One jazz venue: “Our club has £52 left in our business account for the future. … Without change I fear that the future of the arts in this country, especially for those less well off, will be in jeopardy.” – The Guardian (UK)
Blog
Doing Live Opera In Vienna During The Pandemic
To be in live opera right now, soprano Lisette Oropesa gets constant COVID nasal swabs, writes down everyone she’s spent more than 15 minutes with, and wears a mask in the building except when she’s on stage. “Now we are in close quarters, you just have to trust that you’re negative and everyone else around you is negative, and at the time it’s okay to touch and sing close to each other. But it’s still a tiny bit never-wracking.” – The Irish Times
Aching For The Return Of Live Theatre
Mary-Louise Parker isn’t unhappy about her Tony nomination. But it’s poking at some of the profession’s pandemic wounds. “I just want to see a ghost light. I want to hear someone call, ‘Places!’ I want to walk through the stage door. There’s just something about theater — even nights when I feel like I’ve only done a decent job, I feel like I’ve given something in a way I don’t on film or TV. It feels like I’ve exerted all my energy.” – The New York Times
Canadians Say Hollywood Needs To Catch Up In Depictions Of The Country’s History With Slavery
Movies and TV shows are, of course, great ways to get wide swaths of people interested in history. But “as popular culture tries more and more to address the international tragedy that is the slave trade, it is still far from accurately portraying that history onscreen — especially when it comes to Canada.” – CBC
Yes, The Hula Hooping Girl Is A Banksy
The artist admitted it on social media. In Nottingham, not everyone gets it … or cares. “Within hours the council had rushed to protect the piece by placing clear plastic sheeting over it. Vandals have spray-painted over the plastic two or three times already.” – The Guardian (UK)
Your Indie Bookstore Wants You To Revive It, Not Help Murder It, OK?
Before the pandemic, indie bookstores were reviving to the tune of hundreds more per year. Now they’re closing, about one per week, and as a certain online behemoth pushed a certain discount deal, locals are sharpening their stilettos – and asking for help. – The New York Times
How Henry Ford’s Production Model Shaped Our Politics
https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-politics/justin-h-vassallo-world-henry-ford-madeHenry Ford would likely find his relevance to the current crisis of globalization a testament to his “producerist” philosophy. But as historian Stefan J. Link writes in his new book, Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order, Ford’s peculiar ideals “projected a political (and moral) economy that hardly anticipated the American consumer modernity that emerged after 1945.” – Boston Review
Why Have Tony Nominations Now?
“In theater, timing is everything, and the timing of these nominations is just plain embarrassing.” – Los Angeles Times
How Much Does It Cost To Operate A Shut-Down Movie Theatre? About £20,000 A Month
Heating bills so the four-screen cinema does not get damp, water rates, insurance, monthly servicing projector costs, card reader machine contracts, IT costs and staff tax and national insurance have all contributed to the huge monthly outgoings. – BBC
Toronto Indie Movie Theatres Resort To Non-Profit Tactics To Stay Alive
From offering patrons the chance to have their names grace cinema walls for a price, to selling concession stand staples at the front door, the theatres say they’re doing what they can to stay afloat. – Toronto Star