What the past three months of relative confinement—and the resulting shift from theatrical to online releases—have proved is that movie theatres, particularly the multiplexes, hardly matter now. The widespread shutdown has only exaggerated and accelerated a shift that was already occurring. – The New Yorker
Blog
Defund The Western Humanities Canon?
“I could not help but wonder about the institution of the Western canon. Were my colleagues and I right to think that the institution to which we had given much of our professional lives could be reformed? Was our particular culture as teachers of Western culture compromised to the core? If it was, must we then, well, defund the teaching of the canon?” – The American Scholar
The Metaphors We Use For Illness Shape Our Sense Of Self (And The World)
Part of what illness does is to unsettle both the sense of ourselves that emerges from our patterned and effortless doings, and our capacity to project this sense outwards, into the social world. In illness, the body as it is processed and experienced by others takes over and wholly penetrates the lived-in body, the body as it feels “from the inside.” – The Point
Paolo Giorgio Ferri, Hero In Fight Against Trade In Looted Antiquities, Dead At 72
“Colleagues say his legacy includes dismantling multinational looting and trafficking rings; recovering tens of thousands of Greco-Roman artifacts from secret storehouses; and compelling what is sometimes called ‘the great giveback,’ a period that began in 2006 and continues to this day, during which American museums have returned at least 120 ill-gotten antiquities valued at more than $1 billion to the Greek and Italian authorities.” – The New York Times
Changes Afoot: What’s Next For Me
In January I made the difficult decision to leave The New School when my current contract ends. My heart and mind have been calling me to other lands, to other ways of being and living in the world, and to center work that has been squeezed into the margins the past few years. – Diane Ragsdale
‘Dover Beach’ on video: When scope is achieved with many shades of gray
Whenever someone of visibility in the music industry proclaims that what the pandemic lock-down world needs now is this (whatever that is), the chances are good that it’s here already. – David Patrick Stearns
The Crisis Of Supporting The Arts
The current crisis is also a policy crisis. It illuminates the need to support artists more fulsomely and creatively throughout the various stages of their careers. Central to this is imagining ways to limit the precarity of the gig economy which, perhaps surprisingly, characterizes the careers of even the highest echelon of performers, classical or otherwise. – The Conversation
Co-Founder Of DC’s Signature Theatre Resigns After Sexual Assault Allegations
Eric Schaeffer, founding artistic director of the Tony-winning Signature Theatre, resigned late Tuesday after an actor made public his allegation that Schaeffer sexually assaulted him during a Washington awards show in May 2018. – Washington Post
When Hollywood Discovered Cyberspace (The Year Was 1995)
Johnny Mnemonic. The Net. Hackers. Strange Days. “It’s hard to know what’s most dated about these mid-’90s curios: the primitive-looking effects, the funky fashions or the clunky technology depicted on screen. But now, 25 years later, they’ve proved prescient in their concerns about surveillance, corporate power and the corruption of what seemed to be an excitingly democratic new age.” – CNET
The University Is Ripe For Unbundling
“What online services lack in quality, they make up for in convenience—and as they get more popular, they’re only going to get better, which in turn could unbundle the prevailing model of higher education.” – The Atlantic