“I go to a lot of musicals. I listen to a fair amount of pop music. A lot of pop music that is successful is catchy. A lot of musicals that aren’t successful aren’t catchy. Brit composers seem addicted to wordy exposition that furthers the plot but leaves the brain the second the song has stopped. Even pop stars who should know better – *cough, cough Gary Barlow* – seem to think a musical is more about a thesaurus than a chorus.”
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Musical Theatre Is Flourishing Across Europe In A Way In Never Used To
Time was that big musical hits on Broadway or in London’s West End would get limited runs in the rest of Europe. No more. Audiences are flocking to the theatre.
Report: Depictions Of Smoking In US Movies Is Dramatically Up
“Depictions or suggestions of tobacco use in top-grossing movies rose 72 percent from 2010 to 2016, according to the report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase was especially large among top-grossing movies with R ratings, which saw a 90 percent rise in tobacco-use imagery, though researchers noted with special concern that movies rated PG-13 also saw a sizable increase: 43 percent.”
Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo Dies At 61 In Captivity
He was the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in state custody since Carl von Ossietzky, the German pacifist and foe of Nazism who won the prize in 1935 and died under guard in 1938 after years of maltreatment.
Diversity In Casting? Today’s New Rules Are Confusing And Contradictory (And Very Interesting)
“The increasingly fraught and emotional dialogue pits the progressive ideals of inclusion not just against historical business practices but also the definition of acting itself. If a role is written for a particular ethnicity, sexual identity, gender or disability, how far should the creative community go to find an actor who checks that particular box? And should the fact that many traditionally marginalized groups are fighting for better representation be taken into consideration? Who has the right to tell what stories? And who gets to make that decision?”
How Bluegrass Got From The Hollers To College Campuses And Music Schools
More and more, from Ted Lehmann’s experience, roots musicians are coming to the scene with more classical training. It would be common, 25 years ago, for roots musicians to be unable to read music, Lehmann said. When he got his start blogging about and photographing musicians in 2003 — Lehmann considers himself a “newbie” — things were changing, but slowly. “You’d ask them that question [about being able to read music] and they’d say, ‘Well, a little bit, but not enough to hurt me,’” he said. “In other words, ‘I’m not going to lose my improvisational awareness.’”
The Text On Historical Markers Has Become Another Front In The Culture Wars
“Stories of Pilgrims and Puritans, Founding Fathers, westward-bound settlers, and brave American soldiers dominated this consensus-driven picture of the nation’s past. The vast majority of historical markers reinforced these themes on a local level, pointing out important events or notable residents – most of them white and male – as travelers wound their way to their final destinations. … This [particular] consensus view of American history has not held up.” New historical markers – for example, one commemorating the KKK Greensboro Massacre of 1979 – now get fought over long and hard. (In that case, even the word “massacre” was contentious.) “Not surprisingly, no event has proved to be more controversial to recognize through historical markers than the American Civil War.”
Spotify Just Hired An Artificial Intelligence Expert. What’s The Plan?
The company’s blog post refers to Pachet’s previous work “assisting artists in music composition” and strongly suggests a foray into new territory for Spotify’s growing creator services department: the development of creative tools for songwriters and artists. Until now, that team has focused on things like arming artists with listener analytics data, helping musicians target fans with concert tickets, and simply teaching artists and managers how to make the most of Spotify as a platform for connecting with fans. The idea of Spotify developing its own semi-robotic GarageBand software is a fairly radical—and to some, perhaps terrifying—departure from what it’s been working on thus far.
Chicago’s Field Museum Brews Up Ancient Chinese Beer
“Researchers examined the inner walls of ceramic jars they thought were associated with alcohol serving and production in two [ancient] tombs … They derived evidence of mold-based saccharification, a Chinese-bred brewing technique that converts starch in rice to sugar. They also found indications of ingredients including hemp seeds.”
Mid-Level And Small Galleries Are Dying Off. But Some Are Trying To Adapt Creatively In A Challenging Environment
Converting living rooms and bedrooms into temporary galleries is just one way that dealers are coming up with ways to adapt and survive. Car parks, hair salons, arcade bars and the backs of vans have also doubled as ingenious, if cramped, exhibition venues.