The NYT‘s music reporters almost never get to be as unbuttoned and joyful as they are in this piece, wherein four of them went out into the city and paraded, participated, or otherwise enjoyed four of the many, many music-making opportunities on the Solstice.
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Newest Star Wars Movie Might Earn $1 Billion, But Even That Can’t Make Up For Hollywood’s Bad Year
Summer flops are to blame this year – think Alien: Covenant and King Arthur (or rather, don’t think about them; no one else did) – but that’s not the only problem. “The long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions on original video content.”
In Sitka, Alaska, ‘The Nutcracker’ Gets A Special Twist Or Two
If you’re going to do Nutcracker in Alaska, you better do it right: “Every few years, they set the plot against an Alaskan backdrop with characters the audience intimately recognizes. Instead of a Mouse King and his army of rodents, the Nutcracker goes to a battle with Mosquito Queen and her swarm. He’s assisted by housemaids with fly swatters.”
Will Memphis Become The Home Of A National Black Theatre Museum?
It’s just an idea right now … an idea with a building, and a lot of support, attached. “Four black theater organizations have pledged support, and have expressed interest in moving their institutions to the new Memphis museum. These include the Baltimore-based Black Theatre Commons, Washington, D.C.–based August Wilson Society, St. Paul, Minnesota–based Black Theatre Association, as well as the Lorton, Virginia–based Black Theatre Network.”
The Artist Who Discovered A Massive E. Coli Outbreak In Michigan Waters
Artist Bridget Quinn and a friend were getting ready to do some improvisational singing in abandoned tunnels when they noticed something seriously wrong. “The smell was really bad. And I’m familiar with non-point-source pollution, which is, like, oil coming off of the street after the rain, but this seemed like a constant flow.” Then a fire department tested the water …
The Philly Comic Book Store That Has A Lot More Than You Might Expect
The owner, who was just awarded a $50,000 Knight grant to expand the store: “I’m committed to helping comic book creators perfect their craft, partnering with artists, editors and writers in helping them figure out what can make their art stand out. Many of these creators haven’t had the same opportunities as other artists. There will be a new multipurpose room, which will serve as a space for a creator college. You have to be knowledgeable if you’re pitching comics to people.”
Does The New ‘Star Wars’ Film Save The Franchise From Itself?
It’s weird to say this about a Disney-owned film in a franchise that has arguably made war more popular and famous than any other film could, but The Last Jedi is different. It’s a film that “struggles to distance itself from the most toxic elements of Star Wars in order to chart a more progressive terrain.”
Charles Dickens Made Boatloads Of Money In The United States, But He Couldn’t Stand The Country’s Manners
Basically, fame did him in. “His love affair with an idealized America was short-lived and hard-felt. Apart from the country’s great writers, he found Americans malodorous, ill-mannered and invading his privacy.”
How Can Universities Convince Students That, In Reading Hard Texts, The Difficulty Is The Point?
Requiring attendance and the passage of an exam, for instance, can help. But still: “There is only one way to go on, as I tell students – and that is to go on. This is the first and greatest difficulty they face. There’s no reason for them to continue reading. There is so much else to read that is shorter, and not just aimed at them, but, in the case of their Facebook feed, tuned to their experience. Marketed to them. Why would they bother reading something that was neither for them nor about them?”
Genius Grantwinning Artist Gets To Wrap L.A. MOCA In A Block-Long Artwork
The artist is L.A.-based painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Crosby “is known for depicting intimate familial settings with layers of paint, photographs and found images — the latter of which are often drawn from news clippings and Nigerian lifestyle magazines. These she frequently bathes in tinted washes, giving the images a nostalgic feel.”