CBS, of course, is the (former) network of Les Moonves and Charlie Rose. Perhaps not surprisingly, the network’s “Eliza Dushku swore, so she couldn’t have been harassed!” stunt backfired – but it backfired in spectacular fashion when the footage the network proposed as exculpatory showed the actual harassment. Five by five, CBS. (For more details, here’s a timeline of the network’s last 13 months with #MeToo.) – The New York Times
Blog
Ballet Is Taking Off In Saudi Arabia
And some of that is thanks to Angelina Ballerina, apparently – though more of it may be due to women knowing ballet can provide a space of physical practice and self-expression. – Arab News
Irwin Hollander, Who Revived Lithography As A Fine Art, Has Died At 90
Hollander was a commercial lithographer who was also “an artist and a master printer who persuaded Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and other Abstract Expressionist painters to try their hands at lithography in his East Village workshop.” – The New York Times
With Facebook Possibly On The Ropes, What Will Happen To Social Media Next Year?
Twenty-two predictions for 2019, including paid accounts at Facebook, a massive data breach at Instagram, and a tough year for Snap(Chat). – The Verge
The Power Couple At The Top Of British Indie Films
One Brit and one American reinvented the British indie, and have found massive cross-Atlantic success with everything from The Crying Game to Carol to Collette. And they don’t care for sequels. Elizabeth Karlsen: “Chasing the newest thing can actually be a producer’s downfall. And there is an economic imperative that can set in and make you try to turn movie-making into a science: something it constantly resists.” – The Observer (UK)
Why (And How) Do Our Brains Trick Us Into Massive Procrastination?
Most chores could be accomplished in minutes, but hordes of people wait days, weeks, even years. What the heck, brains? Is it “decision fatigue,” or is it “chronic procrastination,” or is it just that doing dishes is mind-numbingly boring? – The Atlantic
In The UK, Moviegoing Increased by A Large Percentage In 2018
Despite the lack of a “turbocharged” Christmas offering from the studios, it looks as though cinemas in the UK are about to reach numbers they haven’t seen for 47 years. (And Moviepass might have something to do with that.) – The Guardian (UK)
Who Gets To Claim Verdi?
What happened to Verdi? He used to be on Italian money (back when the lira existed), and now there’s a festival – but there’s also a huge argument between dozens of Verdi fans. Which political party and movement can claim the composer? – Los Angeles Review of Books
Barry Jenkins Says He Specifically Made ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ For A Black Audience
And what about white audiences? He isn’t worried about cultural tourism. “If the film was engineered expressly for white people to experience black pain, then I would feel a certain kind of way. … Being the creator of the piece, I know that’s not my intent. Having read the novel, I feel like that wasn’t Mr. Baldwin’s intent. I think because of that, I don’t feel any kind of way about the experience of a shared audience experiencing the work.” – HuffPost
Did Dvorak’s New World Symphony Waken Americans To American Music? Nope
Surprisingly, the premiere led to perplexed disappointment. Listeners agreed that the music was magnificent, but many did not hear anything “American” in it, after all. “Some of those who applauded most loudly,” wrote one Brooklyn critic, “thought the Indian and Negro themes would have been as effective if picked up in Siberia.” – The New York Times