“[This] ebullient film buff … led a campaign to restore scores of largely forgotten short sound films from the 1920s and ’30s that featured comedians, vaudevillians, opera singers and musical acts. … Those early shorts used Vitaphone, a Bell Labs technology, which synchronized the speeds of the film projector and a turntable that played 16-inch sound discs.” – The New York Times
Tag: 02.10.19
Tomi Ungerer, 87, Artist And Author Who Specialized In Children’s Lit And Weird Erotica
“[He] leaped between genres and mediums, crafting works that included anti-Vietnam War posters, darkly comic children’s books, a mischievous reworking of The Joy of Sex and a cat-shaped kindergarten building in Germany.” – The Washington Post
Fewer Students Are Studying English. Does it Matter?
English has lost more students than other subjects. Undergraduate enrollments on English degrees have also fallen: from an all-time high of around 51,000 in 2011/12 to 39,000 last year, although the proportion of English A-level students who go on to study it at university has hovered around 14% for a decade. It makes sense to view the decline of English studies as part of a bigger, international story about the weakening of the humanities, and its counterpoint: the rise in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). – The Guardian
How Today’s Journalism Looks Remarkably Like That Of Yesteryear
If you explained Twitter, the blogosphere, and newsy partisan outlets like Daily Kos or National Review to the Founding Fathers, they’d recognize them instantly. A resurrected Franklin wouldn’t have a news job inside The Washington Post; he’d have an anonymous Twitter account with a huge following that he’d use to routinely troll political opponents, or a partisan vehicle built around himself like Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, or an occasional columnist gig at a less partisan outlet like Politico, or a popular podcast where he’d shoot the political breeze with other Sons of Liberty, à la Chapo Trap House or Pod Save America. “Journalism dying, you say?” Ben Franklin v 2.0 might say. “It’s absolutely blooming, as it was in my day.” – Wired
The Expert Pianist Mentioned At The Grammys
When Alicia Keys sat between two pianos and started to play, she gave a brief shout-out to Hazel Scott. But who was Hazel Scott? “An expert pianist who made a career out of the maneuver, an entertainer and movie star whose accomplishments made her a household name during her prime.” – Los Angeles Times
Women Have A Few Things To Say About Disgraced Dudes Rejoining Hollywood
Some things have changed, says actor Alyssa Milano. “I used to joke that whenever there was an animal on set there would be someone from the Humane Society [there] … but women are made to get totally naked with not one protection mechanism anywhere. I think all of that is going to totally change.” – Variety
How Reading Creates Time
Reading doesn’t quite go with our everyday understanding of time. “It’s incommensurate but parallel: books unspool their own chronology of plot, intersecting our own lives, but in complicated ways. They fit into our days but they also stretch out alongside, cutting across everyday time, work time, social time, and lifetimes. .. We make time for books, but they in turn make time for us, generating rhythms that punctuate lives.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
The Editor Behind Scorsese’s Classic Movies
Thelma Schoonmaker is an editor – perhaps the editor, in this case. She’s won three Oscars, and she just received an honor at the BAFTAs. Though she’s happy about the push for more diversity in Hollywood, she says, “People think there were fewer women in Hollywood than there were. … After all, Cecil B DeMille’s editor, Anne Bauchens, actually won an Oscar, and DW Griffith worked with Margaret Booth, and Alfred Hitchcock’s films were edited by his wife, Alma.” – The Observer (UK)
Tuba Players Can Get Awfully Lonely In Their School Bands, Which Is Why Youth Symphonies Are So Important
Well, that’s one reason, anyway. “Having a buddy relieves some of the solo tuba pressure. Plus, it’s fun to have someone to learn from and decompress with.” – Chicago Tribune
The Last Major Awards Before The Oscars Split ‘Roma’ And ‘The Favourite’
The BAFTAs in London happen “just two days before voting begins for the Oscars, are often considered a bellwether for the Academy Awards. The Favourite has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, tying with Roma and setting up another showdown at that event on Feb. 24.” – The New York Times