The group is primarily concerned about the latest design’s 10% reduction in size and museum director Michael Govan’s plan to disburse objects from the permanent collection to future satellite exhibition spaces in South Los Angeles and elsewhere. – Los Angeles Times
Blog
Thinking About Music As Not Just The Notes But The Cultural History In The Performance
Jeremy Dutcher incorporates in his live and recorded music an unusual and affecting act of legacy, playing transcribed wax recordings from 1911 by an early anthropologist of a tribal elder singing and speaking, and following the melodies with his own heldentenor voice and mellifluous keyboard compositions. – San Francisco Classical Voice
This Museum Wants To Repatriate Its Benin Bronze. That’s More Complicated Than They’d Expected
A Q&A with two curators at the museum at the Rhode Island School of Design about the issues of provenance, law, and diplomacy around the future return of the museum’s 18th-century sculpture of the head of a traditional Edo king. – Hyperallergic
Amazon Responds To NYT Story That Says It’s Lax On Policing Fake Books
Amazon remains defiant that it is doing more than enough to combat the issue. In its blog post, the company claimed that in 2018 alone it “invested over $400 million in personnel and tools built on machine learning and data science to protect our customers from fraud and abuse in our stores.” – Publishers Weekly
Webster Vs. Worcester: America’s Dictionary Wars
As the desire for an authoritative dictionary of American English developed in the first half of the 19th century, there was a serious battle between the partisans of Noah Webster — who was passionate and devoted, yes, but whose definitions could be, well, idiosyncratic, and whose ideas about spelling reform were mocked — and the more scholarly Joseph Emerson Worcester. Who won? Not Webster, though it may look otherwise. – Aeon
When A Philosopher Is Forced Not To Think
Being a philosopher on brain rest is like being a point guard on hand rest. The major asset for your profession is suddenly not working reliably. – The New York Times
Breakdancing Is About To Become An Olympic Sport
“Breakdancing moved a step closer to the 2024 Olympics on Tuesday, and now organizers can look to book a street venue in Paris. Called breaking in Olympic circles, its medal debut was last October at the Buenos Aires Youth Summer Games. The street dance competitions will have 16 athletes in each of the men’s and women’s medal events in Paris.” – Yahoo! (AP)
When Norman Mailer Covered The Moon Landing (It Wasn’t Pretty)
“Mailer on the moonshot: loads of words, loads of money. A big deal for Life magazine. And for Mailer? Grim opportunism. Out of tune, bardically bereft, plucking (as it were) flaccid strands of sheep’s gut, he was ripe for anticlimax. But he needed the cash.” – The Atlantic
Beta Blockers (And How I Became Utterly Hooked On Them)
Shannon Paulus discovered them in college and found them a sort of miracle cure for pre-performance anxiety, just as so many performers have. Then she learned the hard way about the dangers of dependence on them. She recounts how she got herself hooked and unhooked — and looks into a company that’s making it way too easy to get a prescription for them online. – Slate
Marvel Comics Moves Into Theatre With Series Of Plays For High Schools
“As if dominating movie theaters weren’t enough, Marvel is about to move into high school theater as well. The publisher has announced a partnership with theatrical publisher Samuel French to offer three one-act plays featuring Marvel characters created specifically for the high school market under the umbrella banner Marvel Spotlight.” – The Hollywood Reporter