Singer, behind the scenes, was “instrumental in galvanizing federal officials, philanthropies and academics to seed the public airwaves with quality programming and to finance future development.” – The New York Times
Tag: 12.27.19
Distilling The Essence Of Princess Margaret
When Helena Bonham Carter got the call to play Princess Margaret in Season 3 of The Crown, she wasn’t sure she could follow the tall Vanessa Kirby, who had just won a BAFTA for the role. Then she began her (nearly endless) research. – Los Angeles Times
Trump’s Trade War With China Is Harming American Authors
In a country not exactly known for the free flow of ideas, delays and freezes in publishing have changed what’s available in China. “Publishing industry insiders describe a near freeze of regulatory approvals, one that could make the publishing industry reluctant to buy the rights to sell American books in China.” That freeze may be thawing, or may not be – but in the meantime, U.S. authors and publishers have lost a major group of readers. – The New York Times
How Oxford – And JRR Tolkien, And CS Lewis – Turned English Curriculum To The Past And Kept English Fantasy There As Well
While Cambridge cut out its medieval requirement, Oxford – under the influence of Lewis and Tolkien – doubled down. That weirdly influenced the fantasy all over the English-speaking world. “At the moment that the British Empire is waning, you see this rise of children’s fantasy literature, which is set in these kinds of precolonial worlds, but also imagining these new vistas for exploration and the pleasures of exploration and colonization, encounters with indigenous peoples—but cloaked in a different story, where the people you’re encountering are ‘magical creatures,’ so you’re free of political resonances.” (Narrator: You’re actually not.) – Slate
What’s Disney’s Plan For ‘Star Wars’? Don’t Look To The Movies To Find Out
Look to streaming, of course, to lead the way. “Lucasfilm and Disney are now in a perfect spot: The Mandalorian is a success, Star Wars is ripe for more experimentation, and Disney+ is a new sandbox that will allow for similar experiments. The future of Star Wars won’t only live and die by big event films like The Rise of Skywalker; it’ll succeed with a consistent run of weird and fun Star Wars shows.” (And don’t forget the books, comics, games, ad infinitum.) – The Verge
Sorry, Journalists, But Some Kinds Of Media Aren’t Worth Saving
In Nieman Lab’s 2020 predictions, the founder of a collaborative journalism initiative says that some news organizations aren’t doing enough to make the case that they’re worth saving, but that will have to shift. “The question of how we save journalism (meaning newsrooms) will begin to shift to how do we save journalism (meaning the process). How we answer that question will have a profound impact on the management of newsrooms, the business models we develop, the processes we adapt, and the service we provide.” – Nieman Lab
When Shopping Deserts The Mall, What Happens Next?
Here’s the deal, not that you would know it from Amazon purchases: “The psychic center of American social life has shifted from buying things to feeling them.” – The New York Times
Minneapolis Institute Of Art Sees A Record Year
“Egypt’s Sunken Cities” helped the museum double its income from program activities to $4.9 million in the year ended June 30. Membership increased 30 percent to 52,102 members, and attendance grew to 779,973, up by more than 69,000. – The Star-Tribune (Mpls)
How Robert Moses Transformed The Metropolitan Museum
Wags had taken to calling the Met the Necropolitan and said it suffered from hardening of the galleries. The New Yorker sniped that the acting director still wrote with a quill pen and considered theories about the democracy of art to be “so much parlor Socialism.” Moses disdained the old families who’d run the place since its founding. – The Daily Beast
Jerry Herman, Who Wrote Some Of The World’s Favorite Musicals, Dead At 88
“The creator of 10 Broadway shows and contributor to several more, Herman won two Tony Awards for best musical: Hello, Dolly! in 1964 and La Cage aux Folles in 1983. He also won two Grammys — for the Mame cast album and Hello, Dolly! as song of the year — and was a Kennedy Center honoree.” – AP