When Fiction Takes On Political News (And The News Is Getting Weirder By The Minute)

A tweet just after Brexit passed in 2016 predicted that 2018 would have a ton of novels set against the backdrop of the vote. Well: “We may not quite have seen the ‘slew’ of novels predicted, but there have certainly been a number of significant ones, enough to have generated their own literary category – ‘Brexlit’ – with an academic book on the subject already promised.”

Side-Eye Warner Media’s Decision To Shut Down FilmStruck, But Remember That Streaming Isn’t Ownership

Perhaps it was a larger mistake to think that a streaming service, even one as quirkily great as FilmStruck, could in any way replace going to arthouses or buying little-known classic movies. “For what is ownership, when it comes to the cultural products we love? Is a digital file purchased from iTunes owned? Is a DVD owned? And if we are not the ultimate owners, can we depend at all on private companies, even ones with as rich an artistic legacy as Warner Bros., to preserve their culture and keep it available?”

Can ‘The Nutcracker And The Four Realms’ Bring Ballet To A Mass Audience?

Misty Copeland thinks so. “‘[People] feel comfortable sitting in a movie theater rather than walking through the doors of the Metropolitan Opera House; you feel that ‘Oh, that’s not for me.’ Especially as black people, that’s not a space for us,’ Copeland said. ‘Everyone goes to the movie theater, so this is an amazing way to do that.'”

Social Media May Be Squashing Human Spirituality, Not To Mention Hope

At least, that’s one thing that Silicon Valley expert Jaron Lanier claims – and it’s because of, well, Silicon Valley companies. “This whole architecture is on every level based on sneakiness and manipulation, often using weird behaviorist, hypnotic, unacknowledged techniques to get people more and more engaged or addicted and persuaded, or to get them into compulsive behavior patterns that aren’t necessarily in their own interest.”

A Tuba Player’s Journey From One Of Baltimore’s Poorest Neighborhoods To The New Mexico Phil

Richard Antoine White slept under trees and on friends’ couches with an alcoholic mom when he was a kid. But when foster parents took him in, he found out that he was good at music – and his path has provided a Baltimore documentary duo with a great project. White mentors other kids in need of a hand up, but also, and this is a fun one, he is “particularly passionate about baroque music (he has transcribed works of Bach for the tuba).”