There’s a brand of young straight men who are “relying on the gifts of biology to flesh out a personality. It works for a while, because viewers like to be complimented and to watch an attractive, familiar talking head give them a pixelated smile on a lonely day.” But to be truly successful – i.e. to make money as an influencer – the young dudes need a lot more. That’s where agents come in. – Hyperallergic
Blog
It’s Hard To Be On Your Phone Checking Your News Alerts When You’re At The Potter’s Wheel
Ceramics clubs with annual membership programs are popping up all over. Why? Aside from literally not being able to touch a phone while you’re working with clay, “pottery … challenges our post-industrial ideas about art, where we outsource all creativity and handiwork to a few specialists.” – The Guardian (UK)
What It’s Like For An Actress To Play A Character Who Shows Little Emotion
Anna Torv, who plays a serial-hunting psychologist on Mindhunter, explains: “When you’re an actress, you don’t even realize that the majority of the time you end up carrying the emotional weight of whatever scene you happen to be in. If someone’s going to cry, it’s going to be the girl. If someone is emotional and having a meltdown, it’s going to be the girl. … It’s just the expectation, so that’s what your instincts end up honing. All of a sudden to be in the skin of this woman who is just so dry … Anytime I showed a flicker of something, especially in the beginning, David would be like, ‘Please, pull it back.'” – The New York Times
The British Library’s Team Of Educators Are Told To Reapply For Fewer – But More Full-Time – New Jobs
What’s going on in Britain? The claim: This is to provide more full-time jobs! But, like National Gallery educators who just experienced something similar and won their court case, the freelancers are fighting back. One Member of Parliament about the NG case, which cost the institution at least £64,000: “This is money … which could have been used to provide full rights and a decent wage for the gallery’s workers which has instead been wasted defending illegal and indefensible employment practices.” – The Observer (UK)
David Koch Stamped His Name On Arts Organizations To ‘Send A Message’ To Liberals
New York’s major arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center, are now intertwined with the Koch name for decades. Not that there wasn’t dissent – from the outside. On the inside: “He also sat on several cultural boards, hobnobbing there and at galas, with people of varying political persuasions. The longstanding decorum of such gatherings suggested that, like sedate family Thanksgiving dinners, politics was not generally a polite topic for conversation.” – The New York Times
Werner Herzog Is Now A Disney Character
Yes. It’s weird, and it’s true: He’s a “mentor” of some sort in a new Star Wars TV show. Luckily, the show looks super-grim. Still: What? – Vulture
How The Rossini Renaissance Sparked From A Beachfront Festival To The World
The Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy, may never be a Salzburg, but it sure changed Rossini’s reputation. Most of the composer’s “operas were long dormant. For much of the 20th century, Rossini had become a one-opera composer, known solely for his comedy The Barber of Seville.” Then the Pesaro festival ramped up, pursuing “the scholarly rediscovery of even Rossini’s most obscure compositions, together with a dedication to teaching the magnificent fireworks of Rossinian style.” – The New York Times
Guess Who Just Got Into Podcasting?
The company that’s into just about everything else (well, not that company, the one that just announced a huge slate of movies and TV show for its new streaming service, but a different big company): Netflix. The company’s line about podcasts: “We are always looking for different ways to engage with people. … We’re talking a lot with our documentary team about what opportunities are out there.” (Shocker: True crime is doing well for Netflix.) – Variety
Kicking The Sophomore Curse To The Curb, By Taking Eight Years To Publish A Second Novel
Téa Obreht took her time after The Tiger’s Wife struck the bestseller list and stayed for many, many months. She says, “It was appropriate to let the wrong books go and wait for the right one to come along.” – The New York Times
Apple Hired Hundreds Of Contractors To Listen To Siri Recordings – And Has Now Laid Them Off
This is how the recently revealed program worked in Ireland: “Fixed-term workers in Cork were hired to listen to and ‘grade’ Siri recordings. …Staff then transcribed and ‘graded’ these recordings based on a number of different factors.” Now those contractors – around 300 people – have been laid off by Apple. – The Irish Examiner