Critic Ben Read went looking for the source of the bizarre allegations that have had the right-wing internet in a lather for a few weeks. He found a 77-minute YouTube video about a pair of former-stuntmen-turned-Christianists spinning conspiracy theories about a great Satanic scheme afoot in Hollywood. Sure, it’s “outlandish,” Read allows — before putting his finger on the grains of truth that make it seem believable to some of us. – Artnet
Tag: 04.20.20
NPR Audience Soars, Underwriting Stalls, And Execs Take Pay Cuts
People are consuming more news than usual. Monthly readership of NPR’s website has more than doubled and average weekly streaming of its radio shows has gone up 31 percent since the crisis began. Podcast downloads have also increased. – The New York Times
Here’s One Case Where Live-Streamed Theater Really Worked
Helen Shaw: “After five weeks of valiant internet productions that looked a lot like readings (even when they weren’t), Buyer & Cellar” — with Michael Urie, live from his living room, his partner as cameraman, returning to the role that kick-started his career — “is the proof-of-concept for low-budget live-capture. It turns out that even without an audience laughing and rustling, a 100-minute comedy can be funny.” – Vulture
Restarting New York Culture? It Will Take Years
The very features that make New York attractive to businesses, workers and tourists — Broadway, the subway system, world-class restaurants and innumerable cultural institutions — were among the hardest-hit in the pandemic. And they will take the longest to come back. – The New York Times
Standup Comedy Might Just Be Viable Online
“No one in live comedy is thrilled about moving shows online. ‘Doing standup without an audience is like sex without an orgasm,’ quipped Felicia Madison, the booker for West Side Comedy Club. ‘Why bother?’ …
[Yet] there’s been a startling amount of entrepreneurial experimentation in the last few weeks, proceeding in fits and starts, and it should have an impact on the culture long after the lockdown ends.” – The New York Times
Adventure Wildlife Photographer Peter Beard, 82
Born into considerable wealth and privilege in New York, Beard, whose body was found yesterday in woodland in the East Hamptons, was a photographer whose love for the African wilderness and its fragile ecology was first expressed in The End of the Game, a 1965 photo-book that now seems extraordinarily prescient. – The Guardian
Really, Are The Arts Just A Luxury During Desperate Times? For An Answer, Look To FDR
“For Roosevelt, it was not superfluous to the country’s most exigent needs. And in a move that remained decidedly controversial with his conservative congressional adversaries, he made the radical decision to enlarge and augment cultural provisions across the country.” – ARTnews
How Did Writers Survive The Great Depression? They Organized
Jason Boog recounts how his experience as a (non-)working writer during the Great Recession moved him to rediscover the story of the publishing industry’s first strike. – Literary Hub
No Matter What The Governor Says, Most Movie Theaters In Georgia Won’t Be Reopening Next Week
Gov. Brian Kemp has said that cinemas in the Peach State may begin welcoming customers again beginning April 27. People actually in the business of showing movies say there’s no way things can ramp up that fast: there are issues of reassembling furloughed staff, actually getting films to show, developing and maintaining safety and distancing protocols, and liability if customers start getting sick. – Variety
Another Side Effect Of COVID: People Are Having Trouble Reading
This is especially true at (now-online) universities, reports Emma Pettit, for students and professors alike. And as professors find themselves unable to focus on the reading they need to do for their research, they’re becoming more understanding of their students’ difficulties — and their requests to ditch the textbooks for the rest of the semester. – The Chronicle of Higher Education