“Among the findings inside the tombs were evidence of gold-lined floors, a golden seal ring and a gold pendant with the image of the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. The amulet suggests that Pylos” — which is mentioned in The Odyssey — “traded with Egypt during Greece’s Mycenaean civilization, which lasted roughly between 1650 and 1100 B.C. Homer’s epics are set in the latter stages of this period.” – NPR
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Is Disney+ Stealing Away Subscribers From Netflix?
About 1 million Netflix subscribers made the switch last month, following the Nov. 12 Disney+ launch, according to survey results released Wednesday by brokerage Cowen & Co. The firm estimated that 6% of Netflix subscribers who signed up for Disney+ canceled their Netflix memberships after doing so. Cowen based its estimates on its survey of about 2,500 people. – Los Angeles Times
How Disney’s Idealized Florida Town Became A Nightmare
“Everything about Celebration telegraphed cozy familiarity. Brochures depicted a quasi-fantastical realm of home-cooked meals, traditional family values, and G-rated movies. The civic buildings were designed by famous architects: the theater by Cesar Pelli, town hall by Philip Johnson, the post office by Michael Graves, the bank by Robert Venturi, to name only a few.” – The Daily Beast
Mellon Foundation Pulls Grant After University Of North Carolina Makes Deal With Neo-Confederate Group
In a Letter to the Editor published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander confirms that funding was rescinded in direct response to the settlement. The university’s decision to protect and display the Confederate statue was especially jarring in light of the proposed grant’s intended purpose: “to develop a campuswide effort to reckon with UNC’s historic complicity with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and memorialization of the Confederacy.” – Hyperallergic
Paris Bets On Ambitious New Contemporary Art Complex To Activate Suburbs
Collectively, the dealers hope, Komunuma’s mix of programs will make it a destination, especially as the greater Paris region seeks to shore up activity in the capital’s suburbs. They foresee “a plurality of centers with multiple, distinct identities. The development of Grand Paris will lead to a redistribution of the geography of contemporary art.” – Artsy
Museums Ponder Virtual Reality As An Art Experience
Virtual reality and augmented reality (AR)—which overlays digital elements on the real world rather than creating a fully immersive alternative—are “unbelievably promising” for the future of communication, says Daniel Birnbaum, who left his post as the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm to lead the London-based VR and AR production startup Acute Art early this year. But he points out that major museums such as the Louvre have concentrated on the educational uses of the technology, neglecting its own potential as an artistic medium. – The Art Newspaper
A French Theatre Critic Is Sent To English Christmas Pantomimes
Laura Cappelle: “When this newspaper came up with the idea of sending an unsuspecting foreigner to a series of pantos, I wondered how different it could really be from family-friendly entertainment elsewhere. Reader, it is very different.” – The Guardian
A franker report on Mrs. T’s condition
Mrs. T, who is a very private person (that’s why I refer to her as “Mrs. T” in this space) and thus has been reluctant to be entirely frank about her illness in public, decided last night that it is time at last for me to start writing with complete candor about the increasingly desperate state of her health. So … here goes. – Terry Teachout
How Mariah Carey’s Christmas Album Got To Top Of The Charts (For The First Time!) 25 Years Later
In the decades since “Merry Christmas,” she has created her own evolving brand of hip-hop pop. And she has leaned—or, better, reclined—into the role of playful diva. – The New Yorker
How The Hallmark Channel Conquered Christmas TV And Became A Cable Powerhouse
“Since 2011, from late October to January, Hallmark has broadcast Christmas movies nearly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. … During this year’s holiday season, the programming, called Countdown to Christmas, has made Hallmark the No. 1 cable network among women between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-four, and, in some prime-time slots, No. 1 in households and total viewers. Last year, seventy-two million people watched Countdown to Christmas.” Sarah Larson looks into the secrets of Hallmark’s success. – The New Yorker