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The Artistic Legacy Of LA’s Chicano Moratorium Against The Vietnam War

Police tear-gassed the gathering before the march began, killing L.A. Times columnist and KMEX news director Ruben Salazar (two others also died during the tear-gassing and shooting). “The Moratorium shifted creative paths for those who were present and those who heard about it on the news or from friends. It fueled an urgency to make visible the Chicano experience, one that had largely been left out of the history books — an urgency that remains resonant.” – Los Angeles Times

Ai WeiWei Directed, From Europe, A Film About Wuhan’s Drastic Shutdown

His team sprang into action and got censor-free footage that seems impossible. “The hardest footage to shoot was inside the I.C.U., Ai said, but he could not divulge how it was filmed. He said much of it was done with hand-held video cameras about the size of a smartphone that are able to stabilize images. It helped, he said, that many people were wearing masks: That made them feel less nervous about getting in trouble for speaking on camera.” – The New York Times

Zoom Theatre After The Pandemic

Assuming that it ever ends – with a vaccine or some kind of terribly expensive, in human life terms, herd immunity – Covid-19 may leave a theatrical legacy that’s hard to shake, at least for a while. And there are some small advantages. “One benefit of staging productions on Zoom, Ridgely says, is the ability to reach a much larger audience than is generally possible with live theater.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

British Women Artists Are Still Massively Underrepresented On UK Radio

It’s bad from the singer side – 51 percent of the top 100 songs were by solo male acts, and only 19 percent were by solo female acts – but it’s shockingly horrible from behind the scenes, where 80 percent of the songwriters were male. One songwriter: “To see that women feature so low across the board in this industry is devastating and something I feel every day working in music.” – The Guardian (UK)

No One Is Listening To The Radio, But Everyone Is Listening To NPR

The drivetime listeners are gone, sending NPR’s radio ratings into the sub-sub-basement. Yet NPR is reaching 10 percent more people than at the same time last year. What gives? “Bringing a younger, more diverse audience into the NPR fold means reaching listeners on the platforms they’re already on — whether that’s putting podcasts on Spotify, music on YouTube, or newsy explainers on TikTok. … Executives are putting two and two together from the demographic reports and, bubbling up from the bottom, junior producers and interns want to produce content that their digital-native friends will actually see.” – Nieman Lab

The National Trust’s Popularization Plans Are Worrying Some In Britain

Turns out not everyone loves mansion tours, or even castle tours. “The trust’s visitor experience director proposes putting thousands of artworks and other items into storage in order to ‘flex our mansion offer to create more active, fun and useful experiences.’ Specialist exhibitions for ‘niche audiences’ should be scaled back, and ‘new sources of experience-based income’ developed.” The National Trust’s decline, one respondent said, started when its gift shops no longer sold ties. – The Observer (UK)