Marisa Meltzer: “Choreography, as something that isn’t normally part of my life, is incredibly hard to remember and appears to use a part of my brain that has gone dormant. It took so much concentration that I couldn’t think of anything else, which was liberating.” – The New York Times
Blog
The SWAT Team That Hunts Out Fakes At Europe’s Elite Old Masters Art Fair
Vetting, as the process is known, is expensive, invisible, and has recently undergone some major changes at TEFAF. But it remains key to ensuring that collectors can trust in the fair’s offerings and know that they are getting exactly what they are paying for. – Artnet
Growing Complaints: Too Many Streaming Services To Choose From
For the first time in many years, there’s growth in online piracy of film and TV. Some experts say it may be because fans are getting sick of paying for yet another streaming service. – NPR
Categorization: Do We Really Need “Ultra” Contemporary??
On the other hand: What important trends are we obscuring if we lump the likes of Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, and Avery Singer, who was born in 1987, into the same category? – Artnet
Where Classical Music Has Become An Obsession
Inna Faliks: “Seventy-five percent of my students at UCLA are Chinese or Chinese American. Pianists from China, after graduating from the best music schools in Europe and the United States, return home to pass on classical music traditions in their own distinct ways. This musical exchange is exponentially growing. Concert halls may remain empty in our nation’s cities, especially when traditional classical recitals are offered by a non-household name, but in China, playing a Beethoven or Chopin program is not boring or unhip. Chinese audiences are hungry for more.” – Washington Post
Famous Actresses Lobby For Food Service Workers. Workers Say Leave Us Alone
For more than a year, a group of Hollywood actresses waving the banner of the Time’s Up movement have been pressing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to apply New York’s minimum wage to workers who earn tips, arguing that it would make waitresses less vulnerable to sexual harassment. But it has also created an unexpected divide: Waitresses and other servers are resisting the proposal, saying they can make more money from tips and do not need celebrities to help protect them from harassment. – The New York Times
What Happens To Sets From Movies? One Non-Profit Figured Out How To Get It To People Who Need It
Movie productions require lots of household items to fill their sets. But then the movie is over and where does all that stuff go? It’s a headache for the production team to get rid of it. A Massachusetts organization offers a service to quickly break down the sets and make them available to families in need, working with 400+ social workers. – WGBH
Quality Versus Quantity: Has “Engagement” Become A Meaningless Measure?
The quantity-vs.-quality debate is now meaningless. Quality is in the eyes of the beholder. We may yearn for a narrative to explain how and why, but that’s not how the digital world works. The algorithmic curation that controls what you do or do not see on every social media company’s newsfeed isn’t programmed to provide you with an emotionally satisfying narrative; it is continuously tuned to keep you engaged and clicking or tapping. So if your key metric is engagement or completed views, “5 Ways to Bounce a Quarter Off of Kim Kardashian’s Butt” or a video of a horrible disaster will always outperform less clickbaity titles or subjects. – Shelly Palmer
The Disney/Fox Merger Has Forever Changed Hollywood
Disney and Netflix offer the two clearest visions of Hollywood’s future. The former is a media company that’s as old-fashioned as they come, trying to make movies that will pull audiences en masse to the theater. The latter is a tech company that’s largely uninterested in the theater business but has won subscriber loyalty by offering a wealth of viewing options. As the cinema business continues to evolve, perhaps only the biggest films will survive as in-theater experiences, with streaming becoming an equally profitable venue. – The Atlantic
UK’s Sackler Trust Suspends Further Giving
The growing unease amongst British museums to accept money from Sackler family members implicated in the sale of the opioid painkiller OxyContin comes in the wake of several US lawsuits filed in recent months against Purdue Pharma, the family’s US drugs company. – The Art Newspaper