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☆ Activists Deface Portrait of Balfour, Who Supported Jewish Homeland
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A pro-Palestinian group slashed and spray-painted a century-old portrait of Arthur James Balfour at the University of Cambridge on Friday, defacing a painting of the British official whose pledge of support in 1917 for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” helped pave the way to Israel’s founding three decades later. The group, Palestine Action, said in a statement that the destruction of the portrait in Trinity College, Cambridge, was intended to call attention to “the bloodshed of the Palestinian people since the Balfour Declaration was issued,” particularly in light of the current conflict in Gaza. A spokeswoman for Trinity, whose alumni include King Charles III as well as Balfour himself, said in a statement on Friday that the college “regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours” and that it had notified the police. A Cambridge police statement said officers were on the scene to investigate a report of “criminal damage.”Palestine Action posted a video of a protester first spraying the portrait, painted in 1914 by Philip Alexius de László, with red paint and then slashing it with a sharp object. The group’s statement said Balfour had given away the homeland of the Palestinians — “a land that wasn’t his to give away” — touching off what it described as decades of oppression.

Persons: Arthur James Balfour, defacing, ”, Balfour, King Charles III, “, Philip Alexius de László Organizations: University of Cambridge, British, Palestine, Trinity College , Cambridge, Trinity, Cambridge Locations: Palestine, Gaza

☆ Donna Summer’s Estate Sues Ye for Sampling ‘I Feel Love’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Ye and Ty Dolla Sign asked last month for permission to sample Donna Summer’s 1977 song “I Feel Love,” the disco singer’s estate firmly told them no. Yet when their joint LP, “Vultures 1,” was released weeks ago, a song with strong similarities to Summer’s famous tune was there on the track list. A copyright infringement lawsuit detailing that timeline was filed against Ye, the rapper once known as Kanye West, and Ty Dolla Sign on Tuesday by Summer’s husband and executor, Bruce Sudano. Summer, known as the “Queen of Disco,” had three consecutive double albums reach No. He has apologized in a Hebrew-language social media post.

Persons: Ye, Ty Dolla, Donna Summer’s, ”, Ty, Summer’s, Bruce Sudano, “, ” Ye Organizations: Creative Artists Agency, Adidas Locations: Los Angeles

☆ Joni Mitchell Takes the Grammy Stage for the First Time
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s hard to believe that at 80 years old, after a groundbreaking career in music, there are still new achievements left for Joni Mitchell. But on Sunday night, she did something for the first time: performed on the Grammys. Joined by Brandi Carlile, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Blake Mills, Allison Russell and SistaStrings, the singer-songwriter played “Both Sides Now.”Carlile, one of Mitchell’s most high-profile champions, is largely responsible for bringing her hero back to the stage, and she introduced Mitchell, who earlier won the Grammy for best folk album for “Joni Mitchell at Newport.” Nine years ago, Mitchell had an aneurysm and largely vanished from the public eye; her legions of fans feared that her singing days were complete. But the writer and unmistakable soprano behind classics like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “A Case of You” was not finished. She made a surprise appearance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival alongside Carlile, as well as musicians including Wynonna Judd and Marcus Mumford.

Persons: Joni Mitchell, Brandi Carlile, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Blake Mills, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, ” Carlile, Mitchell, “ Joni Mitchell, ”, Carlile, Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford Organizations: Newport Folk Locations: Newport

☆ Susan Sarandon Apologizes for Comment About Jews at Rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon apologized Friday for saying at a pro-Palestinian rally last month that people feeling afraid of being Jewish right now were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”The remarks drew widespread criticism and soon afterward her agency, United Talent Agency, let it be known that it had dropped her as a client. In a statement posted to Instagram Friday night, Sarandon said that she had been trying to communicate her concern for rising hate crimes. “This phrasing was a terrible mistake,” she said, “as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true.”“As we all know, from centuries of oppression and genocide in Europe, to the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, PA,” she said, referring to the synagogue shooting that killed 11 and wounding six others in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, “Jews have long been familiar with discrimination and religious violence which continues to this day.”

