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Ousted Director Of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum Cleared Of All Conflict-Of-Interest Charges

“In a surprise turn of events, a team of legal researchers has issued a 120-page report that could exonerate embattled former Stedelijk director Beatrix Ruf, who resigned from the museum amid allegations that her private art consultancy posed conflicts of interest with the museum. … Although the report says that Ruf should have been more transparent about the remuneration she was receiving from outside professional activities, this did not pose a conflict of interest to the publicly funded museum.”

Paris Wants UNESCO Cultural Heritage Status For Its Bistros

“Less formal than restaurants but with more full meals than a café, these bistros are indeed a classic component of the archetypal Parisian scene. … Now, bistro defenders say, this institution is under threat, pressed under the boot of high rents and changing social habits. It’s easy to understand the concern, but will acknowledging bistros’ special place in Parisian culture actually do much to save them when the culture itself is changing?” Feargus O’Sullivan explains the changes and how they’re affecting the bistros of Paris.

Canada’s Music Industry Wants $160 Million Worth Of Tariffs Charged On Every Smartphone In The Country

“One hundred and sixty million dollars over four years — it would be a shot in the arm for the Canadian music industry, to be sure. According to information obtained under the Access to Information Act, that’s what the industry is asking the federal government to pony up to compensate artists for what is known as private copying.”

At Video Game Conference, Real World Issues On Display

A smattering of the games at E3, whether intentional or not, increasingly reflect our often divisive, confusing and stressful political and social climate. Large publishers have long emphasized that their games were solely about play — not politics — and no doubt throughout the course of E3 many developers will shy away from questions about real-life concerns. But the answers are in the games themselves as the line between fact and pixel-based fiction is more blurred than ever.

Cultural Appropriation Is A Difficult Issue. Here’s Help

For many, no defense or condemnation of cultural appropriation is required, because such complaints are almost beyond the realm of comprehension in the first place. Without cultural appropriation we would not be able to eat Italian food, listen to reggae, or go to Yoga. Without cultural appropriation we would not be able to drink tea or use chopsticks or speak English or apply algebra, or listen to jazz, or write novels. Almost every cultural practice we engage in is the byproduct of centuries of cross-cultural pollination. The future of our civilization depends on it continuing. Yet the concept was not always so perplexing.

Netflix Strategy: Hire Everyone In Hollywood

Netflix now makes more television than any network in history. It plans to spend $8 billion on content this year.  TV has gone through major transformations in the past — cable and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox toppled the hegemony of the Big Three broadcast networks in the 1980s, for instance — but this leap dwarfs all others. Netflix doesn’t want to be a streaming, supersized clone of HBO or FX or NBC. It’s trying to change the way we watch television.

Netflix Is Flooding The Zone With Content. But Are Its Shows Getting Lost In The Crowd?

Even Hollywood agents whose clients desperately want to do deals with the streamer concede overload can be an issue. “The Achilles’ heel of Netflix is that a lot of the content feels very disposable,” one veteran talent rep tells me. “Creators and stars want to feel special, and they want to know the audience is responding to their work.” Netflix content, the agent argues, too often “doesn’t feel as special as it needs to feel.”

Philip Glass: Speed Of The Music Versus Size Of The Theatre

“The first thing the dance company does when we arrive is to measure the stage. They have to reset the dance to fit that stage. So you also have to reset the time of the music: In a larger theater, you must play slower. In a smaller theater, you have to play faster. The relation of time and space in music is dynamic. I have a range of speed in mind. If the players don’t pay attention to that, it will look really funny. You can see the stage fill up with dancers because they are playing at the wrong speed.”