’ education and professional training, the reality of working as an architect can be a bleak prospect. It’s not hard to see why so many of them wear black, as if in permanent mourning for the lives they once had.” – The Guardian