At what cost is an externally or even cerebrally normalised life, a life of routine and regulation, elevated over a life that flops and flutters but also throbs? At what price is a life that sails over the many-sided intricacies of emotion and the ripples of discontent? – Aeon
Blog
How Sesame Street Got To Be 50 And Stay Relevant
“The reality is that Sesame Street’s impact can no longer be measured as ‘Who is sitting in front of the TV watching? If you think of Sesame Street as a television show, that’s long been inaccurate. It’s a cultural product.” – The Guardian
Why Are There So Many Asian-American Hip-Hop Dance Crews? Community
“In many Asian countries, hip-hop rose to popularity as a form of self-expression and resistance, sometimes in the face of colonialism and oppressive regimes. … But the contemporary boom of Asian Americans in hip-hop seems born out of a different impulse — one of finding belonging and connecting with others who share your unique experience.” – Vice
Big Learning Curve for Sotheby’s New CEO in a Season of Lowered Expectations: My Q&As
At last week’s very sparsely attended press preview for this week’s major auctions, I got a chance to chat about Sotheby’s era of uncertainty with four of the company’s principals. – Lee Rosenbaum
Duo Ruut plays at the Sharq Taronalari Festival
The Estonian kannel is primarily a plucked folk instrument, but these two young ladies — both of whom have studied music academically — had not played it until they found one, and decided to see what would happen if they approached it fresh. Their outside-the-box attitude here yields unexpectedly sophisticated and orchestral arrangements. – Michal Shapiro
Seeing Broadway While Brown
“I’ve written for every reputable publication in town. For as long as I’ve been attending theater in the city, my name and brown skin have made me the target of bullies and racists. I’ve been asked if I’m with the catering staff at theater critics events, been chastised by angry ushers to turn my cell phone off, even if I have never taken my device out of my pocket during a performance, and often been asked if I’m sure I belong in the orchestra, as ushers point me to the mezzanine. My skin has become so thickened by the mistreatment and rudeness of theater employees that I might as well be a walking callus.” – Broadway News
Shelley Duvall’s Performance In ‘The Shining’ Was Actually Brilliant
“Many viewers — even some who love The Shining — find Duvall’s acting strangely cartoonish with its wild expressions of anxiety and fear. … Stephen King himself … was downright offended by how the picture depicted Wendy, who was more proactive and heroic in his novel.” After re-watching the film on a big screen, critic Bilge Ebiri found a greater respect for the key aspect of Duvall’s performance: “the fear of [an abused] wife who’s experienced her husband at his worst, and is terrified that she’ll experience it again.” – Vulture
Seattle Is Losing Its Film And Music Production Business
The incredible economic tech bubble Seattle is experiencing is pushing out film and music jobs and companies. As people have had to make the hard choice to leave town to pursue their careers, Seattle is also losing that sense of a creative community that once made it worth all the other struggles. – The Stranger
Inside The 1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion Re-Enactment
“It took years [for the organizer, artist Dread Scott,] to raise the funds of over $1m, which included money from 500 individual donations, to pull off the spectacle. But as word of mouth about the project got out, African Americans from all over the country signed up.” Reporter Oliver Laughland joined the re-enactors as they marched 26 miles from the LaPlace, La. plantation where the original rebellion started to the center of New Orleans. – The Guardian
Don’t Hear As Well As You Used To? Here’s Why
“There have been a couple of studies done with populations of indigenous people who live in places where there is very little background noise and elderly people in those populations tend to hear as well as infants do.” – NPR