Calling 2020 ‘The Year The Music Died’ Is Far More Truth Than Cliche

Where should musicians go, and what should they do? “Everyone in the live music business has asked that question since the pandemic decimated the industry. The damage was relentless and comprehensive, and it’s nowhere near over: tours grounded, beloved venues shuttered, layoffs made permanent and lifelong dreams vaporized. An industry at the crest of a hugely profitable decade has plummeted off a cliff.” – Los Angeles Times

The History Of Sexism And Classism In British Science Underpins Everything About The Movie Ammonite

When Francis Lee first read about Mary Anning, he felt a connection to her. Then he did the work to make gritty Lyme come to life. “I did extensive research to make sure that not just the facts about Mary but the facts about the day and how people lived their lives and what it meant to have no money in this time. … All of that is very, very factual.” But the film’s detractors have fastened their (homophobic) outrage on the relationship at the heart of the film between paleontologist Anning and geologist Charlotte Murchison. – Los Angeles Times

Alert: Painted Portraits Are Not Photographs

Just in case you were inclined to think they were, which … apparently, people are. And by “people,” we’re talking about scientists. But there’s an issue: “Changing ideas about accuracy relate to an even deeper problem with these supposedly scientific approaches: The researchers are unaware that both portraiture and the ideas portraits express have a history.” – Hyperallergic

LA’s Museum Of Latin American Art Defends Its Big Deaccession Auction

The museum had 59 works from its permanent collection on the auction block, but it says that was in pursuit of a larger goal. The museum’s chief curator claimed “the sale was not a response to economic hardship but part of a long-term initiative to diversify the collection, making it stronger, more relevant and balanced.” – Los Angeles Times

Black Booksellers Question Tattered Cover’s Self-Anointing Media Coverage

Having a Black venture capitalist in your ownership group isn’t exactly the win Tattered Cover’s PR claimed. Danielle Mullen of Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago: “It’s hurtful to Black booksellers who have been doing the hard work—and then they take the same credit without real Black representation. It’s disappointing and almost unbelievable. Especially with the history they have around the BLM protests and why they lost so many customers. It’s ridiculous. … It’s like if Jeff Bezos partnered with a Black person and then said, ‘Amazon is the biggest Black-owned business in the world.'” – Publishers Weekly

While 2020 Fell Off A Cliff, TV Stayed Suspended In Midair

Or so says one of Slate‘s TV critics. Read the whole series of posts if you can – you can start here and work your way back – but there’s a serious discussion to be had about TV in 2020. “For so much of this year, watching TV felt like watching these weird remnants of another world. They would resonate or fail to connect just like TV always does, but they’d be reaching out to a completely other world than the one they originally intended to reach.” – Slate