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Hollywood Preps For A Writers’ Strike, But The Landscape Has Dramatically Changed Since The Last One

Streaming was barely a thing back in the day of the last big strike – but it still cost everyone a lot of money and time. “Studios, production companies and guild members are all eager to avoid a sequel to the last major disruption that cost the state an estimated 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output from late 2007 through the end of 2008, according to a 2008 Milken Institute report.” – Los Angeles Times

The National Archives Blurred A Historic, And Historical, Photograph Of The Women’s March To Blur Anti-Trump Signs

They did what? Yes. They digitally blurred the photo before it went on display in the nation’s capital. To quote one strong tweet about it, “This is some weird Soviet shit right here.” And to quote the Post itself, after the Archives apologized and took down the image: “In their initial weak defense, Archives officials noted that they had not altered articles they preserve for safekeeping, only a photograph for a temporary exhibit. We did not find that reassuring, as we said in the first published version of this editorial. Photo alteration long has been the preserve of authoritarian governments, most famously Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who erased comrades from historical photographs one by one as he had them executed.” – The Washington Post

Peter Larkin, Broadway Designer And Creator Of The Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership, Has Died At 93

Larkin won four Tonys for his work as a designer on Broadway. “Larkin won his Tonys in a remarkable run in the mid-1950s, for Ondine, The Teahouse of the August Moon, No Time for Sergeants and Inherit the Wind. The last three of those plays were running simultaneously on Broadway. Mr. Larkin was still in his 20s.” He also designed movies like Tootsie and Miss Congeniality, and was the co-designer of the George Clinton band’s famous Mothership. – The New York Times

Protesters Shut Down The Louvre

The protestors are angry about the government’s proposed pension reforms, and they’ve shut down much of Paris on and off over the past six weeks. “‘Closing the Louvre to prevent tourists from visiting is very important because it’s the most visited museum in the world,’ said Christophe Benoit, 52, a protesting employee of France’s Culture Ministry, although he acknowledged that some visitors were’“very angry.'” – The New York Times

Disney Drops “Fox” From 20th Century Fox Name

The Walt Disney Company bought most of Mr. Murdoch’s entertainment assets last year in a $71.3 billion deal. That included the 20th Century Fox studio and its art-house sibling, Fox Searchlight. On Friday, the employees at the main movie studio arrived to a new email format (@20thcenturystudios) without the Fox. A Disney spokesman confirmed that both labels would drop Fox from their logos. Disney had no further comment. – The New York Times

Why Don’t Audiences Know More About Composer George Walker’s Music?

Walker, who died in 2018 at age 96, was one of America’s most distinguished composers. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1996. He was a superb pianist and an esteemed academic. His shelves and walls were overloaded with the awards and honorary degrees that go with a legendary career. He wrote around 100 pieces, and many of them have been recorded. No history of American music is complete without Walker, and that means many a standard history of American music is incomplete. Who among classical music lovers, let alone the general public, even knows who George Walker was, much less has heard his music? – Los Angeles Times

Today’s Theme Parks Are More Immersive, Interactive

Say goodbye, at least for the foreseeable future, to the topic-focused lands of yore such as Adventureland or Fantasyland, and think instead of story- and plot-driven lands that will place guests in the midst of an ongoing narrative, which bring with it new opportunities and challenges. They are, in essence, to quote the narration of the recent Disney+ docu-series “The Imagineering Story,” lands that represent a “living theater” where the guest can “play make-believe.” – Los Angeles Times

Saving Face: China’s New Surveillance System Upends A Moral Order

China’s rapidly expanding network of surveillance cameras increasingly relies upon AI-aided facial-recognition technology to achieve much of its primary mission: to keep track of, record, control and modify the behaviour of its citizens. Within this system, ‘face’ really has nothing to do with traditional conceptions of moral or social status – at least, their ideal forms; it is not about how one views oneself or how the members of one’s community regard one. Instead, it is to be an object under the gaze of a systematic government surveillance system established by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and guided by increasingly sophisticated AI. – Aeon