The American Library Association’s annual list is out, and as usual, there are some head-scratchers. Harry Potter? To Kill a Mockingbird? The media darling of the list is John Oliver’s parody of the Pence family’s leporine romp A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. – Melville House
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Philadelphia’s Historical Society Of Pennsylvania Lays Off 30% Of Staff
Philadelphia’s Historical Society Of Pennsylvania Lays Off 30% Of Staff
“Citing operating deficits and a lack of financial stability, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania announced Monday that it would lay off 10 staff members, about 30 percent of the total, trim programming and services, and focus on its role as a library and archive.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Zadie Smith On What It’s Like To Experience Alvin Ailey
“Off we went — and it was a ravishment. Nothing prepares you for the totality of Alvin Ailey: the aural, visual, physical, spiritual beauty. Up to that point, most high-culture excursions (usually school trips) had felt like sly training for a lifetime of partly satisfying adult aesthetic experiences: nice singing but absurd story, or good acting but incomprehensible 400-year-old text, and so on. To be permitted to hear the thickly stacked, honeyed gospel of “Wade in the Water,” while simultaneously watching those idealized, muscular arms — in every shade of brown — slowly rise and assume the shape of so many ancient amphoras! Heaven.” The New York Times
Seymour Cassel, Longtime Film And TV Character Actor, Dead At 84
For more than 200 appearances over five decades, “[he] played raconteurs, street toughs and cha-cha-dancing hoodlums, frequently collaborating with independent filmmakers John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson.” – The Washington Post
Chicago Symphony Strike: In For The Long Haul?
Despite some movement on dollar amounts and percentages, the two parties appear to remain essentially where they were four weeks ago on the basics. – Chicago Tribune
Why We Hate Slow Things?
“Slow things drive us crazy because the fast pace of society has warped our sense of timing. Things that our great-great-grandparents would have found miraculously efficient now drive us around the bend. Patience is a virtue that’s been vanquished in the Twitter age.” – Nautilus
Has Social Media Killed Satire?
“Today, with the pollution that new technologies have brought to our information ecosystem, this distinction is no longer so easy to make. And this is the real problem, and danger, of satire: not that it mocks and belittles respect-worthy pieties, not that it “punches down,” but that it has become impossible to separate it cleanly from the toxic disinformation that defines our era.” – The New York Times
What Becomes A Literary Festival These Days? Reinvention
Martin Colthorpe, director of ILFDublin : “The pressure for festivals to evolve beyond the readings-and-discussion format is a hot topic right now, with the sheer portability of words allowing for a wide interpretation of what counts as a literary event.” – Irish Times
The Humanities Are Disappearing From Our Universities. Here’s Why We Should Care
There is, of course, the economic argument. Overall, arts and culture contribute more than $760 billion a year to the US economy—4.2 percent of GDP. But there’s an awful lot of “soft” power too. “They incubate ideas, provide ethical standards, and raise questions about the status quo—functions that are becoming ever more important as the tech world, ridden by scandal and crisis, faces a moment of reckoning.” – New York Review of Books
Canadian Indigenous Music Awards Show Disrupted Over Charges Of Cultural Appropriation
Several Inuit singers quit the awards, accusing a Cree singer of appropriating Inuit culture. “Respect for different traditions shouldn’t be impediment to cultural exchanges. That’s how cultures stay vibrant. But there’s a huge difference between sharing and stealing.” – The Guardian