Tag: 02.21.19

ABC Needs To Stop Trying To Trim The Oscars Broadcast And Embrace Its Oscarness

“If you paid any attention at all to the run-up to this year’s Academy Awards, you might reasonably think the ceremony’s producers and network wish they didn’t have to do the damn thing at all. … ABC learning the wrong damn lesson from the Super Bowl is depressing, because that quintessential Live! Television! Event! offers so much more guidance on which way to go with Hollywood’s big night.” – Flavorwire

A Worrisome Disconnect Between The Arts And The Public

“If, as many people think, the type of culture you enjoy is one marker of class, then by definition the arts can never be ‘working class’ because class and culture define each other. By this argument, if the working or lower classes (cringeworthy terms) leave their cocoons and somehow emerge as middle-class butterflies because they listen to Radio 3, then they no longer count as working class precisely because they listen to Radio 3. We are still stuck in this catch-22.” – Arts Professional

The Real Pianist Behind The Movie ‘Green Book’

The filmmakers didn’t line up Don Shirley’s original music with Mahershala Ali’s fingers; instead, they got a Julliard-trained pianist to play it. Kris Bowers “had never heard of Don Shirley. Bowers immersed himself in Shirley’s recordings. That made him nervous. ‘I was pretty scared actually once I listened to it because of how intricate it was, how difficult it was,’ Bowers says.” But he transcribed all of the music and then listened to it repeatedly, practicing for up to nine hours a day for the part. – NPR

Back In The Day, Hollywood’s Highest Paid Director Was A Woman

In early days of the movies, some people thought that women had a special relationship with cinema. There were jobs – and not just as actors or script girls. “Women wrote at least half of all silent films, while narrative film—film that tells a made-up story—is arguably the invention of Alice Guy-Blaché, … [who] made La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) in 1896. There are actors, costumes, props, sets and a whimsical story; in the surviving clip, newborn babies emerge from giant heads of cabbage with the help of a fairy-midwife. The birth metaphor seems deliberate; the first narrative film may also be the first film about film.”  – LitHub

The Haskell Indian Nation University Is About To Close Its Museum ‘Indefinitely’

As a grant ends, the Historical Cultural Center and Museum, with three employees and a collection dating back to 1884, is planning to shut down. But apparently it will, at some point, reopen, says a dean: “‘We have been working diligently to secure more funding in order to reopen it later this semester,’ said Julia Good Fox, dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences.” – Lawrence Journal-World

D.C.’s Synetic Theater Won’t Lose Its Lease To Amazon HQ – Yet

The theatre now has a three-year grace period. “With the announcement of Amazon’s move into Arlington, the mostly vacant building became a centerpiece for the first phase of the company’s takeover of National Landing, née Crystal City. This left Synetic Theater—known for its wordless, physical productions—looking for a new home.” – DCist

A Jiffy Lube Owner Talks About His Business’s Relationship With The Arts

Steve Sanner: “Small business owners like me don’t often view the arts as an area in which we can make a real difference. Even our “stretch” sponsorship levels are overshadowed by the huge dollar amounts that wealthy individuals, banks, law firms, and insurance companies can generate. For us, philanthropy is difficult to plan for, so our sponsorship investments tend to come out of our advertising budgets. Therefore, we’re motivated to find ways to drive our business in more immediate, ROI-based campaigns than what is thought a typical sponsorship of the arts might provide.” – Americans for the Arts