During the past several months, while Joni Ernst and Theresa Greenfield debated each other (and gave us viral clips about the break-even price of corn and soybeans), a separate debate raged among Wikipedia’s volunteer editors about Greenfield’s eligibility for a page of her own. – Wired
Tag: 11.02.20
“Fullnaming” Famous Composers Is Silly
Chris White’s “fullnaming” idea—an invented word for his invented crusade—seems to belong more in a social studies department at a middle school than a music department at a university. Johann Sebastian Bach versus Bach. We get the point. Doesn’t insisting on full names for everyone seem a little pretentious, annoying, tedious, and dare I say . . . elitist? – The Bulwark
Jeremy O. Harris Has Gotten HBO To Pay For Experimental Theater Stagings
“Harris, who is 31, has moved fast through the New York theater world — in a truncated season, Slave Play garnered 12 Tony nominations — and he now has a contract with HBO, the much-anticipated film Zola in the can, and Hollywood at or near his feet. But he hasn’t dumped the old toy for the shiny new one. As part of his HBO deal, Harris has secured a discretionary fund for experimental-theater production, essentially a weird-art slush fund.” – Vulture
AMC Theatres Report 90 Percent Decline In Revenue
The world’s largest exhibitor suffered a brutal 90.9% drop in revenues during the most recent earnings period, with sales clocking in at $119.5 million. Losses hit $905.8 million or $8.41 cents a share. In the prior-year quarter, a time when cinemas were open around the globe and world-altering pandemics were largely the stuff of Hollywood thrillers, AMC logged revenues of $1.3 billion on a net loss of $54.8 million or 53 cents a share. – Variety
The Mark Twain Election Story That Was Required Reading In Communist Chinese Schools
“‘Running for Governor’ is barely known in the United States. Samuel Clemens was editor of the Buffalo Express when it was published. It is the story of his run for governor, as Mark Twain, in 1870 — well, fictional run, of course.” The story was placed on the school curriculum soon after the People’s Republic was founded and remained there for half a century. – The Buffalo News
Artists And Our Cultural Divide
What role can artists play in the healing of a nation wounded by a viral pandemic and the chronic diseases of racism, inequality and rabid partisanship? Even for the proponents of art for art’s sake, politics is inescapable. – Los Angeles Times
Quibi’s Closure Announcement ‘Blindsided’ People Who Actually Make Its Content
Said crew members on one of the service’s original short-form series, “We were blindsided. We had just signed contracts and turned down other jobs to keep working on this show. … Our own execs had to constantly hound Quibi for further information.” – The Hollywood Reporter
A Recap of Trump’s, Pence’s, Biden’s, And Harris’s Records On the Arts
“The arts, writ large, rarely represent more than a footnote in election discourse (if we’re lucky). … But for those wondering what the election will mean for creative industries specifically, we’ve laid out the candidates’ respective histories with art — their policies, voting records, donations, and more — in a digestible breakdown below.” – Artnet
Which Museums Have Closed As Europe’s Second Wave Of COVID Worsens
“Countries such as Belgium, Germany, and France have imposed new lockdowns and forced the closure of institutions for a month and, in some cases, potentially longer. Below, a look at some of the major institutions that have planned closures in response.” – ARTnews
Rehearsals And Streamed Performances May Continue Under New Lockdown In UK
As Culture Minister Oliver Dowden clarified on Twitter, “Arts venues are places of work, so people can come into them for work, if it cannot be undertaken from home. This includes rehearsals and performance. Audiences are not permitted.” – Yahoo! (Press Association UK)