“The last 10 years have seen a boom for black British playwrights, actors, artistic directors and others in the industry. What has changed on and off stage – and what’s next?” Eight Black theatremakers offer their answers. – The Guardian
Tag: 12.27.19
Who’s Still Reading The Supermarket Tabloids?
Though their circulation has been decimated — the once-mighty National Enquirer, which approached 8 million in paid circulation at one point and reached millions more, is down under 180,000 as of June, according to industry monitor the Audit Bureau of Control — tabloids still occupy a unique place in American culture. – Los Angeles Times
The Cultural ‘Canon’ Really Is Getting More Diverse
“It’s not so much that canons have been completely obliterated, as [Harold] Bloom and others feared — in any given collection, the old guard and their descendants have remained. But canons have continued to evolve, and new ones have sprung up alongside them.” Aisha Harris looks at some examples. – The New York Times
A Decade That Cultivated Darkness
Michiko Kakutani: “Apocalypse is not yet upon our world as the 2010s draw to an end, but there are portents of disorder. The hopes nourished during the opening years of the decade — hopes that America was on a progressive path toward growing equality and freedom, hopes that technology held answers to some of our most pressing problems — have given way, with what feels like head-swiveling speed, to a dark and divisive new era. Fear and distrust are ascendant now.” – The New York Times
Remains Of Ancient Mayan Palace Discovered In Yucatán
“At the archaeological site of Kulubá, nestled amid the lowland forests of Mexico’s Yucatán state, experts have unearthed the remains of a large palace” — six rooms, 180 feet long, 50 feet wide, 20 feet high — “believed to have been used by Maya elite around 1,000 years ago.” – Smithsonian Magazine
Always-On Culture Has Warped Our Sense of Time And Progress
“The reason that it feels like nothing happened in the 2010s is that too much happened. Each cultural landmark got instantly effaced by the onrush of the next, and the next. This memory-erosion effect is one reason why it feels like something’s gone awry with our sense of time. While the clock and the calendar continue to plod forward in their steadfast and remorseless way, what you could call “culture-time” feels like it’s become unmoored and meandering.” – The Guardian
What A Crossword Created By A Computational Linguistics Researcher Looks Like
“There’s a similar mixture that goes into being a computational linguistics researcher,” with lots of coding, math and empirical work. It certainly helps to have a love of language and be interested in the quirks of language.” – Washington Post
The End Of A Decade-Long Music Project That Was Originally Meant To Be A One-Off
The Green Mountain Project, which has been devoted to producing end-of-year concerts of Monteverdi’s 1610 “Vesper of the Blessed Virgin since 2010, is coming to an end this year in New York – and then heading to Venice. Jolle Greenleaf: “Ending this project needed to be done in a way that really honored everything that everybody did over the years. It feels like the crowning glory — we are going to do it where Monteverdi flourished and was buried. But it’s a little crazy. There’s so many pieces to the organization. There are no cars; there are so many rules. Getting a chamber organ meant renting it from pretty far away and then putting it on a boat.” – The New York Times
What Happened When A Dancer Witnessed Abuse At His Dance Company And Reported It
He was fired, and, to his knowledge, nothing was done to protect the kids from the abuse he saw. The dance company didn’t have an HR team, for one thing. All of this brings up many questions that dancers need to consider: “What protocols are in place to protect dancers at companies that are too small to have a human resources department. Even beyond issues of abuse, how should dancers voice concerns about more routine dysfunction, like late paychecks or unsafe working conditions?” – Dance Magazine
Are These Los Angeles Stereotypes A Silly Pastiche Or An Affectionate Sendup That Goes Deep?
On the Netflix show You, a character from New York moves to L.A. – and you can guess what happens next. (Macrobiotic coffee shops! Stand-up comedy moments! “Aspiring Instagrammers live-streaming on the streets!”) – Los Angeles Times