The web favors certain virtues—wit, weirdness, bombast, and urgency—over others. In real time, we’ve witnessed critics watch their well-crafted essays sink to the internet’s depths like a stone. As our cameras rolled, a critic at one of the nation’s largest newspapers darted from one editor’s desk to another, trying to understand why a blog post was bombing and, eventually, with a moving show of emotion, broke down. – ARTnews
Blog
38 Years After It Won A Pulitzer, Charles Fuller’s ‘A Soldier’s Play’ Makes It To Broadway
The script was first produced by the Negro Ensemble Company (Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, and David Alan Grier were in the cast) back in 1982, and Fuller never did anything like it again. Almost everything he wrote since was aimed at Black audiences, and, as he tells Salamishah Tillet, he’d never expected to be having a Broadway premiere at age 80. – The New York Times
Scottish Conservatory Suspends Teachers For “Bullying” Culture In Course Others Call Visionary
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has vowed to act after an independent review of one of its leading degree programmes highlighted allegations of “bullying, favouritism and misuse of authority”. – The Scotsman
A Human Response To Amazon’s Algorithms: Custom-Designed Book Subscriptions
Two bookstores in England are offering book(s)-of-the-month services in which, after some discussion with the customer, a knowledgeable staffer selects and ships books the staffer thinks the individual recipient will like. – The Guardian
Have Economists Led Us Astray About How The World Works?
In the first half of the twentieth century, especially after the calamity of the Great Depression, the conventional wisdom held that the power of corporations must be held in check by other comparably sized organizations—churches, unions, and, above all, a strong national government. But in the decades that followed, a new generation of economists argued that tweaks to how companies operated—more hostile takeovers, more reliance on corporate debt, bigger bonuses for executives when stock prices increased—would enable the market to regulate itself, obviating the need for stringent government oversight. Their suggestions soon became reality, especially in a newly deregulated financial sector, where they precipitated the emergence of junk bonds and other questionable innovations. – Foreign Affairs
Actor-Singer-Dancer Paula Kelly Dead At 77
“[She] began her career in the 1960s performing with the Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and Donald McKayle dance companies … [and] became a leading black performer on Broadway … and later turned to supporting roles on film and television, playing one of TV’s first black lesbian characters.” (And no less than Bob Fosse called her “the best dancer I’ve ever seen.”) – The Washington Post
How The Novel Lost Its Place In American Culture
The sad truth is that the novel now doesn’t occupy the same cultural high ground, and it doesn’t typically feel to readers like a practical device for addressing problems. The decline of the novel’s prestige reflects a new crisis born of our culture’s increasing failure of intellectual nerve and its terminal doubt about its own progress. – The Spectator
Meet Seattle Opera’s Scholar In Residence, First Of Her Kind In The U.S.
“As scholar in residence, [Naomi] André acts as an adviser to help Seattle Opera become more inclusive, both for audiences and behind the scenes. … Her most visible role involves a series of free, public community conversations that invite audiences to question problematic social themes and portrayals of marginalized communities in opera while appreciating the artistic elements that continue to hold up.” – The Seattle Times
The End Of Music Snobbery
The much-discussed “death of the snob” in the internet era explains part of the shift on display. Even though some High Fidelity–style shops catering to vinyl collectors have survived the extinction of big-box retailers, streaming and downloads have chipped away at the super-listener’s pretexts for arrogance: special knowledge (entire discographies are now explorable with a click), special access (few B sides can hide from Google), and curatorial chops (algorithms can DJ your life). – The Atlantic
How Bad Is California’s New Freelance Law For Performers? Let Them Tell You
“To learn more about AB5’s effect on artists, The Times asked readers to write in. We received more than 120 responses from artists across California — jazz and classical musicians, directors of arts nonprofits, magicians, costume designers, actors, a burlesque dancer and freelance food stylist, among others.” – Los Angeles Times