As Wimbledon wraps up and a new McEnroe versus Borg movie is about to come out, let’s take stock. “Cinema loves boxing and baseball, and these sports, by and large, appear to love them back. Knockout punches and home-runs, after all, provide neat movie resolutions. But tennis, for better or worse, is a long-form narrative. It ebbs and flows; it doesn’t naturally convert to bite-sized screen drama.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Irina Ratushinskaya, Soviet Dissident Writer Who Inscribed Poetry On Soap With Burnt Matchsticks, Has Died At 63
Speaking of persistence: “Sentenced in 1983, on her 29th birthday, to the seven-year maximum term for ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,’ Ms. Ratushinskaya composed some 250 poems in prison, many drafted with burned matchsticks on bars of soap. She memorized them and smuggled them on cigarette paper through her husband to the West, where they were published, and where human rights groups indefatigably lobbied for her release.”
The Royal Shakespeare Company Is Launching Accessible ‘Chilled’ Performances
This is in addition to performances that reduce the sound volume and turn up the lights – so-called “relaxed” performances – and are aimed at slightly different audiences, for “people who feel more at ease knowing they are able to leave the auditorium at any time. These include people with dementia and people with babes in arms.”
The Newest Netflix Movie Causes Controversy About Skating Too Close To The Line On Eating Disorders
Both Marti Noxon and Lily Collins had experience with anorexia before making “To the Bone.” Does it go too far? “‘There’s a very, very, very fine line between giving information about eating disorders and disclosing too much and being triggering for individuals who are currently struggling,’ said Johanna Kandel, CEO of the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness.”
Alvin Ailey Gives Back In Paris
The City of Light is the first stop of a European tour. But “while the Alvin Ailey dancers perform nightly to urbane audiences at a concert hall on the western edge of Paris, another scene unfolds during the day across town at the Georges Bizet public conservatory.”
Creating A True Acoustical Surround Sound
One of the wildly cool tools available at Empac, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: “The wave system, a modular array of more than 500 speakers, uses acoustical trickery to reproduce organic sounds with unusually high fidelity. It can also “place” (and seem to move, quickly) those eerily lifelike tones at specific coordinates. Any but the most superficial kind of explanation of how this is possible tends to involve high math (like Bessel functions). But if you had to describe the effect, you might go for trippy and exciting.”
The Potential NPR Strike Has Been Averted As Union Reaches A Deal With Management
The US will still have radio news (and a zillion podcasts): “The union said that the deal provides for salary increases and ‘effectively repelled efforts to erode union protections and institute a two-tiered salary system.’ SAG-AFTRA represents about 430 writers, news producers and on-air journalists at NPR.”
The New York Times Explains Itself (To The Beyoncé Fans, Anyway)
Hmmmm. “Sometimes a story can sit completed for hours — or, like in this case, weeks — just waiting for that official word. It’s crucial for us to remember that when a story is published by The Times it becomes part of the historical record, so giving in to the knee-jerk impulse to go for the clicks or be part of the conversation is unwise.”
When Selfies Go Way Wrong, Like 200,000 Dollars Worth Of (Ruined) Art Wrong
Whoops. Very, very much whoops, at a gallery in Los Angeles.
Breaking The Network Emmy Drama Curse
Perhaps the power of prestige TV is waning, or else network TV is stepping up: For the first time since 2011, a broadcast show broke through the cable and streaming noise.