The controversy over “Attack Helicopter” is another case study suggesting that rejecting “art’s for art’s sake” in favor of “art for justice’s sake” doesn’t necessarily yield more justice. It may help no one, harm many, and impede the ability of artists to circulate work that makes us think, feel, grapple, empathize, and learn. Americans will always seek out, discuss, and be moved by art that is messy, tense, and chaotic, whether the censors of any moment like it or not. If liberals stop producing art like that, illiberals of all sorts will fill the breach. – The Atlantic
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The Hot-Button Issue In ‘Slave Play’ That People Aren’t Talking About
“I am also interested in consent, by far the least attended to aspect of the play, which we encounter in the especially difficult junction between sexuality and trauma. At this strained intersection, consent is revealed at its most impotent, impossible to help clearly adjudicate desire.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
What Has Happened To Audiences? Have They Forgotten How To Behave In Theatres?
The woman next to us very politely turns round and shushes them. It does no good. They are out for the afternoon, they are going to make a loud and long fuss over a Capri Sun and they are going to keep talking about their hunger levels for the entire performance. It’s not long before another woman brings her mobile phone out and starts taking photographs of the stage. – The Herald (Scotland)
How The Franco Regime Ruined Zarzuela And Flamenco Music For Many Spaniards
“But as is the case with other musical genres indigenous to Spain, they initially developed with no ties to one political ideology over another. Zarzuela is nowadays perceived in the national imagination as an integral part of musical life under the Franco regime and, as such, outdated and conservative. … More than classical music and zarzuela, flamenco was perhaps the genre that suffered the most from Franco’s cultural policies.” – JSTOR Daily
What Is Going On In Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix Show?
Just capitalism and sheer wackiness, or what? (Paltrow’s “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle costs $75 and sold out almost immediately, for one thing.) But there’s more. “The Goop Lab is streaming into a moment in America that finds Medicare for All under discussion and the Affordable Care Act under attack. It presents itself as airy infotainment even as many Americans are unable to access even the most basic forms of medical care. That makes the show deeply uncomfortable to watch.” – The Atlantic
Keeping Indonesia’s Traditional Drag Dance Alive
“Rianto, is a master of the Lengger Lanang, a traditional [Javanese] dance performed by men dressed as women. But Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, has seen rising intolerance in recent years towards the LBGT community. And there are fears it could affect this traditional art form.” (video) – BBC
Artificial Intelligence Is About To Transform Video
AI-assisted editing won’t make Oscar-worthy auteurs out of us. But amateur visual storytelling will probably explode in complexity. Even tools for one-to-one video messaging might evolve—AI on our phones could pull together disparate clips into weird, delightful missives. And, of course, AI editing will uncork new forms of digital malfeasance: It’ll be a lot easier to persuasively lie, to make ever-slicker propaganda. – Wired
Linda Shaver-Gleason, The Internet’s Favorite Musicologist, ‘Assassinated By Cancer’ At 36
“Writing on her blog, Not Another Music History Cliche!, and standing as a pillar of classical music’s niche on Twitter, Linda elegantly deployed her encyclopedic knowledge, research skills, and quick wit to cut through common classical music anecdote-myths, such as The Rite of Spring provoking a riot at its premiere. Not content to simply explain the truth and leave it there, she also delved several layers deeper to analyze why the myths persisted, and urged her readers to think critically about the information they were fed by advertising and clickbait.” Zoë Madonna pays tribute. – VAN
They’re Building A Pushkin Theme Park In St. Petersburg
“Dutch design company Jora Vision will use Pushkin’s works as inspiration for the 17,000-square-meter Lukomorye park, named after the mythical Slavic land in which Pushkin’s fairy tales take place. … The amusement park will consist of three zones — a palace, a city and a harbor — each based on imaginary places in Pushkin’s stories. The park will also feature a swan lake, a fairytale forest and a ‘yarmarka,’ or Russian fair market. ” – The Moscow Times
This Woman Was One Of The Very First Pioneers Of Cinema — Why Has She Been Almost Forgotten?
“[Alice] Guy-Blaché was in the room when the Lumière brothers held the first-ever cinema screening, in Paris in March 1895. By the following year, she was making her own films. And while the Lumières were still hung up on cinema as a technological spectacle – ‘Look! A train!’ – Guy-Blaché immediately saw its potential for telling stories. … As time went on, Guy-Blaché helped write the rules of this brand new medium. She incorporated now-standard techniques such as editing, primitive special effects and hand-tinted colour. She might even have invented the music video.” – The Guardian