That initial rating means that Sunday’s show rose 14 percent from 2018, per the earliest-available numbers. This year’s Oscars ran 3 hours and 21 minutes. These metered market ratings cut off at 15-minute increments, meaning the 21.6 covers 8 p.m. ET to 11:15 p.m. ET. So they do not include the Best Picture presentation, in this case. – The Wrap
Blog
A Worrisome Disconnect Between The Arts And The Public
“If, as many people think, the type of culture you enjoy is one marker of class, then by definition the arts can never be ‘working class’ because class and culture define each other. By this argument, if the working or lower classes (cringeworthy terms) leave their cocoons and somehow emerge as middle-class butterflies because they listen to Radio 3, then they no longer count as working class precisely because they listen to Radio 3. We are still stuck in this catch-22.” – Arts Professional
Critic John Ruskin Was A Blazing Intellect Who Fell Out Of Favor. (But He Was Prescient About Today)
Ruskin was a man who believed in angels but championed the most radical British artist of his time. He was a social reformer and utopian who was at heart a conservative reactionary and a puritan. He was a brilliant artist who ought to have been a bishop. He hated trains but invented the blog. How can it be that a man so celebrated in his time is only fitfully remembered now, 200 years after his birth – and then mostly for a salacious story. – New Statesman
Sotheby’s Plans An Enormous Expansion
The expansion project—which will be done by New York-based architect Shohei Shigematsu, a partner in the Rem Koolhaas-founded firm OMA—will drastically grow the auction house’s gallery footprint. It will expand the gallery space to more than 90,000 square feet, from a current total of 67,000 square feet—a growth equivalent to more than half an acre. A total of 40 galleries of various sizes will span four transformed floors. – Artnet
After 40 Years, Seattle Weekly Is No More
“A series of ownership changes — including Village Voice Media and Voice Media Group — left Seattle Weekly on shaky financial footing by the time Sound Publishing acquired it in 2013.” – Crosscut
Propwatch: the feather boa in ‘Follies’
Solange LaFitte is mooching backstage at the dilapidated New York theatre. Everyone has arrived at the Weismann follies reunion party. And something sticks out of an old props basket – a shabby feather boa. Solange fishes it out, sizes it up. It’s grey – soft-toned down or just deeply-embedded grime? – David Jays
Dvorak, Harry Burleigh, and Cultural Appropriation — a “PostClassical” Podcast
Could Harry Burleigh — Antonin Dvorak’s African-American assistant — be considered an Uncle Tom? These days, the question comes up whenever Burleigh comes up: it’s a symptom of the times. And it is addressed head-on over the course of the most recent PostClassical Ensemble WWFM podcast. – Joe Horowitz
Weekend Extra: A Lester Young Story
Long ago, Billie Holiday dubbed Lester Young the President of The Tenor Saxophone. The title long since morphed into “Prez.” – Doug Ramsey
New York Review of Books Chooses New Top Co-Editors
Rea Hederman, the publisher of the intellectual journal, announced Monday that Emily Greenhouse, 32, and Gabriel Winslow-Yost, 33, have been named co-editors, and that Daniel Mendelsohn, a longtime contributor to the Review, will assume the newly created role of editor at large. – The New York Times
Mary Boone Galleries Will Close In April Before Boone Goes To Jail
The final exhibitions at the galleries—Julia Wachtel at her Chelsea location and Derrick Adams in her 5th Avenue Midtown space—will open in March and close 27 April as planned. Boone has been ordered to surrender herself to authorities by or before 15 May. – The Art Newspaper