“The final collection of early stories from the late Terry Pratchett, written while the Discworld creator was a young reporter, will be published in September. The tales in The Time-travelling Caveman, many of them never released in book form before, range from a steam-powered rocket’s flight to Mars to a Welsh shepherd’s discovery of the resting place of King Arthur.” – The Guardian
Blog
Time To Make The Theatre Reforms We’ve Needed For A Long Time
Anna Fleischle, an award-winning designer, has defined “a moment of reset in our industry.” Rachel O’Riordan, artistic director of the Lyric Hammersmith, says she is looking at the public square outside the theatre on King Street. West End producers know that the days of the premium ticket and rip-off booking charges are over. And one can only say to all three parties: what took you so long? – Prospect Magazine
Toronto Symphony Cancels 2020/21 Season
But the orchestra says it will look for ways to perform in smaller ensembles. TSO musicians will also continue to perform virtual concerts. Since the start of the pandemic, musicians and guest artists have appeared in more than 100 virtual concerts and events, which have been viewed more than two million times, according to the TSO statement. – CBC
Canada’s Cineplex Movie Theatre Chain Sues Over Aborted Takeover
On June 12, the U.K.-based cinema giant had called off its planned $2.1 billion takeover of Cineplex, which would have created one of the world’s largest cinema companies with more than 11,200 screens globally. Cineplex, as a once friendly takeover attempt has hit the rocks, claimed that Cineworld “breached its contractual obligations and its duty of good faith and honesty.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Extraordinary Times: A One-Time Wealth Tax Would Help Fix Things
Extraordinary times need astonishing remedies. In this very rich country, private wealth has soared to six times the value of annual GDP. So take a deep breath and jump in. A once-in-a-lifetime windfall tax of 10% on all wealth would yield £1 trillion – enough to pay for all the things we regard as essential for civilisation. – The Guardian
Why Humor Has Eluded Philosophers
Humour can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the purely scientific mind. – Aeon
Pompeo Says US Is Considering Ban On TikTok
TikTok — which is owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance — has been repeatedly criticized by US politicians who accused the short-form video app of being a threat to national security because of its ties to China. They allege that the company could be compelled to “support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.” – CNN
How Conductor Alan Pierson Brought ‘Ten Thousand Birds’ Indoors
Back in 2014, Alarm Will Sound — the contemporary music ensemble Person founded at Eastman and has been leading ever since — played the world premiere of John Luther Adams’s Ten Thousand Birds (which is basically a big catalogue of birdsong transcriptions in no prescribed order) as a sort of outdoor sound installation. This year, as the coronavirus confined Pierson and his colleagues in their homes, he got the idea to reconceive the piece as Ten Thousand Screens, an online video in which the musicians each played from their own homes. Author Garth Greenwell, a friend of Pierson’s going back to college days, talks with him about why and how he did it. – The Paris Review
Rooftop Rooms
Among the at-home dances I’ve seen recently, one strikes me as truly suitable to performers who have to be isolated: Anna Sokolow’s 1955 Rooms, recreated for the pandemic as Rooftop Rooms. – Deborah Jowitt
Quibi Was Going To Reinvent Video. But Is Anyone Watching?
Quibi, the brainchild of Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former Disney studio head and DreamWorks co-founder, had promised to reinvent television by streaming high-quality content in ten-minute-or-less chunks to “the TV in your pocket.” – New York Magazine