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Reddit’s ‘Am I The Asshole?’ Is Addictive. It May Also Be Making The World A Better Place.

“You start reading AITA posts before bed instead of doomscrolling the news because here, at least, it feels like your opinion matters. … It’s a place where accountability actually exists, even if only in the form of branding someone right or wrong in one absurd situation. It’s also a place for growth: Sometimes posters return to talk about how their lives changed — almost always for the better — because of the advice they got from thousands of anonymous strangers. … AITA might [now] be the largest public forum for conflict resolution on the planet. ” – The Ringer

As Movie Theatre Chains Struggle, Indie Screens Are Flourishing In The UK

“There’s no getting away from the fact that overall it’s a difficult time,” said Jason Wood, creative director for film and culture at HOME in Manchester. “We feel huge sympathy for people losing their jobs. But it’s an exciting time for independent cinema. It’s really important to recognise there is an industry beyond the mainstream blockbuster film culture.” – The Guardian

John Luther Adams On What Makes His Music Tick

“Musically, I came of age in a time when there was this ongoing war between smart music and pretty music. And one of the things that I discovered was that it’s a false dichotomy. … The construction of the music, the intellectual care, the mathematical rigor, the algorithmic detail — all that is essential, even if you don’t hear it or you choose not to listen to it. … Music can be intellectually airtight and still sock you in the belly or grab you by the ears or seduce you, ravish you.” – The Nation

Supreme Court Will Hear Case That Could Reshape The TV Industry

The case nominally focuses on the FCC’s attempt to lift a ban on any company owning both a newspaper and TV station in a single market, but it will impact broadcast regulation broadly. After all, the Supreme Court’s choice to take up the case comes as the FCC prepares to make its own decision on the worth of other rules that have lasted decades, including a prohibition on any merger between or among the Big Four broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. – The Hollywood Reporter

What’s The Right Classic Movie For The Fall Of 2020? ‘A Face In The Crowd’

Jake Tapper: “The 1957 film … tells the story of Larry ‘Lonesome’ Rhodes (Andy Griffith), a charismatic, populist entertainer with a dark side, who uses the new medium of television to rise to the pinnacle of American power. … As Trump’s first term comes to a close, A Face in the Crowd is worth revisiting — less for what it reveals about the president than for what it says about the rest of us.” – The Atlantic

Maynard Solomon, Founder Of Vanguard Records And ‘Psychobiographer’ Of Great Composers, Dead At 90

“A musicologist and record producer best known for influential, lucidly written biographies of Beethoven and Mozart as well as a hotly debated scholarly article on Schubert’s sexuality,” he was, as Donal Henahan once put it in a review, “one of the most persuasive voices on behalf of the perilous intellectual voyage known as psychobiography — or, less kindly, ‘psychobabblography’.” – The New York Times