Persons: Susan Sarandon, Sarandon, ” Organizations: Palestinian, United Talent Agency Locations: Europe, Pittsburgh , PA

☆ It Ain’t His, Babe: Bob Dylan Has Been Playing City-Specific Covers
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bob Dylan famously does not do fan service. And in his live act, Dylan is also not a crowd-pleaser, at least in the conventional sense. It started on Oct. 1, when Dylan, playing Kansas City, Mo., for his first American date in more than a year, opened with “Kansas City,” the Leiber and Stoller standard first made famous by Wilbert Harrison and then the Beatles. A few days later, Dylan opened his St. Louis show with “Johnny B. Goode,” in presumed tribute to the city’s native son Chuck Berry. Next up was Chicago, where Dylan opened with … “Born in Chicago.”

Persons: Bob Dylan, Dylan, “, Leiber, Stoller, Wilbert Harrison, Louis, Johnny B, Goode, ”, Chuck Berry, … “ Organizations: Bloomberg, Kansas City, “ Kansas Locations: Mo, “ Kansas City, Chicago

☆ Susan Sarandon Dropped by Talent Agency After Remarks on Gaza War
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon was dropped by United Talent Agency after comments she made at a recent pro-Palestinian rally drew criticism online. An agency spokesman, Richard Siklos, confirmed Tuesday that Sarandon was no longer represented by the agency but declined to elaborate. Sarandon was dropped after making remarks at a rally in New York City last week. Sarandon said at the rally that being critical of Israel should not be considered antisemitic. “There’s a terrible thing that’s happened where antisemitism has been confused with speaking up against Israel,” Sarandon said.

Persons: Susan Sarandon, Richard Siklos, Sarandon, ”, “, ” Sarandon, —, — Sarandon, “ Bull, “ Bull Durham ”, Thelma, Louise ”, Maha Dakhil, Israel, Aaron Sorkin, Maha, she’s Organizations: United Talent Agency, Palestinian, The New York, New York City, The Post, United Nations, “ Bull Durham, DC Comics, Hollywood, Creative Artists Agency Locations: New York, Gaza, Israel, New York City

☆ How Philip Roth’s Raunchiest Novel Made It to the Stage
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The production, directed by Jo Bonney, leans into the novel’s frank depictions of unbounded lust, gleeful disloyalty and bodily functions. Yet the story’s undertones of grief also attracted Turturro and Levy. Turturro read Roth’s memoir of his father’s death, “Patrimony: A True Story,” after his own father died and identified profoundly with it. Enacting the novel’s fragmented nature by jumping back and forth in time was crucial to its dramatic success, she added. “When you’re just writing, all you have is words, words, words, words, words,” Levy said.

Persons: Jo Bonney, Turturro, Levy, ”, ” Levy, “, John, Sabbath’s, Nikki, Mickey’s, ” Bonney, “ We’re, you’re Organizations: National Theater Locations: London

☆ Don’t Stop Believin’? Considering a TV Golden Age, 10 Years Later
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Was there one show that provoked you to write the book? It felt extremely daring in being one of the first shows where 9/11 was being treated in a fully rounded way. Have any of the shows in the book not stood up as much as you expected? Quite the opposite: The shows you think might have been dated have proven riveting in ways they maybe weren’t even when they were on. Not surprisingly, because the book ends making the point that one doesn’t have to be that difficult to create these wonderful shows.

Persons: ”, Tony Soprano, Walter White, Vince Gilligan Organizations: Teamsters, HBO Locations: America

☆ The Artistry of Her Baskets Is Complex. So Is the Story Around Them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“It’s not right for the rest of us to tell our basket weavers how to weave their baskets,” he said. For Horton, the professor, Keyser’s story is important to understanding her baskets, if not in the way the Cohns intended. Image Abe Cohn outside of his Emporium in Carson City, Nev., in 1923, holding two of Louisa Keyser’s baskets. Another, titled “Brotherhood of Men,” was the one the Ellis Gallery sold in 2007 for $1.2 million. Then as now, the degikup evident in four of the show’s baskets is a source of much of the enthusiasm around them.

