The situation into which almost every parent in America has now suddenly and unwillingly been thrust could not be more different. One-size-fits-all education barely works in a classroom, but it is completely unmanageable with kids spread out across their various households working independently. – The Atlantic
Blog
What Classical Musicians Are Revealing As They Stream From Home
David Patrick Stearns: “The carefully-curated public images of the past … have, ironically, faded away in this era of social distancing. Any exterior glamour that creates psychological distance suddenly feels out of fashion in a health crisis that we’re all in together. … [And] some use the blank-page spontaneity for the kind of reckless innovation that might not normally be permitted.” – WQXR (New York City)
The Met’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ in the cold light of morning
How often can you say that the Metropolitan Opera rocks? That happens in much of this new recording, taken from live performances of the Met’s hit production. But the price of capturing that live energy was surprisingly high. – David Patrick Stearns
Survey Of LA Art Galleries: A Third Could Close, Most To Be Smaller
A quarter of the respondents, nine of 35, said they are facing the permanent closure of their spaces in 2020 if the situation doesn’t improve quickly. An additional five galleries, or 14%, say closure is a possibility. The numbers are in keeping with a far more comprehensive study issued by the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art, a French trade organization, which estimates that one-third of French galleries could shut down before the end of the year because of the steep losses in revenue. – Los Angeles Times
The Video At The Heart Of The Marina-Abramović-Is-A-Satanist Myth — And The Problems With America It Points Up Despite Itself
Critic Ben Read went looking for the source of the bizarre allegations that have had the right-wing internet in a lather for a few weeks. He found a 77-minute YouTube video about a pair of former-stuntmen-turned-Christianists spinning conspiracy theories about a great Satanic scheme afoot in Hollywood. Sure, it’s “outlandish,” Read allows — before putting his finger on the grains of truth that make it seem believable to some of us. – Artnet
NPR Audience Soars, Underwriting Stalls, And Execs Take Pay Cuts
People are consuming more news than usual. Monthly readership of NPR’s website has more than doubled and average weekly streaming of its radio shows has gone up 31 percent since the crisis began. Podcast downloads have also increased. – The New York Times
Here’s One Case Where Live-Streamed Theater Really Worked
Helen Shaw: “After five weeks of valiant internet productions that looked a lot like readings (even when they weren’t), Buyer & Cellar” — with Michael Urie, live from his living room, his partner as cameraman, returning to the role that kick-started his career — “is the proof-of-concept for low-budget live-capture. It turns out that even without an audience laughing and rustling, a 100-minute comedy can be funny.” – Vulture
Restarting New York Culture? It Will Take Years
The very features that make New York attractive to businesses, workers and tourists — Broadway, the subway system, world-class restaurants and innumerable cultural institutions — were among the hardest-hit in the pandemic. And they will take the longest to come back. – The New York Times
Standup Comedy Might Just Be Viable Online
“No one in live comedy is thrilled about moving shows online. ‘Doing standup without an audience is like sex without an orgasm,’ quipped Felicia Madison, the booker for West Side Comedy Club. ‘Why bother?’ …
[Yet] there’s been a startling amount of entrepreneurial experimentation in the last few weeks, proceeding in fits and starts, and it should have an impact on the culture long after the lockdown ends.” – The New York Times
Adventure Wildlife Photographer Peter Beard, 82
Born into considerable wealth and privilege in New York, Beard, whose body was found yesterday in woodland in the East Hamptons, was a photographer whose love for the African wilderness and its fragile ecology was first expressed in The End of the Game, a 1965 photo-book that now seems extraordinarily prescient. – The Guardian