“A key challenge for selling stereo was consumers’ satisfaction with the mono music systems they already owned. … Something was needed to show people that this new technology was worth the investment. The ‘stereo demonstration’ was born — a mix of videos, print ads and records designed to showcase the new technology and its vibrant sound.” — The Conversation
Author: Matthew Westphal
Too Big, Too Well-Funded And Too Scared: A BBC World Service Veteran On Why The Network Is Becoming Sclerotic
Owen Bennett-Jones writes that the network is now so top-heavy with senior managers who are terrified of negative public attention that it takes months to get a project approved — and that reporters who have serious stories to break are sometimes reduced to leaking them to The Guardian or The Times because their managers will only feel comfortable broadcasting those stories if they’ve seen them in print. — London Review of Books
Nonprofit Journalism And Its Funders Have A ‘Random Acts Of Innovation’ Problem
A new report from Oxford’s Journalism Innovation Project refers to it as ‘bright, shiny things’ syndrome: a tendency to focus on, and fund, new and perhaps untested ideas such as algorithm-tweaking, new media, and even artificial intelligence — often while losing sight of the production of quality journalism that this innovation is supposed to be supporting. — Nonprofit Quarterly
Wendy Whelan Laments That Today’s Young Students Know Too Little About American Ballet’s History
“Today, as I travel around the country giving master classes, … I can’t help but notice my students’ eyes widening as they look to each other wondering who exactly [one or another once-famous American ballerina] is. … As we navigate ourselves forward, it might be good to glance back more often, to see how and why those before us did what they did.” — Dance Magazine
Steven Spielberg Is Expanding His Shoah Foundation To Cover Genocides Beyond The Holocaust
“The Holocaust cannot stand alone. We decided to send our videographers into Rwanda to get testimony. From there we went to Cambodia, Armenia — we’re doing a critical study in the Central African Republic, Guatemala, the Nanjing massacre. Most recently, we’re doing testimony on the anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar and the current anti-Semitic violence in Europe. We’re expanding our scope to counter many forms of hate.” — The New York Times
L.A. Backs Off Plan To Paint Over Mural
The mural of Ava Gardner on the wall of a public school campus in Koreatown recently drew objections from a Korean group that argued the sunburst in the background looks too much like the World War II-era Japanese imperial flag. After the LA Unified School District agreed to paint over the mural, Shepard Fairey warned that he’d cover his own mural on the same campus if the district went through with its plan. — Los Angeles Times
Director Quits Broadway ‘All My Sons’ Because He Wasn’t Allowed To Cast Two Black Actors
“Director Gregory Mosher said in an interview that his association with the Roundabout Theatre Company revival — which will star Annette Bening and Tracy Letts and begin performances at the American Airlines Theatre on April 4 — ended after the Arthur Miller estate, overseen by his daughter, filmmaker Rebecca Miller, objected to the casting” of black actors as brother and sister Ann and George Deever. — The Washington Post
Penny Marshall, Star Of ‘Laverne And Shirley’ And Director Of ‘Big’ And ‘A League Of Their Own’, Dead At 75
Her sitcom, a spinoff from Happy Days, was one of the two or three most popular series on American television in the late 1970s; with Big and A League of Their Own, she became the first woman to direct one, and then two, films that grossed more than $100 million. — Variety
Brazil’s National Museum Ends Its Worst Year Ever With Some Good News, Thanks To Google And The Smithsonian
Google Arts & Culture has just opened a virtual recreation of the pre-fire museum, which was completely destroyed in a fire in September. In addition, the Smithsonian has launched a program that will let 14 displaced researchers continue their work with residencies at the National Museum of Natural History and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. — The Art Newspaper
Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery Has New App To Bring Its Collection To The World (And Ask For Money)
“[The Russian state museum] is harnessing blockchain technology to power a new app that digitises its entire collection of more than 190,000 objects … In what is being described as a ‘new form of public involvement in art’, the My Tretyakov app invites each user to … either sponsor a work personally or give digital patronage to someone as a gift.” — The Art Newspaper