They weren’t going to include bars, airports, hotel lobbies, and other public places for a while – because, after all, what kinds of numbers are in those places now? Then the studio ad execs got involved. – Variety
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Excitement And Pain Of Reckoning With The Enslavers Of Bristol
The statue of Edward Colston loomed over the city at the beginning of June, and historians had given up hope to get even a plaque of context about the man. Now, “beaten-up, bloodied and graffitied, Colston’s statue is no longer just another piece of mediocre, late-Victorian public art. As is the case with the hundreds of segments of the Berlin Wall, which today stand in museums across the world, the graffiti Colston has acquired is as historically significant as the object on to which it was scrawled.” – The Guardian (UK)
What Barnes And Noble Did During Its Summer Non-Vacation
As so many of us have been doing, the store redecorated – or rather, some of the chain took what it calls first steps in redecorating. (Might it be useful to hire back some of those content experts who can hand-sell books when it’s safe to open back up, B&N? Oh, smaller front tables instead? OK.) – The New York Times
This Weekend, The Box Office Hit Is ‘The Empire Strikes Back’
The movie, which also topped the box office 40 years ago, is a big hit with the drive-in crowd. “Empire’s dominance follows Ghostbusters’s success over the July 4 weekend and Jurassic Park and Jaws’ victories the weekend before. Black Panther and Inside Out also made this weekend’s box-office list, with drive-ins being the main venue for moviegoers to enjoy anything on a big screen during the coronavirus pandemic as big theater chains like AMC wisely keep pushing back their reopenings.” – The AV Club
Gilbert And George Quit Royal Academy After Exhibition Snub
The artistic duo, who were admitted to the Royal Academy in 2017 as an entity with a single vote, believed they’d be getting a show at the RA soon. When that was denied, they resigned. “An anonymous academician said the situation was unfortunate, and Gilbert and George ‘should not have just assumed they would be given a show.’ But an admirer of their work, aware of the brewing dispute, felt blame lay with the RA, and the question of giving them a show had been badly mishandled.” – The Observer (UK)
The Hagia Sophia Is Now Formally Not A Museum, But A Mosque
Mere minutes after “a Turkish court announced that it had revoked Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum, which for the last 80 years had made it a monument of relative harmony and a symbol of the secularism that was part of the foundation of the modern Turkish state,” Turkey’s President Erdogan declared it a mosque again. – The New York Times
The National Book Award Ceremony Bows To The Virus
The 2020 version of the ceremony, scheduled for November 18, will now be online. The executive director: “As a country, and within the literary community, we have all experienced a shift in reality.” – Los Angeles Times
A Korean American Artist Is Physically Attacked In New York
Kate Bae was on her way to her temporary job at the Census Bureau, near Bryant Park in Manhattan, when a man walked up to her and punched her in the face. The artist says she’s almost used to harassment (though of course not physical attacks) at this point: “Bae, a Korean American, says that she has been routinely harassed in the streets of New York in the past few months.” – Hyperallergic
Phoebe Robinson’s Path From Podcaster To TV Show Host To Publishing Mogul
OK, “mogul” might be stretching it. But Robinson, author of You Can’t Touch my Hair and Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay, has a deal with Penguin Random House for her own imprint, Tiny Reparations Books. She says now is a good time. “I think the publishing industry is hearing — I think they are more receptive to the sort of critique that’s being presented to them, and they’re more willing to make those changes. … And I think it is up to people like me to make sure those changes keep happening.” – Los Angeles Times
When A Hindu God Shows Up In A K-Pop Video
It wasn’t a great look for the massively popular K-Pop band Blackpink, and their Hindu fans let them know immediately. They weren’t “cancelled” or anything like that, but they listened, or their management did. “The swift re-editing of the Blackpink video illustrated how K-pop fans, who are deeply invested in the mythmaking of their musical idols, use the internet to spread their messages, reach the artists (and their management) almost instantly and get quick results.” – The New York Times