Persons: Herman Fillmore, “ It’s, ”, Horton, Abe Cohn, Louisa Keyser’s, Donald Ellis, Ellis, Keyser, “ Organizations: of, Ellis Locations: Washoe Tribe, Nevada, California, Washoe, Carson City, Nev, “

Interest in “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which was streamed 17.5 million times on services like Spotify and Apple Music in its first week of release, partly grew in the manner of a typical viral track, according to the service Luminate, whose data fuels the Billboard charts. Much of the consumer activity that drove the track to No. 1 came via 99-cent digital downloads from outlets like the iTunes Store — an outdated format that is declining in popularity faster than CDs. Despite streaming now accounting for more than 80 percent of music consumption overall, paid downloads are weighted more on the charts, a quirk exploited regularly by pop superfans devoted to acts like Ms. In often coordinated efforts, they use downloads to show support and earn chart milestones that are celebrated like wins in sports or political elections.

Persons: Jason Aldean, “, Anthony, Christopher Anthony Lunsford, —, Oliver Anthony, ”, Mr, Walsh —, superfans, Swift Organizations: Country Music Television, North, Apple Music, Daily, Korean, BTS Locations: Tennessee, Rich, Richmond, ”

☆ Leonard Bernstein’s Children Defend Bradley Cooper’s Prosthetic Nose in ‘Maestro’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Leonard Bernstein’s three children came to the defense of the actor and director Bradley Cooper on Wednesday after he drew fresh criticism for wearing a large prosthetic nose in his portrayal of the midcentury American composer and conductor, who was Jewish, in the forthcoming movie “Maestro.”When the makeup was first revealed last year, some questioned the decision by Cooper, who is not Jewish, to play Bernstein, who died in 1990. In the Netflix film, he stars opposite Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein. The debut of a teaser trailer on Tuesday prompted further discussion on social media about both the prosthesis, which critics said played into an antisemitic trope, and about whether an actor who is Jewish should instead have been cast to play Bernstein, the “West Side Story” composer and music director of the New York Philharmonic.

Persons: Leonard Bernstein’s, Bradley Cooper, Maestro, ”, Cooper, Bernstein, Carey Mulligan, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Organizations: Netflix, New York Philharmonic Locations: American

☆ Digital Replicas, a Fear of Striking Actors, Already Fill Screens
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To pack three seasons’ worth of English soccer stadiums with exasperated or exhilarated crowds, the Apple TV+ comedy “Ted Lasso” turned to dozens of background actors and powerful visual effects technology. The show’s makers also used crowd sprites, in which actors were filmed individually on green screens and then arranged to appear as part of the crowd. There were even digital doubles: three-dimensional models whose movements were informed by a motion actor. Innovations in digital technology and artificial intelligence have transformed the increasingly sophisticated world of visual effects, which can ever more convincingly draw from, replicate and morph flesh-and-blood performers into virtual avatars. Those advancements have thrust the issue toward the top of the grievances cited in the weekslong strike by the actors’ union.

Persons: Ted Lasso ” Organizations: Apple, SAG

☆ How Phish’s Lighting Designer Jams With the Band
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“I will in the subtlest way shake my head and say, ‘No, I’m not there,’” Anastasio said in an interview, “and from way back in the room he always gets this little message. I can take it around eight more bars, or four more bars, this peak, and he’ll make some incredible move right when we make the move. I don’t think anyone would notice this happening other than us.”Last Friday night at Madison Square Garden, Anastasio’s interlocutor was standing behind five monitors and a lighting control console, wearing a black T-shirt, jeans and Hoka sneakers. He controlled 100 base lighting looks — different permutations of 302 lights, with 79 colors preprogrammed for Phish — some mounted on 30 movable pieces of truss above the stage. It was his 1,752nd Phish show lighting the band.

Persons: Trey Anastasio, ’ ” Anastasio, ”, Anastasio’s interlocutor, Chris Kuroda Organizations: Madison Locations: Vermont

☆ ‘Oppenheimer’ Fans Are Rediscovering a 40-Year-Old Documentary
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One morning in the 1950s, Jon H. Else’s father pointed toward Nevada from their home in Sacramento. “There was this orange glow that suddenly rose up in the sky, and then shrank back down,” Else recalled. Growing up in the nuclear age left an impression on Else, now 78. But before all that, in 1981, he made a documentary about Oppenheimer, the scientist whose bony visage graced the covers of midcentury magazines, and the bomb. Decades later, viewers are flocking to Else’s film, a nominee for the Academy Award for best documentary feature, as a companion to Christopher Nolan’s biopic “Oppenheimer,” which grossed more than $100 million domestically in its opening week this month.

