Liza Jessie Peterson, playwright and star of The Peculiar Patriot: “I came to Columbus Circle [in Manhattan] at midnight and found a whole fleet of buses. All these women, children and even some men were boarding these buses to go to the upstate correctional facilities. They would ride all night, go through a long, degrading security process, just to spend a few hours with their loved ones, before taking the bus home. As I talked to those women, I knew I was witnessing one of the great love stories of our time. A writer friend said, ‘You know, you have a profound story to tell, so tell it.”” – The Washington Post
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Recent Listening: Logan Strosahl, ‘Sure’
Logan Strosahl, Sure (Sunnyside)
Piping at the high end of the flute’s range, guttural near the tenor sax’s low end, sliding, slurring and sometimes punching notes on alto saxophone, Strosahl is intense and full of surprises with his trio. – Doug Ramsey
Why Are We So Fascinated By Ruins?
Like all architecture, abandoned and ruined spaces are animated by what people want from them. They can be massive economic boons or cynical attempts to cloak a neighborhood’s rapid socioeconomic transformation. They can also be powerful symbols and drivers of community engagement. – Fast Company
Hawai’i’s Last Monarch Was Also Its Most Important Composer
Queen Lili’uokalani steered her people through the difficult period of annexation and prevented a war — and she was also a highly trained musician who wrote some 200 songs (the most famous of them being “Aloha ‘Oe”) that became the foundation of modern Hawaiian music and a bulwark against the onslaught of mainland American culture. – Smithsonian Magazine
Bournemouth Symphony Started An Orchestra For Disabled People. A Year Later, Here’s What They’ve Learned
One of the aims of the ensemble is to show young disabled people that they can pursue a career in music. As percussion player Philip Howells said: “Don’t lost sight of who you want to be to begin with. When people say that you should be a butcher or a gymnast, just think to yourself ‘what do I want to be deep down?’, that’s my moral.” – ClassicFM
The Literary Agency That’s Made A Business Out Of Trump Administration Tell-All Memoirs
Ever since Keith Urbahn and Matt Latimer persuaded James Comey to write what became A Higher Loyalty, edited the manuscript, and worked a skillful media campaign around it, their agency, Javelin, “[has] become a popular destination for Trump administration officials, especially those contemplating an exit — ‘and they all are, by the way,’ Urbahn [said]. … Their central insight is that that hoary old fixture of Washington self-promotion, the tell-all, may be the ideal solution to the very new problem of post-Trump rehabilitation.” – The New York Times Magazine
Apple’s New News Product Could Further Worsen Journalism’s Ability To Make Money
Apple News+ threatens to open a massive hole in news site paywalls, allowing their best premium articles to escape. Publishers hope they’ll get exposure to new audiences. But any potential new or existing direct subscriber to a publisher will no longer be willing to pay a healthy monthly fee to occasionally access that top content while supporting the rest of the newsroom. – TechCrunch
‘Heathers’, The Movie That Upended The Teen-Comedy Genre
“It wasn’t exactly that Heathers contained no [John] Hughesian influence. The types and tropes were all there — mean girls, jocks, bullying, upper-middle-class ennui, idiotic or abusive parents, delusional teachers, a bad-boy crush — but … Heathers seemed influenced as much by Blue Velvet as by Sixteen Candles, and it paved the way for an era of darker, edgier, more experimental teen comedies.” – The New Yorker
Berlin’s Staatsoper Struggles With Its Barenboim Issue
A person who thinks of Daniel Barenboim solely as an artist might be tempted to explain or excuse his behavior: as a result of the “Latin-American blood in my body” (his, rather offensive, words) or a tortured genius’s quest for perfection. As a manager, however, he has a clear responsibility toward his employees, both musicians and administrators. A good leader honors boundaries and takes setbacks in stride. Barenboim appears to struggle with both. – Van
Maybe The Oddest Dance Competition Ever: 40+ Choreographers Tried To Read Agnes De Mille’s Mind
In 1963, de Mille sent a sealed envelope to her union, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, with a handwritten note saying not to open it because it had the “eminently stealable” idea and outline for a play, and, at the time, she couldn’t copyright it. SDC decided to celebrate its 60th anniversary by calling for submissions guessing what was in that envelope, and a panel chose five of the submitters to make short dances based on their guesses. – Dance Magazine