Now is truly a time when the world could use an update to the beloved C.S. Lewis series. But only 75 copies of the sequel, written by a Narnia lover and scholar, exist. “It may never be conventionally published because Lewis’ work remains under copyright through 2034, and his estate has expressed no interest in authorizing it.” – Slate
Blog
When The Telenovelas Ground To A Halt
The writers scrambled to end the last episode on a cliffhangar from footage they’d already shot. This is a first: “Neither military dictatorship nor the Rio Olympics halted production of Brazil’s famous novelas, which are broadcast six days a week for single seasons of around 150 episodes apiece.” – The Economist
How Our Phones Track Social Distancing
And everything else about our location, as well; you can download huge files of randomized info about the entire US, if you’d like. “If you’re wondering whether data from your phone is included in these reports, the answer is yes, probably. However, both Apple and Google are keen to emphasize that they’ve collected this data with user privacy in mind.” – Wired
Online Relief For Listeners Isn’t Replacing Income For Devastated Musicians
There’s just nothing left, really. “The temporary halt to playing live removes the one dependable way musicians can make money. Royalties from music being played in pubs, clubs and shops are suddenly in jeopardy, and with advertising revenues down, the fees paid to music publishers by broadcasters may be cut. Given the long-term decline of physical sales, that only leaves streaming – at which point, let us remind ourselves that YouTube’s average per-stream rate has been put at a princely 0.13p, and that Spotify is reckoned to pay artists an average of 0.26p per listen.” – The Guardian (UK)
Auction Houses Try To Step Up Digital Selling, But Art Prices Remain Low
The chairwoman of Sotheby’s fine art division says, “In effect, we’ve been in the live theater business. Now we’re segueing into what is more like live streaming. The truth is, that revolution has been underway for some time.” But that revolution is deeply incomplete. – The New York Times
William Bailey, Modernist Figurative Painter, Has Died At 89
Bailey, who taught at the Yale School of Art for decades, created “pristine, idealized still lifes and female nudes [that] made him one of the leading figures in the return of figurative art in the 1980s.” – The New York Times
Weirdly, It’s A Great Time To Pitch A TV Show
Of course, streaming services are dominating at the moment for whenever the industry can start shooting again. “The market is active enough that even companies with stacked-up development slates, like HBO Max, are shopping, said one Hollywood literary agent. ‘They have FOMO, so they’re still taking Zoom pitches from writers.'” – Slate
Garth Greenwell Thinks More Writers Should Write About Sex
Greenwell, the author of What Belongs to You and Cleanness, compares his new book to Schubert’s Winterreise and says, “It’s not that I think writing sex explicitly is in and of itself interesting, but that what interested me was the combination of sex with the kind of sentence I’m attracted to – a sentence with a history that comes through Proust and James and Woolf and Baldwin.” – The Guardian (UK)
Titans Of The Internet Are Making Unprecedented Power Grabs
As they fight viral virus misinformation, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others are making some choices that, while they may be good for public health in the short term, have some First Amendment consequences. – The Atlantic
A String Quartet Is Crushed By The Virus
The Tesla Quartet, founded in 2008, was doing OK, even well, at last. “The four players, aged 34 to 38, have long relied on relatives, friends and concert presenters for temporary housing, while stashing their few possessions in a storage locker. Only during the past year did their advance bookings give them the confidence and means to rent their own apartments in New York.” Then … well, you know what happened. – The New York Times