Dan Brooks: “Ostensibly too sophisticated for superhero stories, our critics have accepted the Joker’s power to corrupt the masses in real life, on a more literal level than the most addled comic-book fan ever would. That’s a failure to maintain critical distance, but it’s being projected onto an audience that critics imagine to be more suggestible than themselves — insanely more suggestible, almost comically so.” – The New York Times Magazine
Tag: 10.02.19
Of The Moment: How To Capture Improvisation
The drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey has a lovely phrase to describe the practice of improvisation: “the adornment of time.” – New York Review of Books
Is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Really Good For Drag As A Whole?
After ten years, and as the ever more popular show expands from the US to the UK (with plans for Canada and Australia), it’s impossible to deny that Drag Race has brought drag a once-undreamed-of level of mainstream acceptance. But has it also made drag less varied and more conformist? – BBC
Art Classes Instead Of Court Dates For Misdemeanor Offenders In Brooklyn
“People arrested on low-level misdemeanors in Brooklyn will now have the option to complete a one-day arts course at the Brooklyn Museum instead of ever having to appear in court, thanks to a newly expanded diversion program [called Project Reset] offered by the Brooklyn District Attorney.” – Brooklyn Eagle
Why Public Libraries Across America Are Eliminating Book Fines
The decision to remove fines is a growing nationwide movement. Already, dozens of U.S. libraries have fully or partially eliminated overdue fines (usually for teens and children), according to a “fine-free” map from the Urban Libraries Council (ULC). – CityLab
I Used To Be An Avid Reader. But Since The Internet…
“Reading books is something I was once did compulsively, willingly and joyfully. But as I get older and spend more of my life online, reading books has become harder. Studies suggest I’m not alone – research in both Australia and the US suggests reading novels for leisure has declined.” – The Guardian
Silence’s Central Role In Music
As social beings, we are hard-wired to interpret breaks in the flow of human communication. We recognize the pregnant pause, the stunned silence, the expectant hush. A one-beat delay on an answer can reveal hesitation or hurt, or play us for laughs. A closer listen shows musical silence to be just as eloquent. – The New York Times
New Technology Could Finally Make Ancient Pompeii Scrolls Readable
The two unopened scrolls that will be probed belong to the Institut de France in Paris and are part of an astonishing collection of about 1,800 scrolls that was first discovered in 1752 during excavations of Herculaneum. Together they make up the only known intact library from antiquity, with the majority of the collection now preserved in a museum in Naples. – The Guardian
Donor Myopia
With virtually no public money flowing in, U.S. arts organizations have, understandably, been most concerned with the interests of those who fund the enterprise. This narrowness of attention, this “donor myopia” has created a system in which the broader population can be very nearly unseen. – Doug Borwick
Balking at Walker: Darren, Ford Foundation’s President, Becomes National Gallery’s New Trustee
The news that Darren Walker has been named as one of the National Gallery of Art’s five general trustees gave me pause. My misgivings arose from what struck me as his astonishingly clueless views on the current state of American museums. – Lee Rosenbaum