Persons: Jon H, ” Else, Robert Oppenheimer, Else, ”, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s, “ Oppenheimer Organizations: Trinity, Academy Locations: Nevada, Sacramento

“Obviously, the little girls that are going to see Barbie, none of them are going to have any idea what those dashes mean,” Mr. Cruz told Fox News. “This is really designed for the eyes of the Chinese censors, and they’re trying to kiss up to the Chinese Communist Party because they want to make money selling the movie.”The response on the right is not a one-off. For a generation of conservative personalities, weaned on Andrew Breitbart’s much-cited observation that “politics is downstream of culture,” Hollywood and other ostensibly liberal bastions are to be confronted head-on, lest their leanings ensnare young voters without a fight. Recent years have provided ample evidence, some on the right say, for a “go woke, go broke” view that progressivism is bad business. (Of course, there is no way to trace exactly what determines any movie’s success or failure, and many observers adhere to the screenwriter William Goldman’s axiom: “Nobody knows anything.”)“Barbie” cannot be said to have gone broke.

Persons: Mr, Cruz, Andrew Breitbart’s, ensnare, ”, Mario, Halle Bailey, ’, William Goldman’s, Barbie, Rich Cromwell, ” Kyle Smith Organizations: Fox News, Chinese Communist Party, Mario Bros, Black, Wall Street

☆ For ‘Oppenheimer,’ These Fans Go to Great Lengths for Just 30 Screens
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To film buffs who are buffs, specifically, of film — of movies shot and projected with a physical, photochemical product — comparing IMAX 70-millimeter to IMAX digital, let alone standard digital, is like comparing lightning to the lightning bug. “It’s how much of the image you’re missing if you see it on another screen,” said Birlidis, a former theater manager. The first time he saw the 1982 film “Blade Runner,” one of his favorites, he added, was on a pirated VHS tape. He can cite several IMAX 70-millimeter destinations off-the-cuff. (The AMC Metreon in San Francisco is “a wonderfully huge screen.”) He knew Brooklyn has one of the roughly 100 theaters showing “Oppenheimer” in ordinary 70-millimeter film — an “absolutely beautiful” print, he said.

Persons: ”, Birlidis, “, ” Nolan, Oppenheimer, Nolan, “ Oppenheimer Organizations: AMC Locations: San Francisco, Brooklyn

The first time Albie Cullen said goodbye to the Grateful Dead was on Aug. 9, 1995. A co-worker told Cullen, an attorney for a Boston-area music label, that Jerry Garcia, the Dead’s iconic lead guitarist, had died that day. The Grateful Dead had replaced departed members before, but this was different. With his rootsy tenor, Santa-gone-gray beard and unmistakable plucking, Garcia had defined a touring juggernaut and its vibrant subculture, which had become synonymous with the ’60s. The band’s four surviving original members agreed they would never use the name “Grateful Dead” without Garcia.

Persons: Albie Cullen, Cullen, Jerry Garcia, ”, Garcia, Bob Weir, Weir, Garcia —, Bob Dylan’s “, ” Cullen Locations: Boston, Hampton Beach, N.H

☆ A Film About Child Trafficking Takes on Summer Blockbusters
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Marc Tracy | More About Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Sound of Freedom,” a thriller starring Jim Caviezel as a federal agent who takes on child traffickers, will not be the summer box office’s biggest hit. The film — whose distributor, Angel Studios, has a big success with “The Chosen,” a streaming series about the life of Jesus — was the third most watched film in North America last weekend. Its $19.7 million weekend take was behind only the horror film “Insidious: The Red Door,” which made $33 million in its first weekend, and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which made $27.4 million in its second. “Sound of Freedom” is based on a true story: Caviezel plays Tim Ballard, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who investigated pedophiles. Some critics say the film appeals to the QAnon movement, which posits a false conspiracy theory accusing progressive elites of pedophilia.

Persons: Jim Caviezel, “, Jesus —, Indiana Jones, Caviezel, Tim Ballard, Ballard, Donald J, Trump, Neal Harmon, Angel’s, ” Organizations: Angel Studios, “, U.S . Department of Homeland Security, Operation Underground Railroad, Fox News, Guardian Locations: North America

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