After work on the Golden Gate Bridge’s sidewalks to bolster their wind resistance, nearby residents of San Francisco are complaining that the 1.7 mile-long structure makes a creepy droning noise when it’s windy. – BoingBoing
Blog
An Argument To Ease 2 Metre Social Distancing For Musicians
It’s difficult to see a way of easing social distancing for audiences to make theatres and venues viable during the pandemic, but this was not the case for performers. “There’s no finesse about the 2m rule at the moment. If you’re in a line rather than looking at each other, then it seems to be overkill.” – BBC
Serious Questions For Arts Organizations Entering The Political Arena
Here’s the issue with the issues, at least around race: “Such efforts to meaningfully contribute to the conversation are especially sensitive because many of the institutions are led by white executives who answer to boards largely made up of wealthy white trustees. That composition has long fueled suspicion that arts organizations are inherently resistant to — or incapable of — real change.” – The New York Times
The Sistine Chapel Reopens, To Much Smaller Crowds
If you’re not worried about Covid-19, now may be the time to visit Rome and the Vatican, where the museums have a limited number of people allowed per hour and many other coronavirus precautions. One Italian reporter in the Vatican Museums: “I decided to come because there are no Americans or other tourists. I hope the pandemic never happens again, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” – NPR
Shut Down Thanks To The Virus, A History-Changing Exhibition Reopens In Spain
Who are the great writers of Spain’s Golden Age? Well, they’re men, of course … or, wait a second, we’ve been missing a whole bunch of information. “Recognition of these women and the ‘almost subversive’ fact of their writing is long overdue. Without them … we have an incomplete canon that tells only half the story of Spain’s Golden Age.” – The Observer (UK)
Public Murals Across The United States Memorialize Those Killed By The Police
But many murals – like one to Eric Garner, who gasped out, “I can’t breathe” before he suffocated as an NYPD officer held him in a chokehold in 2014 – get painted over or destroyed. “When they are first painted, murals can act as ad hoc altars for public mourning. But their existence is often fleeting.” – The New York Times
Why Digression Is Good, In Eating And In Writing
How should food writing work? “On the one hand, it should communicate the demands of craft, expressing the physical skill of cookery with words on a page; on the other, food writing should convey emotional content, the ability of food to carry inside it memories personal and historical. It was crucial for me that neither of these strands should dominate above the other.” – LitHub
The Disturbing Stats About Policing On TV
Why do people tend to think crime has increased or stayed at a high level? Well, perhaps it’s the many cop shows on TV. And those series have some issues. “Of the 26 series from the 2017-18 season examined in the study, 21 had showrunners who were white men. At least 81% of these shows’ writers were white, compared to the 9% who were black. A whopping 20 of 26 series had either no black writers or just one black writer.” – Los Angeles Times
Lockdown Doesn’t Work For Every Writer, But Boy, Did It Ever Work For Pushkin
Quarantined during a cholera epidemic 190 years ago, the poet excelled. “Pushkin, who would never be allowed to travel outside Russia and was now stranded in the countryside amid ‘rain, snow and mud up to your knees,’ leapt across historical epochs, countries and genres—from the medieval French tower in ‘The Miserly Knight’ to Vienna in ‘Mozart and Salieri.’ ‘The Stone Guest’ swept from the gates of Madrid to the balcony of one of Don Juan’s lovers.” And he finished Eugene Onegin to boot. – The Economist
Broadway Wonders When Tourists Will Feel Comfortable Returning
There’s no clarity about it. One responder from Los Angeles: “Without a vaccine or a cure, to attend a performance would not be a rational choice. The issue is not the statistical probability of getting the virus. Rather, it is the anxiety of being infected that prevents devout thespians, like yours truly, from going back.” – The New York Times