This is a bold building by, and for, bold thinkers — even if we don’t know yet whether it is truly meets the test of form that follows function. – Chicago Tribune
Tag: 10.26.20
Strand Bookstore Puts Out SOS, Is Overwhelmed With Support
Owner Nancy Wyden said “the call for help produced a boom in business on Saturday: a single-day record of 10,000 online orders, so many that the website crashed. That day was also the best single day in the month of October that the flagship store, near Union Square, has ever had, and the best day ever at the Strand’s Upper West Side branch, which opened earlier this year. In the 48 hours since the plea went out, the store processed 25,000 online orders, compared with about 600 in a typical two-day period.” – The New York Times
Pathbreaking Set Designer Ming Cho Lee Dead At 90
As his biographer puts it, “In the 1960s and ’70s Lee radically and almost single-handedly transformed the American approach to stage design.” His work for spoken theater, dance, and opera won him numerous awards, including two Tonys and the National Medal of Arts; he had an equally great impact during his 48-year career teaching stage design at Yale. – The New York Times
African Activist Arrested For Trying To Take Asian Artifact From Louvre
Just a week after he was given a fine but no jail time for attempting to take pieces of African art from another Paris museum, Mwazulu Diyabanza — who calls his acts political protests demanding the return to Africa of artworks looted by European colonizers — was stopped by Louvre guards after lifting and carrying off a sculpture. In a video of the incident, Diyabanza declares, “I came here … to take back what was pillaged from Africa.” The sculpture is from the Indonesian island of Flores. – Artnet
Eight Small Theaters Sue New York State And City For Right To Reopen
“The lawsuit, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that the orders shutting down theaters ‘shock the conscience and interfere with plaintiffs’ deeply-rooted liberty and property rights, including the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce.’ The theaters filing suit … have 199 seats or fewer, and most of [them] are commercial operations.” – The New York Times
The End Of Fashion Photography As We Know It
The fashion world is in crisis: It is producing too much, moving too fast, and, with worrying frequency, offending consumers due to an inability to pivot convincingly from a position that champions a censoriously narrow vision of beauty. Brands are closing, and magazines are folding or becoming fully digital. Can the fashion photograph, of the sort that has littered bedroom walls and been reposted again and again on Instagram or Tumblr, survive? – The New York Times
Indigenous Musicians Take On Bolsonaro In Brazil
The sociopolitical perspective driving Kaê’s music connects with a recent cultural movement gaining popularity among urban Indigenous artists, known as Indigenous futurism. Kaê says it is about “daring to envision ourselves in the future, and using new technologies to enhance Indigenous visibility”. – The Guardian
Online Learning Platforms Report 400 Percent Enrollment Increases
While these more traditional education platforms have seen huge spikes in users and funding during the pandemic, consumers have also demonstrated a growing appetite for online classes geared toward entertainment and enrichment. MasterClass is adding more content, while Airbnb and Instagram Live have emerged as learning hubs, with influential instructors teaching everything from dance to poetry writing to cocktail making. – Fast Company
Alarming Preview: Sotheby’s Hawks Baltimore Museum’s Clyfford Still & Brice Marden
Sirens (coming from the street) were heard wailing at the beginning of Sotheby’s Virtual Preview of Highlights from Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art — a fleeting but thematically appropriate soundtrack. – Lee Rosenbaum
Lear Lite
Shakespeare’s writing — all of it, poetry and plays — was repulsive to Tolstoy, who claimed in a pamphlet that whenever he read Shakespeare he was overcome by “repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment.” Orwell disagreed mightily: “Finally the most striking thing is how little difference it all makes.” – Jan Herman