What separates Americans is not just income, but whole frames of reference: Cordoned off, the wealthy live in a world apart from the less-well-off, no longer sharing the same experiences. – The New Republic
Tag: 04.21.20
Cheryl A. Wall, Expert On Zora Neale Hurston And Champion Of Literary Black Women, Has Died At 71
Wall, longtime professor at Rutgers, changed the world of literature. She “championed racial diversity both in the curriculum and the classroom. She encouraged more black students to major in English and pursue postgraduate degrees. And she widened the scope of literary scholarship to include black novelists, poets and nonfiction authors as well as essayists, whom she considered central to the black literary tradition.” – The New York Times
Betsy Wyeth — Muse, Model, And Manager For Husband Andrew — Dead At 98
“More than just the organizational and financial genius of the enterprise, Mrs. Wyeth also had a firm hand in guiding her husband’s artistic development. … Later she came up with the idea of turning an old grist mill in Chadds Ford into what would become the Brandywine River Museum of Art, which opened in 1971 and continues in part as a shrine to her husband and the artist family from which he sprang.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Violinist/Violist Jan Talich, Founder Of Talich Quartet, Dead At 71
“With his fellow quartet members, he toured all over the world, specialising in works by Czech composers — many of them contemporary — and winning several prestigious prizes, including Diapason d’or awards for recordings of Mozart and Beethoven string quartets. He continued to play with the quartet until 2000. His nephew now occupies the leader’s seat.” – The Strad
Critic: Am I Mean? Yup. And I Don’t Care
Adrian Searle: “On the page, I am the mildest, most humane and dare I say sympathetic of writers, while the one who is doing the writing is an incoherent monster, if not an absolute swine. But it isn’t always like this. Life would be intolerable if it were. Often protesting that I am only as good as my material, give me an artist I admire and work that I can identify with and it can all be plain sailing.” – The Guardian
Surge In Library E-Book Borrowing
Loans of online e-books, e-magazines and audiobooks were up an average of 63% in March compared with last year. And 120,000 people joined libraries in the three weeks after lockdown began, Libraries Connected said. – BBC
Can We Learn From Movies About Interactions That Take Place In Different Places?
Movies depict phone calls, there are split screens, fast cuts, etc. There’s already a rich visual language of remote interaction. So what can we learn? – Irish Times
No Surprise: Netflix Reports Huge Increase In Subscribers
Netflix added 15.8 million subscribers, more than double the 7.2 million that were expected — a growth of more than 22 percent year over year. Netflix now has 182 million subscribers worldwide. The company also saw quarterly revenue of $5.77 billion versus the $5.76 billion estimated. – The Verge
Six Ways Our Cities Might Change After COVID
In the 20th century, tuberculosis, typhoid, polio and Spanish flu breakouts prompted urban planning, slum clearance, tenement reform, waste management and, on a larger level, Modernism itself, with its airy spaces, single-use zoning (separating residential and industrial areas, for instance), cleaner surfaces (think glass and steel) and emphasis on sterility. – Los Angeles Times
We Always Talk About Community. So Here’s Where Community Is
“How do we define community in a time of crisis, which is in many ways what community is for? We don’t need our neighbors as much when we are healthy and wealthy and can pay for all the assistance we require. When we need our neighbors most, and when community matters the most, is when we are hungry or sick, or when good Samaritans are our only hope.” – Plough