The embargo was instated by Pakistan’s Association of Film Exhibitors following last month’s flare-up of armed conflict in and around Kashmir. It may seem a patriotic gesture, but there’s a real question whether Pakistan’s roughly 120 remaining cinemas can survive without Indian films to show. – BBC
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Singing Nuns: In 17th-Century Italy, Convent Choirs Were Practically An Industry
“Music was really profitable for convents: it brought in money from the community, donating to hear mass on their behalf, while a great musical reputation brought in girls of higher status and wealth.” Cloistered life meant choirs sang together for many years, and while only aristocrats could hear the chapel choirs of royals and nobles, while anyone could listen to convent services — so the best nuns’ choirs became genuine tourist attractions. – Bachtrack
Shulman’s ‘Age of Disenchantments’ Has Arrived
Aaron Shulman’s collective biography of the Spanish Panero family, The Age of Disenchanments — just out from Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins — has a cast of dramatic characters that is nothing less than stunning. – Jan Herman
Recent Listening, In Brief
Daniel Szabo, Visionary (Fuzzy Music)
Szabo’s work reflects influences of jazz, classical and modern European music. But more striking is that the music has coherence and — for lack of a more exact term — a distinct personality. – Doug Ramsey
Why Are So Many Ancient Egyptian Statues Missing Only Their Noses?
It isn’t just the normal wear-and-tear of millennia; too many figures have their other features intact for that. In fact, it’s because of a particular set of Egyptian beliefs, and a particular type of iconoclasm that resulted. – Artsy
Louisville Ballet Did A Piece With A Same-Sex Relationship — And Got Even More And Nastier Mail Than They’d Expected
“We knew by promoting a love story between two men we would make some people uncomfortable,” said company officials of Human Abstract, “but we were not prepared for this grotesque display of hate.” (They say that positive response outweighed the negative.) One particularly vicious email got its author, a research cardiologist, fired from editorship of a science journal. – The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
A Dance Company For Black Women, Without Mirrors, Music, Or Body-Shaming
“Incorporating four components into their practice: dance, discussion, writing and American Sign Language, dance company BLAQ works to give black women a space where they can be free of the stereotypes and discrimination they experience in daily life and heal through the unfiltered expression of dance.” Reporter Becca Most visits the Minneapolis studio with BLAQ founder Deja Stowers. – AP (Minnesota Daily)
Why English Won’t Be Replaced As The World’s Lingua Franca Anytime Soon
The reason is inertia, basically: “[English] got there first, and there is no major expansion of globalization to shift the balance to another language. Today there are far more non-native English speakers than native speakers, and this means that English isn’t about the USA or the UK, but instead about its international use across cultures.” – Quartz (Quora)
Museum Staffers Ask, If You Can Spend Millions On Expansions, Why Are You Underpaying Us?
“The most noteworthy example may be the New Museum, which is in the midst of an $85m expansion. Despite the institution’s progressive founding values, its staff have never been unionised — until now.” But there are others: MoMA (Manhattan and PS1), Vancouver Art Gallery, SFMoMA, etc. Jillian Steinhauer surveys the current lay of the land. – The Art Newspaper
George Stade, Literary Scholar And Satirical Novelist, Dead At 85
“[He was] a Columbia University literary scholar who became an early champion of ‘popular’ fiction within the academy and worked as a critic, editor and novelist, most notably with the grisly satire Confessions of a Lady-Killer … But he was probably best known for helping to spearhead the study of popular fiction in the classroom, and for his frequent — and frequently acerbic — reviews and essays on contemporary literature.” – The Washington Post