With an eye to the surprisingly large amount of present-day consumer technology that was predicted and inspired by Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report, a constellation of companies and independent designers and consultants has formed to “help clients create forward-looking fiction to generate ideas and IP for progress or profit. … And corporations like Ford, Nike, Intel, and Hershey’s, it turns out, are willing to pay hefty sums for their own in-house Minority Reports.” — Medium
Tag: 11.28.18
How ‘Creed’ Has Changed The Entire ‘Rocky’ Franchise
“The director Ryan Coogler’s 2015 film, … was an act of subversion by Coogler and his co-writer Aaron Covington, and an oddly moving act of humility by Sylvester Stallone, who allowed his career-defining character, an avatar of white masculinity, to be transformed into a vehicle of redemption for Creed’s black protagonist — a role traditionally played by black actors [for white protagonists]. … This is how the meaning of the series itself, particularly the first four films, changed: from the story of an indomitable white boxer, to one about the roots of a friendship that created a debt Rocky must repay.” — The Atlantic
How Mike Birbiglia Lived Out His Recurring Nightmare On A Broadway Stage
“My recurring nightmare was me, onstage, in this 1,100-seat theater, with no people in it. I’ve had it ever since we even talked about doing the show [The New One] on Broadway. Strangely enough, that became a reality in rehearsal, because it’s just the designers and the crew in the audience. There’s eight people in a room that seats 1,100, and so I do the show from start to finish with no laughter. It’s really empowering to live your nightmare.” — New York Times Magazine
What An Obscure German Novel Taught A ‘Politico’ Writer About Dictators And Wannabes
Lion Feuchtwanger’s The Oppermanns, which takes place largely in 1933, the year Hitler took over the German government, “is a case study in how quickly the institutions of democracy and the habits of civilization can be destroyed and how educated and well-intentioned citizens can watch the destruction proceed without seeing it. … Reading him now — 84 years after the book’s publication and 60 years after the author’s death — the quandaries feel very current.” — Politico
The Hyperinflation And Corruption Of The Book Blurb Biz
Blurbs, the quoted testimonials of a book’s virtues by other authors, are now so ubiquitous, readers expect them, first-time authors stress about getting them, booksellers base orders on them. A blank back cover today would probably look like a production mistake. But while readers heft books in their hands and scrutinize the praise, it should be noted that blurbs are not ad copy written by some copywriter; they are ad copy written by a fellow author. “Ad copy” might be a bit harsh, but maybe not.
A ‘War Hostel’ For Tourists Who Want To Relive The ’90s Siege Of Sarajevo
“[There’s] a sound system that, day and night, fills the place with the din of gunfire and explosions. Getting to sleep can still be a challenge: There are no beds, only thin mattresses on the floor with no pillows or sheets, and heavy, scratchy blankets that create the feeling of sleeping with a dead horse.” And, for brave guests, there’s “the bunker.” And yes, there is a demand for all this.
See Ancient Rome At The Height Of Its Glory Via Virtual Reality
“The ambitious undertaking, [titled Rome Reborn and] painstakingly built by a team of 50 academics and computer experts over a 22-year period, recreates 7,000 buildings and monuments scattered across a 5.5 square mile stretch of the [imperial capital, circa 320 AD].”
24 Hours, Three Cities, 75 Dancers, 300 Solos, All Streamed Live: Merce Cunningham’s 100th Birthday
“‘Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event’ will take place on what would have been Cunningham’s 100th birthday, 16 April 2019. The three productions, each lasting 75 minutes, will be live-streamed, which means audiences around the world can see the Barbican performance [in London], followed by one a few hours later at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and finally one at UCLA’s Centre for the Art of Performance in Los Angeles.”
An ‘Amahl And The Night Visitors’ Staged In A Soup Kitchen, With A Chorus Of Formerly Homeless People
The site-specific New York company On Site Opera, which has already staged productions at a mannequin showroom, Harlem’s Cotton Club, the Bronx Zoo, and Madame Tussaud’s, is presenting Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas opera at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, with the chorus recruited from the clients of Breaking Ground, which provides permanent housing and services for the homeless.
What’s David Edelstein’s Firing Over A Brain-Fart Joke Really About?
“None of this should have happened, but it did,” writes Andrew O’Hehir, Salon‘s executive editor and sometime film critic. “I suspect what befell Edelstein this week is only partly about one stupid Facebook post, and has more to do with the messy process of generational change and the inevitable Schadenfreude surrounding someone who holds two prestigious media jobs, either of which many other people would kill and eat their grandmothers to get.”