The Las Vegas-based network made news in September when it announced “severe cash flow issues,” laid off its staff in Reno, and saw its CEO resign. Now the new interim chief says “We were very close to having to shut the doors” and that the board didn’t know there was financial trouble until August. Forensic accountants are investigating. – Current
Author: Matthew Westphal
YouTube’s Content Moderation System Is Wiping Out Evidence Of War Crimes In Syria, Say Advocates
Yes, it’s a tricky issue: the video platform, along with Facebook, is facing pressure from many sides to remove violent and extremist content; review and removal by humans is slow (and traumatizing for those doing the work), but algorithms are a blunt instrument. In a Video Op-Ed, Syrian activist and archivist Hadi Al Khatib argues that those algorithms are erasing documentation of violence that will be important to history and, potentially, to pursuing justice. – The New York Times
Saudi Arabia To Build Its First Museum Of Modern Art
Not to be left behind in such matters by Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Oman, the Kingdom announced that the Saudi Museum of Modern Art — to be “designed according to a modern creative concept influenced by the traditional local architectural style” — will be built near a historic site on the outskirts of Riyadh. No other details, such as an architect, the nature of the collection, or an opening date, were given. – Forbes
Lumberyard, The Contemporary Dance Development Hub, May Have To Cancel Its Signature Program
The organization — which used to be called the American Dance Institute until it moved from Rockville, MD into a huge former lumberyard in Catskill, NY — lets dance artists spend one or two weeks at its specialized facility holding advanced technical rehearsals before a new work’s premiere. Lumberyard director Adrienne Willis says that “there hasn’t been a single artist who didn’t say that if they didn’t have this time at Lumberyard, this piece wouldn’t have happened.” But she’s having a very hard time getting funders to agree. – Dance Magazine
Patti LuPone Will Have You Know She’s Been Bullied
From the kindergarten kid who threw a snowball with a rock in it at her, to her father (the school principal), to Hal Prince humiliating her in front of the entire company of Evita, to John Houseman, who “literally strangled me.” But, she says in a Q&A, “I’ve been made tough by this business in order to survive, in order to continue to perform, which is what I was born to do.” (Oh, and Andrew Lloyd Webber “is the definition of sad sack.”) – The New York Times Magazine
Where Am I? MoMA’s Impermanent Displays of Its Permanent Collection
Visitors’ general state of confusion is unlikely to be dispelled unless MoMA rethinks its new installation strategy, which may satisfy curators’ desire to shake up static displays, but will vex those visitors who would prefer a better balance between aimless wandering and purposeful navigation among familiar touchstones. – Lee Rosenbaum
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (8)
I started exploring the long-inaccessible contents of my father’s record cabinets when I was in junior high school. There I found $64,000 Jazz, a sampler released in 1955 as a promotional tie-in to the quiz show The $64,000 Question. – Terry Teachout
The Scholar Who’s Spent 20 Years Searching For Shakespeare’s Personal Library
Says Stuart Kells, “Shakespeare certainly did have books, and he certainly read them. Why, then, have we found none of his manuscripts, and why are there no books with an authentic Shakespeare signature, bookplate, book label or inscription? … But I have confirmed [his library’s] existence, clarified its scale and scope, and documented what happened to it.” – The Guardian
Is There Really Such A Thing As Video Game Addiction? Yes.
As of this year, the World Health Organization thinks so, and the American Psychiatric Association has included “internet gaming disorder” in the DSM. More than a few people are skeptical, including some researchers (one says “this whole thing is an epistemic dumpster fire”). “[Yet] a substantial body of evidence now demonstrates that although video-game addiction is by no means an epidemic, it is a real phenomenon afflicting a small percentage of gamers.” – The New York Times Magazine
How Disney Became A Live-Theater Powerhouse
It started with Beauty and the Beast on Broadway in 1994, followed up three years later by The Lion King. Yet Disney Theatrical Group didn’t become a corporate behemoth churning out pale copies of movie franchises. (Whatever you may think of The Lion King, you can’t call it pale.) Peter Marks talks with Disney Theatrical Group chief Thomas Schumacher about the secrets of that success. – The Washington Post