A volunteer usher: “We don’t realize the richness this music brings into our lives until we don’t have it. … Our souls were hungry.” – Chicago Tribune
Blog
Rachel Held Evans, An Evangelical Christian Writer Who Questioned Everything About Her Faith, Has Died At 37
In her writing on her site and in her massively popular books, Evans “confronted every controversial issue in American evangelical culture. She wrote about biblical literalism, racism, abortion, evolution, theology, marriage, patriarchy, women in leadership, and evangelical support for Donald Trump. She advocated for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church and analyzed her own complicity in racial bias after the police shooting of Michael Brown.” – Slate
Australia’s Big Portrait Prize Has A Few Issues
Or so says a reviewer of the entries: “Like most creaking institutions built upon the cursed ground of a prize named for a self-hating, racist xenophobe, it’s also haunted.” – The Guardian (UK)
If You Were In Kentucky But Skipped The Derby, Maybe You Were At This Family Bookstore?
Carmichael’s is the oldest independent bookstore in the city, and the founders just passed over the reins to their daughter and niece. How do you “modernize” a bookstore – or do you? – The New York Times
Perhaps The World’s Biggest Theatre Empire? Cruise Ships
Consider: Royal Caribbean International’s cruise line directs 134 shows in 50 theatres on 26 ships around the world, including seven Broadway-originating shows, eight aqua shows, 18 ice shows and dozens of original musicals. It’s an audience of 100,000… every night. – Toronto Star
YouTube Viewership Is Exploding. Now It’s Making More Of Its Content Free
“Creators are driving record audiences to YouTube,” YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl told the presentation audience gathered at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. “Two-hundred million people come to YouTube every single day just to watch gaming videos. That’s twice the audience of this year’s Super Bowl.” – Los Angeles Times
Growing Disparity: Mapping The “Brain Drain” Of US States
The end result is a lopsided “winner-take-all” pattern of regional haves and have-nots. Our politics become ever more divisive and polarized as the “big sort” grows ever bigger, eating away at the social fabric of our nation. – CityLab
Alex Ross: The Fascinating, Complicated, Difficult Legacy Of Furtwangler
“Could modern performers recapture Furtwängler’s elasticity of style? Most likely not. Scholars such as Robert Philip and Kenneth Hamilton have shownhow the advent of recording permanently changed the way music is played. Effects of rubato and portamento—bending the tempo, sliding from note to note—sounded messy when heard on disc, and they were already passing from fashion in the mid-twentieth century.” – The New Yorker
Tin Pan Alley Buildings Owner Doesn’t Want Landmark Status Because Of “Racist Songs”
The owner of five buildings on West 28th Street that comprise the core of the historic “Tin Pan Alley” is trying to block them from being landmarked by pointing to racist tunes emanating from the block a century ago. – New York Post
Canada’s Last Bricks And Mortar Classical Music Recordings Store Is Closing
“The store’s closing follows a similar move by Vancouver’s venerable Sikora’s, a dedicated classical music store in West Hastings that shuttered in February 28, 2019 after four decades in business. While Grigorian’s has not provided details behind the closure, it’s not hard to see the writing on the wall in this era of music streaming and a diminished profile for classical music on the culture scene.” – Ludwig Van Toronto