“Restorers at the laboratory for wooden objects at the Grand Egyptian Museum have begun fumigating the gilded coffin” — the outer one, largest of three (the two inner coffins are the ones that have always been on display) — “after it was carefully moved from Tutankhamen’s tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt amid tight security last month.” – Los Angeles Times
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How The Toronto International Film Festival Needs To Evolve In The Streaming Era
The same challenges apply: What are the films that can work theatrically, that can compel people to come? How can we make that collective experience really rewarding and transformative so that people will still want to come here? I think that’s an ongoing challenge for everyone. – Toronto Star
How The Semi-Colon Beat Out The Other Punctuation Marks
The humanists tried out a lot of new punctuation ideas, but most of those marks had short life spans. Some of the printed texts that appeared in the centuries surrounding the semicolon’s birth look as though they are written partially in secret code: they are filled with mysterious dots, dashes, swoops, and curlicues. – Paris Review
Theatre Union Accuses Arts Council England Of Not Enforcing Pay Rules
According to Equity, theatre employers are not always paying industry standard terms and conditions on funded projects, despite it being a requirement of receiving a grant. It described the funding body’s policing of this situation as “poor”. – The Stage
Inquirer: Curtis Institute Response To Sexual Harassment Charges Shows It Needs Outside Help
“A credible and qualified professional from outside Curtis and the cultural community of which it is a part ought to take an unsparing look at what if anything happened, and why, and how any new allegations of this type ought to be handled, and prevented from happening again. The findings of such a review ought to be made public.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
Adorno’s Theories Of Culture 50 Years Later
It is hardly surprising that, especially in the United States, where the arts were expected to conform to democratic tastes, the demanding high Modernism of Adorno’s aesthetic philosophy has never received so warm a reception. Greater prestige was conferred on his one-time colleague Walter Benjamin, who, unlike Adorno, embraced the “dissolution of the aura” of the individual artwork that promised, via “mechanical reproduction,” to make high culture newly accessible to the masses. – New York Review of Books
Edinburgh Festival Artists, Fearing Brexit, Turn Down Pounds For Euros
Speaking during its opening weekend, Fergus Linehan, a Dubliner who has been the festival’s director since 2015, said many performers had refused to be paid in sterling. – Irish Times
In Praise Of The Civic Plaza
You sit in a plaza and it occurs to you that other people have been in your situation, whatever it is, and this knowledge is at the heart of civility. There are no answers, only stories—the answers keep changing, the stories stay the same for centuries. – Harper’s
Blame Video Games For Violence? First, The Evidence Doesn’t Support It…
Games have shifted from a broad cultural enemy—a gory medium that all types of people might hold responsible for social disgrace—to a political tool. Video-game violence was once a bipartisan worry. Now it’s a largely Republican talking point, deployed for tactical political gain to great effect. – The Atlantic
Study Suggests We’re No Busier Than We Used To Be
The authors find little proof of increasing busyness among the population. Yes, as expected, people were spending far more time on digital devices in 2015 than they were in 2000. But the data provides little evidence that people now spend more time multitasking or that they’re switching more often from one activity to another, which might make our time seem fragmented and frantic. – Literary Review