Just a couple of months ago, there were articles suggesting that the streaming service may have tapped out its pool of potential customers. But, as with most things on Earth, everything changed in March, and Netflix ended up getting nearly 15.8 million new subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, a record. – Vulture
Blog
Four Out Of Five ‘Most Challenged’ Books At U.S. Libraries Are LGBTQ-Themed
“Attempts to remove books from libraries across the US rose almost a fifth last year, with children’s books featuring LGBTQ characters making up 80% of the most challenged books,” according to the annual report from the American Library Association. – The Guardian
Can Music Can Boost Your Immune System? Yes, Evidently
“Sound like quackery? It’s not. Numerous studies … have found that both performing and listening to music can have a significant impact on the immune system” — including one review that found levels of Immunoglobulin A to be “particularly responsive to music.” Jeremy Reynolds reports. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Upright Citizens Brigade Is Closing All Of Its New York Space
The once-mighty, now-struggling comedy improv institution is giving up the leases to both its theater and its training center on Manhattan’s West Side. Nothing about the company’s Los Angeles location was said in the announcement, which stressed that “UCB is not leaving New York City. The school and the theater will continue on in a pared-down form, which will be very similar to how we operated when we first started in NYC over 20 years ago.” – Vulture
Venice Film Festival Is Still On For September, Say Organizers
“Roberto Cicutto, president of the Venice Biennale, which oversees the film festival, confirmed it would go ahead on 2 September as planned. Meanwhile, the Biennale’s theatre and dance festivals, which were due to take place in June, [have been] postponed.” – The Guardian
“Hamilton” Education Now Free Online
EduHam was born as an offshoot of “Hamilton” itself, and Lin Manuel Miranda says the project — in which 250,000 students nationwide have participated — has proved to be a hit as much with cast members as younger people. – Washington Post
Dancing At Home? ABT Ships Dance Floors To Its Dancers
ABT polled the dancers to find out how many would be interested. Then they placed a single order for 68 pieces, paid for it all and shipped them out to company members isolating everywhere from Australia to Hawaii. – Dance Magazine
Streaming Yes, But The Tech Still Has A Way To Go
When it comes to live music streaming, and in particular, the capacity to play together real time over the internet, the technology could be said to be in a nascent state — still very much under construction. – Ludwig Van
We Like To Blame Cities For Our Ills. Is This Fair?
The demonization of density harkens to the heyday of urbanization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. American civic leaders and reformers of the time embraced the notion that urban social problems — disease, poverty, immorality — stemmed from the physical environments of cities. – CityLab
It Starts: Cash-Strapped NYC Proposes Cutting Cultural Affairs Budget
Now facing an immense shortfall in tax revenue—about $7.4 billion—the city has proposed a revised budget for the next fiscal year that would reduce the overall budget by $3.4 billion, compared to last year’s adopted budget. Among those cuts is a budgetary reduction of $10.6 million for the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). – ARTnews