“Nature, in the form of the predominant gloom that pervades our skies for much of the year, forces us inward — to a creative frontier that matches the geographic one. Thus, an obscure poet at a midweek reading on a winter’s eve, hoping for an audience beyond a few bookstore employees, will be happily shocked to find the room packed. People in Seattle love to come in out of the rain and tell stories, or to hear them.” – Crosscut
Tag: 09.10.20
Goodreads Is A Hopeless, Malfunctioning Mess. Is There Another Option?
The site was a great idea when it was launched in 2007; by 2013, when Amazon bought it, there were 15 million users. But the new owners seem to have done little with it: users frequently can’t find titles they want or get messages sent to other members; the site design “is like a teenager’s 2005 Myspace page”; Amazon either can’t or hasn’t bothered to create an algorithm that doesn’t spit out countless irrelevant recommendations. “But new competitors continue to enter the book-tech fray, and one in particular is beginning to make waves.” – New Statesman
Hong Kong’s Cautionary Tale: How 40 Years Of Neo-Liberalism Fueled A Crisis
This blurring of the division between public and private finds governments overtly working on the behalf of capital to extenuate an economic system that favors global capital over labor, private corporations over society and social welfare, and economic concentration over economic democracy. It is a system that is perpetuated by the attenuation of politics and capital, whereby the rich purchase beneficial economic policies that further insulate their position and wealth. Through political influence they obtain lower taxes, larger deductions, fewer regulations, and corporate protections, among other things. – Boston Review
Museum Votes To Sell Prized Jackson Pollock To Fund Diversity
Its sale will fund acquisitions of work by artists of color, women artists, and other marginalized artists underrepresented in the museum’s collection. The early Pollock painting will be included in Christie’s New York Evening Sale of 20th and 21st Century Art on October 6 and is estimated to sell for between $12 and 18 million. – Hyperallergic
The Science Behind That Bright Orange San Francisco Sky
The reason for the orange—and for the wan yellows and sickly grays that followed—is a combination of atmospheric chemistry and the physics of teeny-tiny things. – Wired
Why Is Congress Ignoring Help For The Arts?
One has to look only to such countries as Germany and the United Kingdom — whose governments have pledged $50 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively, in covid-19-related aid to the arts — to recognize a truism: that this country essentially pays its arts workers lip service. Sure, a few movie and recording stars make fortunes. But why do we treat rank-and-file employees in the arts industry like beggars? – Washington Post
Strand Bookstore’s Workers Are Very Unhappy
There’s the issue of not properly protecting workers in the pandemic. And in April, the Strand was approved for a PPP loan of $1–2 million to retain 212 jobs. Given that those jobs were not actually protected, workers in the store want to know where the money went. – The Baffler
How The Big Museum Audiences Have Changed Since Reopening
For the Met, long-haul travel is typically responsible for most of their visitors, who come from abroad. But with international plane travel halted, there’s a new focus on New Yorkers, which now make up over 90 percent of entrants. – Washington Post
An Initiative To Rebuild America’s Arts
Some actions within the 15-point plan could be achieved in one day through executive orders, such as directing federal departments to employ creative workers or completing the authorisation and funding of an ArtistCorps within AmeriCorps. Others involve the development and passage of new laws and policies in conjunction with Congress—for example, making permanent the ability of gig workers and independent contractors to access federal unemployment benefits, or taking up and passing legislation that would adjust existing federal policies to be more inclusive of creative workforce projects. – The Art Newspaper
What The Uk’s Music Organizations Are Learning About Streaming
“What we know is that the donation only model works well for the first two events that you do, and then it tails off dramatically, so our view is that the more sustainable model is pay-per-view.” – Bachtrack