The library has faced an average of 100 threats a month since it started digitising its collection of historical treasures in 2012, according to Manlio Miceli, its chief information officer. – The Guardian
Tag: 11.08.20
At Philadanco, Joan Myers Brown Hands Over The Reins — Gradually
After 50 years, and as she nears age 90, the company’s founder is making way for her longtime assistant artistic director, Kim Bears-Bailey, who first joined Philadanco as a dancer in 1981 and calls her boss “Aunt Joan.” But Brown isn’t stepping all the way back just yet: “I’m number 1, Kim is 1B.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
The 20th Century Movies That Predicted Trump
Throughout much of the 20th Century, American pop culture warned us that something like the last four years could make the leap from cautionary fiction to all-consuming reality. In the early 1930s, the Great Depression led to a peculiar, pre-Roosevelt cycle of what became known as “the dictator craze” in American movies. – Chicago Tribune
AI-Powered DeepFake Music Can Now Recreate Artists
Along with Sinatra, they’ve done what are known as “deepfakes” of Katy Perry, Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel, 2Pac, Céline Dion and more. Having trained the model using 1.2m songs scraped from the web, complete with the corresponding lyrics and metadata, it can output raw audio several minutes long based on whatever you feed it. Input, say, Queen or Dolly Parton or Mozart, and you’ll get an approximation out the other end. – The Guardian
Do Directors Need To Be Jerks To Make Good Art?
Writer, director, and actor Marielle Heller, who’s starring in the new Netflix serial The Queen’s Gambit, thinks not. The director of Can You Ever Forgive Me? also says, “Writing, directing – it’s just torture every time and it doesn’t seem to get any easier. And yet I love them and I’m not going to stop doing them.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Vatican Library Enlists An Army Of Bots To Protect Its Online Library
Hackers threaten the Vatican’s digital holdings at a rate of more than three a day, the library says. “The library, founded in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V, is one of the world’s most important research institutions, containing one of the finest collections of manuscripts, books, images, coins and medals in the world. The digitisation of 41 million pages is intended to ‘preserve the content of historical treasures without causing damage to the fragile originals.”’ – The Observer (UK)
The Daring Kurdish Artist Who Smuggled Her Work Out In Turkish Prison’s Dirty Laundry
Zehra Doğan had little access to visual art materials during her imprisonment in Turkey, where she was jailed for painting a Kurdish town that was destroyed by Erdogan’s government in 2015. “With no paper, Doğan used newspaper, cardboard and clothes as canvases. For paint, she found that crushed herbs made green, kale was a substitute for purple, and pomegranate or menstrual blood could be used for red. Blue ballpoint pen, cigarette ash, coffee grounds, pepper and turmeric make up much of the rest of her prison palette.” – The Guardian (UK)
Letting The Light In To Harlem’s School Of The Arts
Students can’t return yet, or families either, but when they can: “A glass facade floods the space with morning sunlight, ready to unveil the students’ beehive of activity at the school, on St. Nicholas Avenue near 141st Street. An upper-level corridor doubles as a wood-paneled balcony, reached by a grand switchback staircase. The space has been equipped with sophisticated acoustics, and advanced theater lighting and sound.” – The New York Times
Alex Trebek, Host Of Jeopardy, Has Died At 80
“The quick-witted Mr. Trebek, who died on Sunday at age 80 after a battle with cancer that drew legions of fans to rally around him, hosted Jeopardy! for a record-setting 37 years. He was an authoritative and unflappable fixture for millions of Americans who organized their weeknights around the program, shouting out the questions as Mr. Trebek read the answers with his impeccable diction.” – The New York Times